lasgalletas

Very ambitious and promising concept ruined by poor acting (except Dev Patel's), weak script and mediocre camera work. Lots of excessive pathetic moments.

"Seven Seconds" crime drama series based on Russian movie "The Major" by Yuri Bykov. I saw "The Major" probably a year ago and never expected to see an American drama made out of this. I'd like to avoid spoilers no matter "Seven Seconds" can spoil "The Major" at some point. However it's hard to call "Seven seconds" a pure remake of "The Major" although both have similar concept but only "Seven seconds" contains more complications, outcomes and so delivers a different story.

"Seven Seconds" amazingly creates this "like Russian" movie feel as it's a slow paced, has a lot of pauses, cops actually look like Russian guys and even main prosecutor drinks a lot though it's not a vodka digested. Both movies start in the winter. In general, both stories tell us that life can be cruel and cops and officials have their own morals especially when law and justice meet a real life. Acting is as good as a cast. I was really surprised to see acting of Michael Mosley and David Lyons, both are just great. Story is brutal, grim and pretty intense no matter it's a slow-paced movie.

"Seven seconds" is another good case of how a foreign concept or a story can be transformed into a great drama raising important questions. For example: Andrey Zvyagintev's famous "Leviathan" movie is based on an American story of Marvin John Heemeyer and his armored warfare against authorities however it's hard to find any kind of an "action" in this one. "The Major" puts a very Russian concept on American soil and it looks just fine.

There's another great drama by Yuri Bykov - "Durak" ("The Fool"). I don't see how this story can be transformed into a scenario for an American movie however it's a very good one, just check this out.