24 Hours in London (2000)-"R"

Run Time:90 minutes

No stars out of 4

Wow. What an amazingly, amazingly bad movie. Directed by Alexander Finbow, 24 Hours in London is his debut (and hopefully final) film, and though this may seem like a minor detail, make no mistake, this man's horrible inadequacy as a filmmaker comes back to haunt the viewer at every possible point during the film. Finbow, who unfortunately doubles as the writer, has supposedly set the story in 2009 (though one would not know it from watching the film, but merely by reading the summary of it) in London, where law and order in the city has been left to an incredibly inept yet well-equipped police force. Warring gangs, chiefly the one led by Christian (played by Gary Olsen in probably in the best attempt at acting in this film, though that's not saying much) have taken to fighting openly and murdering all witnesses. In a the latest street confrontation, however, one witness, Martha Bedford (played by Anjela Lauren Smith) has survived, and now the police must fight off a seemingly unending line of hitmen and gangsters sent by Christian in order to protect her. Violence ensues, along with some paper-thin attempts at romance/sexual tension, and a meaningless entanglement with a duo of organ thieves. Even at a brisk running time of 90 minutes (opening/closing credits included), Finbow still manages to branch out into a dozen undeveloped, confusing, and unnecessary subplots, perhaps as an attempt to distract attention away from the extraordinarily bad acting, ultra-cheap sets and props, and the fact that every scene feels recycled from a better movie and ruined. Please, take my advice and DO NOT rent, buy, or even watch this movie, as it is an utter waste of time and money. Do not be fooled by the meager attempts of the producer to pass this movie off as a gritty British crime film (i.e. Snatch or Sexy Beast), it is nothing but an all-around terrible film that has apparently been released on video in America solely because we are the bad movie capital of the world. AVOID 24 HOURS IN LONDON AT ALL COSTS!!!