Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It tells the story of the infamous 1997 North Hollywood shootout, where two bank robbers, wearing body armour and carrying AK-47s unleashed an unprecedented wave of gunfire at dozens of LAPD officers as they tried to make their getaway.The incredible footage of this incident, broadcast live from TV news helicopters is unlike anything you've seen before. It's fascinated me for years, seeing such events, straight out of Michael Mann's Heat, played out for real. So I was looking forward to this one but it was a disappointment and makes me wonder if the story could ever be done justice in a fictional movie. In the hands of director Yves Simoneau it's little more than a bloodier version of the countless Discovery and History channel reconstruction documentaries of the incident. Indeed the film's documentary-style approach, complete with talking heads, just reminds viewers of the fact that it's been done better previously. Instead of real people recounting the events we have mediocre actors. Instead of hard facts we have small inaccuracies and timelines altered for (understandable) dramatic purposes. Instead of the horrifying real footage we have poorly-edited action sequences.I'd recommend watching one of those aforementioned TV documentaries, or the raw footage on YouTube, to get a better idea of what happened that day. That said, the drama inherent in the story means 44 Minutes can't help but be a moderately exciting film.

Fabulously edited together from dramatised story "highlights" and direct-to-camera "debfriefings" played by actors, 44Mins(2003) is a very effective retelling of this infamous robbery.The chief protagonist is Frank McGregor(Michael Madsen), the filmic representation of the actual LAPD Robbery and Homicide Division(RHD) detective who led the real 1995 task force for the so-called High Incident Bandits. The real bandits first became known to police during their anomalous career of deadly high-powered bank-and-armored-car robberies during 1993; by 2nd May 1996 they netted $2mill in one bankjob alone, and disappeared to waste their fortune.Michael Mann's Heat(1995) was based on this same crime gang, as is the opening prologue of the new Batman--Dark Knight(2008). At the time, the LAPD thought the gang had 6 members; by 1997 there were only 2 left. Obviously these two wound down to few friends or safe-houses, or goals other than fantasizing about Corvettes, Mustangs and "Mexican b!tches". The other driver of this true story is a young SWAT Team leader, "Donnie" Anderson (Ron Livingston, "Sex and the City" favorite and older brother of actor John Livingston). Curiously, the characters are are only referred to by their first names in this docudrama, so the "Donnie" character is composited as one of the three SWAT officers who finally brought down the second gunman.The beauty of 44Mins's storytelling is its emphasis on how people, even the LAPD, rise to the occasion during extraordinary events. It really is an ennobling tale.This one day, the 28th February 1997, has gone down in the annals of Hollywood history for its real-life police heroism, in ways that no Batman movie can equal. Despite frequent high profile accusations of racism (eg the Rodney King bashing in part due to police overreactions to LA violence during the early 1990s), some actual LAPD bravery trumped the criminal assault on them that day.Incredibly, the real HIB criminals were jailed years before over AK47 possession, but were (almost certainly corruptly) allowed to keep their rifles and sell them to pay for their legal costs! Another gun-related incident that outraged the real LAPD was the easy availability at the time of assault rifles through gun shops--let alone bullets at K-Mart.There are NO DEER in Los Angeles. Even Al-Qaeda only use jet fuel and possibly dirty nukes; so if we can't trust the LAPD with 9mm Barettas, why should we have to "wrest" AK47s from Chuck Heston's "cold, dead hands"?Indeed, watching the real events recreated, the scene of ignorant Laurel Canyon drivers actually driving up to and around the getaway car still looks heartstopping. "It was a SERIES of miracles that no civilians or police were actually killed", observed one of the policemen on the day.Eagle-eyed viewers will catch in Donnie's on screen family photos the actual much older Don Anderson being awarded the Medal of Valour in 1997, who has since died at age 62 in his squad-car, still training young LAPD officers. Much of the credit for 44Minutes' achievement has to go to the Casting Directors (Kim Williams of Reuben Cannon &Associates) and the Director/Co-Producer of this high quality made-for-TV docudrama, Canadian Yves Simoneau("The 4400" (pilot), Void Moon(2009)). These people have put together not only an enormously credible team of actors who each have the requisite gravitas, but this police procedural's tone of cinema vérité is always sensitive, and frank. Simoneau pulls few punches with some minimal human gore: his caked-on blood realism, for instance, is incredibly effective, as the police finally peel off one gunman's blood-soaked mask sticking to his lips and eyes. The bloodied eye and mashed face look far more satisfying--and authentic--than Two-Face's CGI hatchet-job in the new Batman(2008).Very subtly, Simoneau also reveals the shallowness of the LA civilians who quickly flooded the LAPD with gifts, cakes and "I (heart) LAPD" signs the day after the shootout, when just days before they'd been completely hostile. Granted, Simoneau might deny any intention to achieve this, but the juxtaposition is obvious to anyone who knows how fickle LA is.Simoneau's cast is faultless; I can well accept Office Space(1999) "slacker" Ron Livingston as a SWAT team leader, Michael Madsen(Kill Bills 1&2, L.A.P.D.: To Protect and to Serve(2001)) as the seasoned lead detective, and even Col.Dale Dye(Ret.) as the SWAT Chief. But the film also boasts a most impressive Latino actor, Jullian Dulce Vida, as the Assistant Manager of the Bank of America branch. Dulce Vida capably repeats the real man's personal heroism in the face of terrifying assault, as he saves the lives of all the civilians within the bank, including that of his somewhat haughty Anglo boss. The boss is forgettable; Dulce Vida is a standout. His pitch-perfect characterisation has him frequently looking askance at his largely useless boss, a sign of the actor's wonderful commitment. Just excellent casting by the director.This un-hyped but shocking story plays like the 9/11 collapse footage shot in situ by the French Naudet brothers. Simoneau's dramatisation depicts similar professionals on the job so that there is only hindsight "distance" for the viewer between watching 44Minutes, and having survived it.Brilliant.10/10.

The funniest scene of this movie is probably when our saviours get their medals and plaques and whatnot. So the basic idea is, the police outnumbers these gangsters by like a million to one, but they're powerless because the villains' guns are just a bit bigger. I guess police ammo just kinda bounces of. They decided to shoot this movie in documentary style with fake interviews and all and seriously, what is wrong with these guys? They're talking like they were armed with rolled-up newspapers. Okay I admit, it's probably still dangerous to be in the line of the fire, even when the situation is so much to your advantage, but don't go nuts. And why the hell did it take 44 minutes to solve everything anyway? I'd say that's a very long time when you have them surrounded and you're allowed to shoot. They're like ten ft. away, they hit absolutely nothing. Then they go and buy bigger guns themselves to increase their heroism. And then yeah, there you have it, one of the cops actually hits someone. Bullet was probably diverted by a lamp post or something. I had a good laugh I guess.

This movie was based on actual fact? I sincerely hope not!We get to see what appears to be numerous armed cops empty an equal amount of guns at 2 guys who only got armored torso's. That's a great idea; aim for the armor!...excuse me, but how about those big fat unmissable heads or their legs for crying out loud. Or were there invisible tanks protecting them? were they from Crypton?Did i miss something here?This movie started out decent enough but after 20 minutes of shoot-out it really takes a turn to boringlane.And that documentary style didn't work for me either, but thats just something one finds likable or not.Highly unbelievable stuff which makes it hard to see it through 'til the end.3/10 for the fine editing.