7 Minutes *** (2014, Luke Mitchell, Jason Ritter, Leven Rambin, Zane Holtz, Kevin Gage, Brandon Hardesty, Joel Murray, Kris Kristofferson) – Classic Movie Review 13,939

The 2014 American crime thriller film 7 Minutes stars Luke Mitchell, Jason Ritter and Zane Holtz as former high school buddies forced to commit a dangerous bank robbery to pay a debt to a psycho drug lord.

Writer/ director Jay Martin’s 2014 American crime thriller film 7 Minutes stars Luke Mitchell, Jason Ritter and Zane Holtz as former high school buddies forced to commit a dangerous bank robbery, which of course goes wrong after, well, about one of the seven minutes they’ve given themselves to get ‘in and out before the cops arrive. It also stars Leven Rambin, Kevin Gage, Brandon Hardesty, Joel Murray and Kris Kristofferson. 

Three young criminals – Sam (Luke Mitchell), Mike (Jason Ritter) and Owen (Zane Holtz) – lose a stash of drugs and end up owing money to the ruthless drug lord they got it from. He gives them 48 hours to get the cash. With time running out, they plan a daring robbery to raise the cash to settle the debt. With the robbery on – ‘in and out in seven minutes’ – Sam’s pregnant girlfriend Kate (Leven Rambin) is kidnapped.

Writer/ director Jay Martin’s 2014 film 7 Minutes is not brilliant maybe, but it is definitely a good crime thriller, intricately woven, playing with its non-linear story-telling entirely successfully, with a strong score (Tomandandy), soundtrack and cinematography (Noah Rosenthal) to help propel it along. The performances very solid, the direction is conscientious, and it is a satisfying, quite exciting hour and a half of crime.

Luke Mitchell and Jason Ritter are appealing as the two main men, credible as well-meaning reluctant villains way out of their depth, Leven Rambin is feisty as the girlfriend Kate, and the character actors give reliable turns, though Kris Kristofferson has disappointingly little to do in his couple of tiny scenes as Mr B (he is amusing though).

Jay Martin has constructed the plot and characters carefully. Not telling the story in a traditional way is a good idea here, so you can start with the robbery and flash back and forward at will, filling in the various backstories, basically keeping the seven minutes of the robbery running for an hour and a half. Maybe that’s risky but Jay Martin keeps it clear and present, and the audience in the picture at all times. The robbery is exciting, if improbable, and the story’s payoff is satisfying, also improbable, but satisfying. Actually, that goes for the whole story, but it’s only a movie. If we’re involved, and we are, it doesn’t matter how unlikely the tale is.

You could call the film a heist caper, but Jay Martin keeps the tone serious, throwing in some social comment along the way, steering miles away from the usual bank job caper.

The heist movie genre itself is a cliché, I guess, but Jay Martin honours the genre without piling on new clichés. It feels entirely fresh, and entertaining, different enough. The distinctive location filming in Everett, Washington, is a huge asset to realism and particularity, peculiarity maybe, a real character in the film. The Everett High School and Cascade High School football teams turned out for an overnight shoot in Arlington, Washington, while the producers leased police cars and other vehicles from the Everett city government.

Tomandandy is an American musical duo from New York City, consisting of Thomas Hajdu and Andy Milburn.

The cast are Luke Mitchell as Sam, Jason Ritter as Mike, Leven Rambin as Kate, Zane Holtz as Owen, Kris Kristofferson as Mr B, Russell Hodgkinson as Lawrence, Joel Murray as Uncle Pete, Kevin Gage as Tuckey, Chris Soldevill as Doug, Brandon Hardesty as Jerome, Mariel Neto as Brandi.

Director: Jay Martin

Production: Whitewater Films.

The film premiered at the Austin Film Festival on October 26, 2014 and was released in the US on June 26, 2015.

Kris Kristofferson died at his home in Hana, Hawaii, on 28 September 28, 2024, aged 88, having requested the first three lines of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Bird on the Wire’ on his tombstone: ‘Like a bird on the wire, Like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free.’

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,939

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