User reviews

A clever little thriller/black comedy, which holds interest. 11:14 tells the inter-connected stories of a group of people, all revolving around a tragic car-accident. We see the accident, which occurs at 11:14pm, from different perspectives, as the puzzle slowly comes together.

Sure, the story works a lot on coincidence, but it's still a great build up and interesting ending, despite it being somewhat of a let-down.

The very black humour includes two sections which might just be some of the most cringing moments for men in cinema history – one of them in particular had me cowering fear.

Good performances from Patrick Swayze and Hilary Swank make this a good cinematic treat.

I've been following the press on this film from the moment I first read about it.

I've seen several glowing reviews, most recently in Variety, for this film,the actors and the cannot-be-more-than-fresh-out-of-high-school-himself looking Writer/Director, who shared with the audience that his age was somewhere "in the low two digits."

I've been patiently waiting to see "11:14", finally got to while I was in Toronto!! I was one of several hundred packed like sardines into the theater. Fortunately, I did not have to sit on the floor like the rush ticket holders.

It was unbelievable! A sick and twisted tale(5 tales actually) of coincidence, deceit,small town mentality and good(or bad)intentions gone miserably wrong. Hilary Swank is brilliant as a convenience store worker so afraid to lose her job, she opts to chance suffering tremendous injury over practicing a little common sense. Patrick Swayze utilizes his intensity and tendency towards the dramatic to comedically portray the world's most overprotective Father, while Rachael Leigh Cook's character, Cheri, wreaks havoc on Middelton, Anywhere, USA.

The film opens with a car crash, a botched arrest and a few nasty head injuries that set up the film beautifully. Ben Foster, Colin Hanks and Stark Sands turn an otherwise ordinary joyride through town into the most adolescent, gruesome and completely hysterical adventure. Not for the squeamish.

All five stories are meticulously and ingeniously constructed. I, like my fellow audience members, thoroughly enjoyed every bone-breaking, heart-stopping, could-things-get-any-worse-for-these-poor-middle(ton)-Americans moment. Can't wait to see it in the States.

11:14 is a decent film you must watch all of to appreciate. Using multiple story lines, a series of lives all come together at 11:14 in a body hits car accident. Good casting and acting help keep your attention as the sometimes mundane lives of all the characters come together one piece at a time over a 24 hour period. While the disjointed stories are simple mini-movies of themselves, it isn't too hard to figure out how they all come together. I like the complexities of movies such as these, but they are not for people who want simple entertainment. You need to watch this uninterrupted and concentrate on the subplots to get the full value.

Festival. Based on what I'd read, I was expecting some sort of Tarantino rip-off.

Instead I got run over by a very fast, very clever film. Directed by 27 year old Greg Marcks, the film is populated by up and coming young stars including Colin Hanks and Rachael Leigh Cook. It's actually 5 stories that all take place in a small town in middle America at around 11pm on a random night.

Characters keep running into each other and bad bad things happen, but the stories are all strung together in really clever, often darkly funny ways. The dialog is sharp and real, and Marcks has a real skill with his young cast. There are some really excellent performances, especially by Rachael Leigh Cook, who as the trashy Cherie is just the right combination of evil and desperate.

Although even in her trailer park costume she's breathtakingly beautiful! Also look for Ben Foster, who surprised me with a very realistic performance, after something REALLY bad happens to him. Hanks is also good, as is Shawn Hatosy. I was blown away! And the strangest part of the Premiere screening? It finished at exactly 11:14.

It has often been said that all of our lives are interconnected. Nine people's lives are linked together at the same moment in time, all with life changing results.

This film actually has no plot, but rather details the actions of all of the nine people leading up to that fated moment and shortly after. Interestingly, it is all about the freak timing and some very stupid or cruel choices that people make. Sometimes those ill-thought out actions can have devastating results.

While this film does not fall under the heading of "enjoyable evening of entertainment" for me, it is a MUST see film for teenagers and their parents. It is not preachy, but very matter-of-fact blunt. Actions do have reactions, as well as consequences. There is also a difference between "harmless fun" and "stupidly dangerous".

