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Thank You for your Time during the Monday Movie Meme and More... #monday #atozchallenge #atoz
Monday, April 23, 2012 at 1:19PM 
“My tea’s gone cold, I’m wondering why I got out of bed at all. The morning rain clouds up my window and I can’t see at all. And even if I could, it would all be gray, but your picture on my wall, it reminds me that it’s not so bad. It’s not so bad. -- And I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life.”
“Thank You” by Dido has always been a pleasure to listen to no matter what mood I’m in. Because of heavy sampling in the music industry, it comes as no surprise to me that I only knew about this song as a result of listening to “Stan” by Eminem. Both songs are favorites on my playlist but only one fits in line with today’s theme. Allow me to take this time to thank all of you who visit The Madlab Post and not only read my blog posts but also comment on them as well.
I appreciate everyone who takes the time to join in on film related discussions, subscribe to this blog, tweet about my posts or retweet my tweets such as Damyanti at Amlokiblogs and Daily (w)rite. I’m also grateful for my fellow blogging friends who make time to include me in various blogging activities of theirs such as linking to a specific post that I write and mentioning The Madlab Post in posts on their blog.
Thank You Herman at Terrible Analogies, for all of your support over the years and movie rental/DVD purchasing recommendations. It’s almost hard to believe that we were brought together by way of a frozen meal review! Thank You to Alana at Writercize for getting me to flex my brain and writing muscles. Thanks Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out for publishing my guests posts, featuring me in your Media Matters post and for also hosting the great ol' A to Z Challenge.
Also, Thank You Dale at Smurfin’ the Web for welcoming me as a co-host of the Monday Movie Meme, which provides a sense of purpose and structure to my weekly blogging activities. Speaking of the Monday Movie Meme -- It’s MONDAY, everybody! -- and time for another installment of the Movie Meme after we took a trip down memory lane with Neighbors from Hell, last week. This week’s theme is: Time is of the essence.
Share on your blog or in the comments section, movies that involve people who are dealing with circumstances where the clock is working against them. These movie characters either have a certain amount of time to complete a task before something disastrous happens or they are trying to avoid the progression of time for specific reasons. Here are my selections for this week’s Time is of the essence movie meme.
The Negotiator
In this action film starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey, a police negotiator takes hostages as collateral for buying enough time to prove that he is innocent of corruption and murder. My grandmother introduced me to this film and I’ve enjoyed watching it multiple times ever since. One unfortunate thing that “The Negotiator” did do, however, is reinforce a distrust in cops as a collective. Yeah, I know it’s just a movie but still -- you can’t help but wonder “are ANY of them the good guys?” and “Do any of them take their oath seriously?”
16 Blocks
In this crime drama starring Bruce Willis and Mos Def, an old alcoholic cop is assigned to escort a witness from police custody to the courthouse by 10a.m. for a grand jury testimony. The task sounds simple but their journey gets really complicated when the drug-dealing cops who want the witness dead do all in their power to try and make sure that he does not make it to the courthouse -- even if that means harming their fellow man in blue.
Add to that the fact that this witness is a petty criminal; everyone involved is on edge because they don’t know who to trust. Still, the designated police escort has two hours to get his witness to a destination that is sixteen hours aways, all while people are trying to kill them. -- And you thought you had a bad morning! Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bed, it looks like these characters woke up on the wrong side of the law! -- at least, on this particular day.
Out of Time
In this crime thriller starring Denzel Washington, Sanaa Lathan and Eva Mendes, a police chief tries to solve a double murder involving his mistress and $450,000 in missing drug money, before he becomes the prime suspect.
There is a lot of weird back and forth in “Out of Time” with regards to the storytelling but if you can tolerate it, then this movie can be entertaining to watch on any lazy afternoon. I’m not a fan of the flashbacks because they seemed excessive, yet the main character is likeable, depending on how you view him, so it’s easy to want to find out if he can get out of the trouble he will potentially be in.
Darn, I just realized that all of my selections for this week’s Monday Movie Meme have another common thread beyond just being in time-sensitive situations -- they’re all cop movies. Sheesh! I guess I watch a lot of friggin’ cop movies!
Can YOU name some movies where time is of the essence?
Have YOU watched any of the movies listed here?
If so, what did YOU think about them?
Reader Comments (6)
Thank you for your kind words. Now I've got to check if I'm following you on Twitter--for some reason I think not. And I also want to thank you for all the great comments you given to me and so many others and for the work you've put into guest posts you've provided me.
I've seen Out of Time and I did like that film a great deal.
A favorite of mine would be Run, Lola, Run, where Lola has 20 minutes to come up with some lost money before bad things happen. This is such a fast paced film. I watched it several times after it came out.
Also, the widely panned and ridiculed Nicholas Cage film Next where a nuclear device is hidden somewhere in L.A. and must be found before it goes off. Sorry, but I'm a big Nick Cage fan and I like movies that have to do with magicians and time-bending. This has it all so I can forgive the ridiculous plot holes and the cheat of an ending to accept the fun of it.
Believers is a film about a Heaven's Gate style cult that is going to commit mass suicide to avoid an end of the world cataclysm. The hero of the film has a short window to save his friend who is among them. The film is pretty decent if not a little slow, but I thought it had a great ending that was a payoff for the rest of the film.
D.O.A. has been made at least twice and I've seen both, but don't remember much about them other than I liked them. A guy has been poisoned and will die within 24 hours and sets out to find his killer if I remember correctly.
Those are my choices.
Lee
Places I Remember
Wrote By Rote
An A to Z Co-host blog
There was that movie In Time where time was used as currency, so the poor people feared death on a daily basis while the rich lived forever. Time was of the essence in that scenario.
I haven't actually seen any of these. But maybe the one that took place in the phone booth? with the guy who was kind of forcing him to stay in the phone booth and not tell anyone anything?
Sonia Lal @ Story Treasury
Aww, shucks. I'm proud to know you, Nicole. You've always had an amazingly consistent blog! Awesome job!
As for movies where the clock plays a factor. Hmm.....how's about:
- Escape From New York: "You have 24 hours to save the President."
- The Breakfast Club: Stuck in a room together for 8 hours...
- Nick Of Time: Kill the governor in 90 minutes or else
- Broken Arrow: 30 minutes until nuclear detonation
- Collateral: One night. Five Stops. Five hits.
Geez...this one was a bit tougher than I thought it's be. Heh...
Denzel Washington has been in a few "time is of the essence" type of movies
Man on Fire - his race to avenge Peeta before he dies
Unstoppable - he and Chris Pine have to stop an out of control train or slow it down before it plows off the rails into a large grouping of hazardous materials, killing everyone in a wide radius
Nicholas Cage did Gone in 60 Seconds with Angelina Jolie where they had a specific amount of time to steal some collector's vehicles before his brother, or someone of importance, bit the dust.
There is an old movie, "D.O.A." in black and white where the hero has been given a poison, and has only 24 hours to catch the killers before he died. Jason Statham also did a similar movie.