24 HOURS TO LIVE
South Africa, 2017, 93 minutes, Colour.
Ethan Hawke, Qing Xu, Paul Anderson, Rutger Hauer, Tyrone Keogh, Nathalie Boltt, Liam Cunningham, Jeremy Yong.
Directed by Brian Smrz.
This is a slam bang action film, appreciated by those who enjoy fights on the screen – and there are quite a lot, and quite a number of shootouts. The average audience might find this all too much but the fans have been strong in praise of the use of the genre conventions.
It is a South African film, praise of the African terrain in the in the opening, a switch to Florida, switch to Hong Kong, then to Cape Town for the final action. Vistas of Hong Kong and plenty of vistas of Cape Town, Table Mountain, the Bay and scenic highlights.
The plot is complicated. Initially, we see a Chinese agent with an African passenger in the van, cuffed – and then an ambush with plenty of shooting, the agent escaping with her detainee. Change to Florida, a tranquil scene of a hired killer, Travis, Ethan Hawke in action mode, talking with his father-in-law, Rutger Hauer, and lamenting the death of his wife and son. He is contacted by a colleague, Jim (Paul Johnson) who insists that he go into action again even though he is on hiatus. The outreach is from a South African organisation, exploitative, run by Liam Cunningham. Travis is hired to kill the Chinese agent.
He visits Hong Kong, meet her very gentlemanly English-accented son, is reminded of his own loss. He then goes to Cape Town to confront the agent and kill her. He has all kinds of contacts. Her plane is cancelled, he approaches her, they go for a meal, to a hotel for sex, he plans to kill her in the shower but resists. But, when he goes downstairs, she pulls a gun on him, he shoots her but misses, she shoots him but hits her target. He dies. (A bit early in the film Ethan Hawke to die!)
However, this is a set up, he is taken to medical facilities and a doctor owned by the organisation and he is revived. However, he has 24 hours to live, a timer inserted in his arm. However, he has a change of heart, always remembering the death of his wife and son, escapes, tracks down the agent, her son having arrived from Hong Kong, and he then begins a mission to help the agent, to rescue her detainee who is to give testimony to the United Nations against the organisation.
And, all this happens, not without car chases, crashes, pursuits through the streets of Cape Town, a lot of shooting, his infiltration into the building. And some hallucinations about his son and wife because of the drugs. His connection, Jim, has a change of heart, sits waiting with the head of the organisation for the ultimate.
The screenplay presupposes that audiences will accept the heroes reviving, having 24 hours to live, yet having all the strength and determination to go into the action of any screen hero.
All that accepted, the fans have praised it as their kind of shootout, fights, action entertainment.
