11:14: Film Fails to Make Lasting Impact

The movie, 11:14 was a trailer that showed up on an older Netflix movie I rented. I hadn't heard of it before, but the movie Crash came to mind when I saw the trailer. 11:14 looked much more dramatic and suspenseful! I added it to my Netflix queue and moved it to the top of the list.

My sister was coming to visit over the weekend, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to watch this 'dramatic thriller' while someone else was with me.

This R-rated, 86-minute movie was released in 2005, and starred Patrick Swayze, Hilary Swank and Rachel Leigh Cook. Other stars I was not so familiar with were Colin Hanks, Henry Thomas, and Ben Foster.

The movie begins with a lone driver, Jack Levine, traveling along an empty highway while talking on his cell phone. Jack has been drinking, and as he hangs up his cell phone, he just begins to nod off. His eyes close for a quick second when something hits the front of his car hard! He really is not sure what happened, but assumes he hit something. What really happened was that Patrick Swayze's character had chosen that very moment, 11:14pm, to toss a dead body over the interstate, and that is what hits the guy's car.

After pulling off to the side of the road, the guy slowly gets out and approaches what turns out to be a body lying face down on the pavement. He rolls the body over, I suppose to check for vitals but soon discover that the guy has no face! This freaks the guy out even more and not sure of what he's done, he really begins to panic and cover things up.

"This 'dramatic-thriller' begins to turn to comedy as Jack attempts to cover-up the 'hit and run'. The police try to arrest him and put him in the back seat of the police car with the already handcuffed Buzzy (Hillary Swank) and Duffy (Shawn Hatosy), who had made an attempt to rob the local convenience store where they both work.

Shortly afterward, a trio of teenage boys is out joy-riding and generally being disruptive, when they hit and kill a local girl, Cheri (Rachel Leigh Cook) at exactly 11:14. Cheri's boyfriend witnesses the event and comes after them with a gun. The van speeds off as the boyfriend begins shooting at them. When they are clear of danger, a check is done to make sure they are all okay. They discover that one of their buddies had become dismembered due to his attempt to relieve himself by urinating through the van window while its still in motion. The comedy continues as the guys fight over whether or not to go back to retrieve Eddie's 'male member'.

Jim returns to the scene to retrieve Eddie's penis and a chase ensues when he steals it from the ambulance. As he is in flight, pumping his arms, he looks at the penis in his hand in disbelief at what he's carrying. Many more busts are made on Eddie's member as the boys begin to fight once more over they're explanation of what they will say happened at the crime scene.

More comedy arises as the movie reflects back on the other stories that paralleled the events that simultaneously transpired at 11:14. Patrick Swayze, who plays Cheri's father goes to extremes to 'cover-up' for his daughter whom he believes is the killer of the body, he tossed over the interstate in the beginning of the movie.

Though this movie is an attention getter, I would in no way call it a 'drama-thriller'. My sister and I spent most of our time laughing so hard we had to keep reversing the DVD just to hear what had been said. The most interesting thing about the movie is seeing how things come full circle and the stories interconnect with one another. It makes me wonder how my life intersects with the people I come in contact with on a daily basis.