‘96 Minutes’ Netflix Movie Review - Two Trains, Two Bombs, Zero Momentum

You know the drill: a fast-moving train, a bomb that would detonate if the train slowed down, a hero (or some heroes) trying to stop the explosion and evacuate the passengers, all while attempting to uncover the identity of the criminal. Replace the train with a car, a ship, a bus, or any other vehicle, and you will still more or less get the same set of scenarios, the same disaster formula. In 96 Minutes, director Hung Tzu-hsuan, with co-writers Yang Wan-ju and Evonne Chen, raises the stakes by planting two bombs on two different trains. Moreover, if one bomb is defused, the other automatically detonates. What motivated our evil mastermind to come up with such a dastardly plan? The answer lies in the opening scenes, where a policeman says that, in order to save the lives of the majority, he had to sacrifice a few individuals. Police officers are not superheroes; this one openly admits his human limitations and expresses regret that he wasn't able to save everyone from a disastrous situation.

Of course, among those few individuals who lost their lives, there was someone very close to our criminal. Now they want police officers Song Ken-Ren (Austin Lin) and Li Jie (Lee Lee-zen) to experience what it feels like to lose someone, what it feels like to be helpless. This quest for vengeance provides 96 Minutes with its emotional core, which Tzu-hsuan cranks up to such a high, relentless pitch that it ultimately loses its intensity, its power. I don't think I've ever seen a thriller this weepy. The movie wants to show humans as vulnerable, as madmen, as saviors, as survivors, and at the same time, it wants to excite our senses with ticking clocks and a dangerous stunt in which a man jumps from one train to another. There is very little of the latter, as the movie is far more interested in showing real people trapped in a terrible situation. These people, though, are nothing more than sentimental stick figures. They serve a pretty thin function: to fill our eyes with tears or make us go "Aww…" (Ken-Ren and his wife, Huang Xin [Vivian Sung], plan a honeymoon trip by sharing cute text messages).

It's no surprise, then, that we don't really feel attached to anyone. And since there is a lack of over-the-top, can't-believe-that-just-happened stunts (Tzu-hsuan unfortunately keeps things sober), we keep wanting to deboard this cinematic vehicle. To give 96 Minutes even 90 minutes is too much; I was ready to leave after 30–40 minutes. This is a disaster flick, all right. It's just that the cause of the "disaster" is Tzu-hsuan's mechanical sentiments.

Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times