Half an hour or less of one night, two traffic accidents, one severed body part, several crimes or felonies, one silly dog, at least one spectacularly bad decision per character and two deaths make for 90 minutes of pure high-adrenalin fun. And smart fun at that! Of course, it's a bit like, say, Pulp Fiction on Vodka/Red Bull, but hey, I've been rarely entertained so well by other people's fiascoes.

The stories of about a dozen American small-towners intersect at 11:14 one night. Everybody has their own agenda, be it vandalism, fast money, sex, protecting the reputation of their daughter, or just to do their job, and most of them have had too much too drink - which leads to the aforementioned bad decisions. Some great acting (Shawn Hatosy and Patrick Swayze stand out), dynamic camera work and fast pacing keep 11:14 moving and viewers on their toes. And of course, there's always one more twist...

I saw 11:14 pre-release at the Fantasy Filmfest, and it was received very well. If film distributors are just a little smarter than the characters in this film, this should be a smash!

It is 11:14pm, an accident happens. Different people cross paths on the road, and all of them play their part in the accident. The movie tells us the partial stories of each of the parts involved, how the actions of each of them lead to what happens at the beginning and end of the film. The movie is a presented as a puzzle in which all the pieces are assembled when the film ends. A second frozen in time and dissected for the benefit of the viewer.

This is a dark thrilling movie, full of action, with a great mood and tempo, very engaging and never dull. The movie has no pity with its own characters, all of them depicted as mean, nasty, stupid and/or untruthful, deserving of the drama that unfolds during the night. Just some of the secondary characters are neutral or good.

All actors are OK in their respective roles. Two of them especially shine: Hillary Swank, who really nails her role as red-neck shop attendant, and Rachael Leigh Cook is terrific as the nasty Lolita around which all the story, directly or indirectly, revolves.

The movie is entertaining with a round story that will keep you glued to your chair. Its only problem is the mediocrity of the dialogs, and that the characters have no dramatic depth, but, well, you cannot expect depth from a thriller.

I saw this movie at the Florida State University's Seven Days of Opening Nights festival in Tallahassee, Florida. The director, Greg Marcks, is a Florida State film school graduate. I was fortunate to attend a question and answer session with him. His attention to detail is stunning. This is the type of movie where lots of gaffs could occur because the movie is about five stories that eventually come together. I did not notice any gaffs. The movie re-visits previous scenes from a different perspective. By 11:14 pm, all of the events come together. The attention to detail is important because the whole movie must tie together at the end. This movie perfectly ties together.

The acting, dialogue and action sequences are great. It's amazing how well this movie flows. As Mr. Marcks pointed out during the Q&A session, this movie should be seen as a black comedy. The movie is funny. This movie was influenced by "Cops" and other shows that show not-so-intelligent people. But the movie is intelligent. If it weren't, it wouldn't be good. Based on the reaction of the audience, this movie should be well received.

The story of 11:14 is about what happened during an evening leading eventually to two different car accidents at the same time in the same town. What is interesting about this story are the five very different perspectives showing how everybody got involved willingly or not in those tragic accidents. There are enough twists and turns to keep your mind occupied during the entire movie. The whole plot is cleverly written and it all fits together at one point. The acting wasn't bad at all, much better than I expected. All in all 11:14 was a pleasant surprise, way better than some high budget movies.

This is one of those movies that you really ought to see. We rented it based on the back cover, and we were glad we did. 11:14 has been compared to Crash and Memento. We haven't seen Crash, but it looks like we should, and while I thought that 11:14 was not quite as terrific as Memento, I felt it was definitely in the running with it.

I came to IMDb to see what else this guy, Greg Marcks, has done and was surprised to see that the only other entry is a 19 minute short film. How on earth did he get stars such as Patrick Swayze and Hillary Swank? If you do decide to see this movie, DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILER FIRST. What a rotten trailer. The trailer gives away virtually the entire plot.

