Two-Minute Warning | | Cast : | Charlton Heston, John Cassavetes | | Director : | Larry Peerce | | Studio : | Universal Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | November 12, 1976 | | DVD Released Date : | August 24, 2004 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | April 11, 2005 | | Summary | A TEDIOUS TWO HOURS | Content
 | Filmed in 1976, at the closing of the 70s affection for disaster films, TWO MINUTE WARNING never achieves the goal of any good disaster flick: sure you need your big stars in peril, and a tense and involving script. This movie unfortunately falls short in the script department: we never know who the sniper is or why he's doing what he's doing; why does he wait so long to start shooting, and why is Charlton Heston acting like he has a batch of hemorrhoids? The pacing is too tedious and by the time we get some action at the end, it goes by so fast and is staged so haphazardly, it doesn't have much of an impact. There are a lot of good actors wasted in this movie: Gena Rowlands as the floozy live in of car salesman David Janssen; Martin Balsam as the colosseum manager; John Cassavetes as the SWAT leader; Jack Klugman as the stereotypical gambler who might end up dead if LA doesn't win. We also get mediocrity from people like Joe Kapp, Marilyn Hassett, Mitchell Ryan, David Groh, and Walter Pidgeon as a pickpocket of all things. If screenwriter Edward Hume is trying to make a statement about our penchant for violence, he doesn't deliver it too well, and the whole movie looks like a made for TV miniseries without much to recommend it. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 31, 2005 | | Summary | Good 70's action flick | Content
| This is an interesting movie, especially in light of what's happened in this country over the last 30+ years.
Filmed in and around the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1976. Very low tech by todays standards, but that is part of the appeal. It's always fun to see the old cars, fashions and technology.
There is a long list of stars, as with most movies of this era: Charlton Heston, John Cassavetes,Martin Balsam, Beau Bridges, Gena Rowlands, and even Walter Pidgeon as a pickpocket.
The plot revolves around an unidentified sniper during a championship football game with a sold-out crowd. Unfortunately, you never learn his identity, his target or his motivation.
There are some terrible lines in this movie. The acting is fair to good. The best scene was near the end, when the police are shooting it out with the sniper, and the television crews are watching it all from their trailer.
Overall it's a fair movie that's intersting as a snapshot of our culture during the 70's. |
| Rating | | | Date | December 24, 2004 | | Summary | Superbowl Sniper | Content
| I was recently trying to recall some of the better disaster movies that came out of the Sixties and Seventies. Two that stood out in my mind was "Black Sunday" and I couldn't recall the name of the other but I recalled a sniper shooting people at a championship football game and S.W.A.T. trying to stop him. I was interested enough in tracking it down that I went to imdb.com and did a search on the word sniper in the plots. When I saw the title "Two Minute Warning" more started to come back to me. The cast is good, but not all of them do much more than cameos. But some performances are quite good, like that of John Cassavetes. The tension, camerawork, and music are excellent. It is intense watching the S.W.A.T team try to stop the sniper without starting a panic at the stadium. Although they eventually get the sniper, he racks up a sizeable body count, especially once the stampede of people try to exit the stadium. I couldn't help thinking of cattle when I saw it. This may not be up to some movies of today, but it is still well worth owning. I recommend it to anyone that likes action movies, especially police related. The movie was popular enough at the time to help bring about the S.W.A.T. TV series. |
| Rating | | | Date | December 01, 2004 | | Summary | Good Football Thriller | Content
| Director Larry Peerce masterfully directs "Two-Minute Warning", a thriller that successfully juxtaposes competing story threads; a gut-wrenching football championship game, a sniper perched atop the stadium scoreboard, the crowd atmospherics, and the police tactical operation to intercept the sniper. Peerce is abetted by great camerawork and brilliant editing. There are varied subplots involving the games spectators but they are merely filler. It is debatable as to whether this film is exploitative and could be the impetus for some copycat. As for myself, I am not certain. I am certain that "Two-Minute Warning" is thrilling entertainment. |
| Rating | | | Date | September 20, 2004 | | Summary | "the whole place is a kill-zone" | Content
| Filmed in and around the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, this often absurd but always entertaining thriller will be enjoyed by those like me who have an affection for '70s action/disaster movies like "Airport", and the many that followed it.
This like the other films follows the usual formula in the first half by giving us a glimpse into the lives of the participants, which the net of fate reels in for the grand finale, and Charlton Heston and John Cassavetes have a slew of excellent actors to back them in these many parts, like Martin Balsam, Beau Bridges, Gena Rowlands, and even Walter Pidgeon as a pickpocket.
The plot starts with an unidentified sniper killing a cyclist from a hotel window, and then moving to a rooftop location in the stadium, where a championship football game will be played to a sold-out crowd. One of the more realistic parts of the film is how the screaming, cheering crowd is oblivious of what is happening around them (some of it amusing if one has a dark sense of humor), as I'm sure would be the case if this event occurred in real life.
In our age of terrorism as the "war of our time", films like this spark the imagination, and make one wonder how this sort of situation would be dealt with in a crowded stadium; there's no doubt that chaos and mayhem would be the inevitable result.
Another interesting aspect is how times have changed in 30 years as far as security for the president and other officials; in the last few decades, one of the things that has changed the most in the world is the size of its governments, and films like this bring that fact into sharp focus.
Fantastic cinematography by Gerald Hirschfeld in the last part of the film, a score by Charles Fox that adds to the tension, and fast-paced direction by Larry Peerce make this a good film for rainy weekends and '70s disaster fans. It received a 1976 Oscar nomination for Best Editing, and total running time is 115 minutes.
DVD extras include Production Notes/Cast & Filmmaker's Bios/Film Highlights/Theatrical Trailer/ Web Links. |
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