A waste of 90 minutes of my life

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

"24 Hours in London" is one of those films you have to watch to know you have seen it once. Then you never bother with it again. Gary Olsen plays "Christian" (a misnomer if ever there was one), who is a sadistic crime boss centered in London at the start of the current millennium (he and his second-in-command reminisce at one point about their torturing a rival in 1996 at one point). Christian is in the midst of eliminating his rivals in London, and capping it off with a partnership with Lloyd (again a misnomer - a woman with a man's name played by Lorelie King) who heads an American syndicate. If his plans succeed he will be stronger than ever. The story somehow is similar to that of the rise and fall of the Kray Brothers back in the 1950s to 1960s, usually at the expense of their rivals the Richardson Brothers. But for all the brutality of the Krays (and they were quite brutal), the Krays never really go to the crazy lengths of Christian. Totally amoral (something not quite true about the Krays - they were critical in their later years at the treatment of elderly people by punks), Christian is willing to spread terror to unconnected third parties as tactics in getting what he wants. We see from the start the maniacal determination to remove obstacles when a young woman (Martha - Anjela Lauren Smith) stumbles upon the extermination of a rival of Christian (no better description) followed by his leading murder squad (including Sarah Stockbridge and David Sonnenthal). All witnesses are executed, but by an error Martha survives. She is taken to police headquarters and reveals what she knows. The police are happy because they've wanted to get the goods on Christian for years. But they are dealing with a dangerous opponent.Christian has one officer in the headquarters under control, and is aware of every move made by Scotland Yard. He also is brazen enough to shoot his way into the Yard to get at Martha. Later he is also willing to give the London police a series of bombings (with high casualty rates) to occupy their time. This is not going to be an easy road to a conviction. The problem is that the unstable nature of his own people work against Christian. Stockbridge and her fellow killer/lover are psychos who get the right mood by their mayhem. They do shoot their ways into the Yard, but Stockbridge's lover gets fatally injured by one of the police (he gets a spike in his eye). It unsettles her when she is alone to carry out her mission, so she goes out of an elevator guns blazing. She faces a lone armed guard (Polly Moore) who has been told to stay there or be shot. As a result of the double pressures on both women they succeed in fatally shooting each other (though a determined Stockbridge does get to the room where the witness is, only to die there).The film is saved from being a total waste because the acting is okay (no more than that though). Stockbridge is a sexy enough killer, and Olson is threatening - but more should have been showed of his interest in the far east (he has personal judo lessons and Asiatic tattoos, and he likes using a sharp Japanese sword as a weapon). There is also some amusing moments (oddly enough), when Olson uses an annoying rival gang to try to kill the witness. That gang actually makes so many errors that they kill a man who is sleeping in bed (an undercover cop as it turns out), and one of their own members before getting shot by the police. But the film is best appreciated by people who just enjoy mindless violence. The plot actually gets so convoluted with hidden agendas and secrets of the characters, that the viewer finds it impossible to follow the mess. I wish that I could say something more positive, but that is about all I could say.

I was forced to endure this film a while ago, and can honestly say that it is one of the worst films I have ever seen. The plot (such as it was) was completely derivative, nicking ideas from just about every gangster film since "Brighton Rock." The characters make cardboard seem fully rounded, mostly being off-cuts from the Quentin Tarantino "chirpy-arrogant-violent-criminal-with-no-regard-for-anyone-else" block, while the script was abysmal.The lack of anything good about this film is particularly disappointing, as it was the last film Gary Olsen made. It's a great shame that his last appearance should be as a barely thought-out criminal weirdo with pseudo-mystical characteristics forced upon him in a vain attempt to make the character seem interesting.This is a heap of rubbish with no redeeming features whatsoever, and should be avoided at all costs.

24 Hours in London was a fun movie for me. It promised Hong-Kong style action and lots of fun, the action isn't quite Hong-Kong, but it was decent, and like I said, I had lots of fun.This movie is about an ambitious gang-lord named Christian who wants to merge with an American gang to rule the streets of London, only thing standing in his way is one witness that can put him in jail. The next 90 minutes was me being entertained at Christian trying to dispatch of this witness.There are several well crafted action scenes throughout this film, I have seen better, but I have seen far far worse, so that is a plus in my book. My only complaint about the action was that in one scene in particular it was incredibly unrealistic, was very entertaining, but I couldn't help but mentally note "yeah right" while watching it. Believe it or not there was some very well placed humor in this film, I found some parts to have me holding my sides, I may be exaggerating a bit, but trust me, there is some funny parts indeed. The acting was for the most part pretty decent, I could only point out a few times where I was waiting for that moment to pass because I couldn't stand watching it, but that didn't occur nearly often enough for me to be truly angry at this film. I was intrigued by the variety of odd-ball characters there were, each one was unique to me in some way, a good thing.Some minor complaints of mine would be the plot. At points it is just fine, not near greatness, but decent enough, but there are parts to this film that just should of been changed to be less cliché. I was expecting this sort of problem with this film so it didn't affect the rating a whole lot, but still, the problems are there. Other than that, and some acting problems that I mentioned earlier, I have no real complaints.I wanted a movie I could just relax and have fun with, a popcorn movie if you will, and I found one. I recommend this movie to action fans (although it is not excessive on the violence I will warn), or to anybody who likes movies they can just shut their brain off for. I give 24 Hours in London 8/10, an enjoyable movie with some nice gunfights.

Great fun, but the assorted crooks in this one would do well to watch some Discovery Channel detective shows. "Bubbles" Healy is a wonderfully evil character, though. & Leon's deadpan description of his injuries later on is not to be missed. I enjoyed the heck out of the film, though that may say more about my tastes than the merits of 24hrs in London...