Whenever a film is touted as the "next Pulp Fiction" it always makes my heart sink a little bit. It never does a film justice, particularly those that, not only are not in the same league as Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece, but don't even match up to the previous movies spawned in its wake. For every Go there is a Two Days In The Valley, so in the end, all you should ever really do is try to view a film its own right, rather than condemn its failure to match its inspirations. Perhaps then, it is fitting that newcomer-director Greg Marcks, who's only previous work was a short film about a man who reads to cigar-rollers, via radio, has created a tremendously entertaining if, at times, rather gruesome tale about five intertwining stories revolving around a couple of car crashes at 11:14pm.

Story one involves a young man who, obviously after intoxicating himself, attempts to drive himself home when, low and behold he hits what appeared to be a dear. After closer inspection it turns out that he has actually hit a fellow human, who is now dead as a possum. This incident, along with the other four stories, are not actually tales, but rather perspectives which, as the movie goes on, begin unravelling a narrative hidden from each of the other stories' characters, displaying how they are oblivious to the repercussions to which their misgivings seemingly affect others. Along the way there are some pretty nasty, although hilarious, gags involving such modern day taboos as fatal graveyard sex and a certain missing penis. You will squirm as you chuckle at the ensuing madness invoked upon our protagonists.

Where as hokey, silly riffraff like Snatch involved increasingly contrived story lines intertwining over a rather dubious narrative showed cheeky-chappy cockney gangsters smirk and dance their way through a music video of a movie, 11:14 manages to recapture the style and essence that made something like a Quentin Tarantino movie so effortlessly entertaining. What nobody cared to inform the duplicators of said director was that it was NOT swooshy camera moves, ridiculously quirky gangsters or even a decent soundtrack that made Reservoir Dogs the movie it was. It was a script. A script that was so funny, so original and so clever that you fell in love with it. 11:14 might not necessarily be a "lovable" movie, but it is constructed in a very clever sense, fooling its audience in a sense of doom, only to reveal itself later on to choruses of laughs. Marcks obviously understands how to strike a balance between humour and dread, as parts of this film had me clutching for breath, yet laughing all the same.

The cast do their up-most to fill in the gaps that may not make this as brilliant as some people have made it out to be. Most characters only serve the movie with around 15 minutes worth of screen time, so it is impressive that most of their scenes are packed with enough humour to keep you interested. Patrick Swayze's god-fearing father who is frantically trying to rid the body of his young daughter's lover is fairly impressive, but the daughter herself, played with wonderful faux-ditz and scheming nastiness by Rachel Leigh Cook, steals the show. You probably won't feel much for the clumsy nature of the characters, but they will certainly keep you on your toes.

Plot

The events leading up to an 11:14 p.m. Car crash, from five very different perspectives.

Cast

Henry Thomas, Colin Hanks, Ben Foster, Patrick Swayze, Clark Gregg, Hilary Swank, Shawn Hatosy, Rachael Leigh Cook and Jason Segel! No shortage of star power but written/directed by a person with less film experience than I have in thermo-dynamics.

Verdict

I keep seeing in the reviews that this movie is intelligent, that it's smart and I'm confused where people are getting that from. Am I missing something or is the bar for something to constitute as intelligent really just that incredibly low.

The concept where it's the same story told from multiple characters perspectives is not new, in fact it was done quite close to this in 1999 with Go starring Sarah Polley, Jay Mohr and Timothy Olyphant where it's how 3 different characters saw different elements of a drug deal gone wrong.

That's not intelligent, it's just filming a the same scenes and events from multiple characters perspectives, which in this case may enlighten us to other things we'd not seen in the previous angle but doesn't deliver intelligence nor entertainment for that matter.

The plot didn't warrant all these different perspectives, there are no interesting developments and surprisingly there isn't even a big twist at the end either! The movie just suddenly ends abruptly, roll credits and let the disappointment creep in.

If this is what passes as intelligent I really am concerned.

Rants

This is another one of those movies that suffers from the terrible protagonists issue. Namely, who am I rooting for? Every character is just a terrible human being that I wish ill on, I can't cheer these people on! So if I don't have a suitable protagonist it irreparably damages the film for me.

Breakdown

Impressive cast Doesn't really go anywhere Far from "Intelligent" Doesn't have an ending.

Good movie.

I agree with most other comments, kind of a wild roller-coaster of bad things happening.

A bit disappointing ending however, the movie basically tells the story of 30 minutes around 11:14 in 90 minutes. However, after a little over an hour in the movie the story is clear already...

Instead of preparing you for an interesting ending, the director decided to keep telling the by-now-very-obvious story for the kind of people that usually miss half the film by getting beer popcorn, talking or other reasons..

This movie is worth the money nonetheless: Good fun to watch.

I knew nothing at all about 11:14 when I saw it in the guide of what movie was on next. To be honest I was just going to keep 11:14 on in the background as I was supposed to be doing something more important. But I began to watch it.... and am I glad I did !! The credits haven't even finished rolling as I am writing this review because I thought it was that good.

The plot is supposed to be basic; an incident happens at 11:14pm and it is told from five different perspectives. But oh how it all progresses, ties together, and ends in a very satisfying manner. It reminded me of a cross between 'Memento' and 'Pulp Fiction' and to be honest, I found 11:14 comparable to those above mentioned excellent movies.

The actors themselves were so natural and played the roles so well that there was not one actor that was the 'star'. I can't say enough about this movie. It was clever, witty, funny when necessary, intelligent and excellently casted.

My only gripe was occasionally too many events 'seemed' to happen in the supposed allotted time which made me aware of the time frame more than I probably should. But so saying that it detracts very little and I enjoyed 11:14 immensely. See it, I am sure you will love it too.

Four stories seemingly unrelated to each other collide for our amusement. This is serious stuff, but there are some very comical scenes here and you will laugh out loud at times.

If you know what a space time continuum is, you will understand and enjoy this movie. If you do not know what a space time continuum is you will eventually understand and enjoy this movie. But, you will say , "hey, everything is in reverse order. What am I to make of it?" But, make of it you will, just don't try to understand too much at first. Every character tries to do the right thing and ends up doing something wrong. Some get away with it, and some don't. Go with the flow and all will be revealed. Very good, well acted, scripted and the stunts are good too.

In some ways, this reminded me of FARGO except nothing was planned; and in other ways of CRASH, but interacting with others was not intended. This is a good movie and enjoyable to watch to see how things come full circle.

I saw this movie during the "Fantasy Film Festival" in Germany. It is really a perfect mixture: it has all from horror to humour and the story is told with lots of originality... The film is built up like a puzzle which is assembled piece by piece, and resolves the story... For the viewer there are plenty of surprises till the end!! I have a little the impression that the director has been inspired by some scenes from the movie "snatch" where you can see at some point the same event happening from a different point of view. In this movie everything is built up on what happens at 11:14 ...and every actor in the story acts on his own "egoistic" way and contributes to assembling the puzzle.... I loved especially the black humour scenes...which made laugh the whole theatre.... This movie is a must see for everyone. If you thought "scream" is a great movie than watch "11:14" and be surprised!

greetings from Germany

Alex

Initially I gave this only 6-stars. Then I noticed that someone who 1-stared it mentioned that Hillary Swank's braces looked goofy. Really. That's important somehow? I bumped it to a 7 just based on that. I mean if someone dogging this movie had to reach that far to find something they didn't like, (even something as shallow as "like totally look at those braces, make me gag, like really ya know") there must not have been much wrong with the film. I mean stuff wrong with it that actually matters. It uses its time mechanic well, it has a good cast, and characters that you like to hate (love to hate would have made it 1 star better.) I had fun watching this movie and that's all that really matters.

I caught this tonight on the Sundance channel and was absolutely riveted. This is a wonderful dark comedy, meticulously planned and artfully performed by a fine ensemble cast. Writer/director Greg Marcks deserves high praise for pulling off multiple Feydeau turns with his cars and corpses. There may be holes or lapses in the plotting, but every time my wife or I thought we spotted one, along came a twist that plugged the hole--and perfectly.

As implausible as the coincidences may seem, the execution is perfectly polished. The photography, effects, and timings are perfectly handled, and the actors offer details of real behavior that breathe life into the meshing gears of this ingenious plot.

A rather short and quick movie, although the synopsis, and especially the tags, are a little misleading. There isn't much of a story to tell or a mystery to solve, but more like a gimmick to show you how much related a bunch of random events can be, and how much a simple action can change the course of other people's events.

It is well told and the ending makes you go "oooh, so that's what happened", basically connecting every dot with no room for loose ends. Revealing parts of the plot would give too much away, and I think it's best enjoyed with the constant discovery of each point of view.

Low budget, but well filmed, you never miss anything and the sound is great too, which is something I usually see it failing in movies like this. The actors are all pretty good, I especially loved Cheri as the manipulative chick who starts to see her sweet plan fall apart and has to think fast to put it back together.

Definitely a fun ride, check it out.

check your watch. If it isn't 11:14, be very afraid.

What's not to like? This is very creative & very well acted & highly engrossing. The only nit I could pick is that, without doing an exhaustive study, I'd say some of the lenghts of time different people were supposed to spend doing what they did seemed quite short, esp. Swayze. I'll assume they did their homework, & it is correct, but it seems off. Otherwise, if you want something far from ordinary Hollywood hogfarts, watch this.

Don't worry about the comments about sick, twisted, squeamish, etc. This is almost The Muppets compared to most Hollywood "blockbuster" wannabes. whatever violence there is, is not gratuitous, not flagrant, not long-lasting. I hate violent movies, & I readily recommend this.

I love these kind of movies, where a time cyclical structure is applied (Pulp fiction is a masterpiece in the genre(, and guess which is the last scene timely speaking? I suggest to watch it to discover it, well done to the director and writer.

How is it possible that 11:14 went virtually unreleased in theaters? After modest film-festival exposure, it played briefly in San Francisco in August 2005 (over two years after it was completed), but that's a cruel twist of fate for such a cleverly twisted movie about cruel twists of fate. Destined for sleeper status on DVD (and given a slightly higher profile by Hilary Swank's subsequent Oscar-winning performance in Million Dollar Baby), the audacious debut of writer-director Greg Marcks boasts a fantastic cast in a smartly constructed comedy/thriller, partly inspired by Blood Simple, in which a fatal traffic accident is examined and re-examined from multiple perspectives. The flashback structure involves all of the characters and events that lead up to the accident's deadly occurrence at 11:14 on an otherwise pleasant evening in Middleton, a typical suburb of Anytown, USA (filmed in the vicinity of Los Angeles). Marcks's screenplay attracted an impressive ensemble cast (costar Swank also signed on as an executive producer), and they're all given equal time as the intertwined plots are revealed. They include Rachael Leigh Cook (whose bad-girl behavior sets the chain of events in motion); Patrick Swayze and Barbara Hershey as her worried parents; Swank and Shawn Hatosy as would-be criminals with a dimwit plan; Henry Thomas as a drunk driver whose involvement is deeper than we realize; and Colin Hanks as one of three teenage vandals on a fast track to trouble. With falling corpses, graveyard sex, reckless gun play, and a severed penis, it's all in good, grisly fun (apart from intricate plotting, Marcks has no lofty agenda up his sleeve), and there's ultimately not much point to its random misfortune, but 11:14 is clearly the work of a promising filmmaker, worthy of rediscovery on DVD. Bonus features include Marcks's intelligent commentary, a standard behind-the-scenes featurette, and a useful "character jump" feature allowing viewers to choose a plot trajectory whenever one character encounters another.