Let's not pull any punches: This was film-maker Leo Fong's first feature as a director, and it absolutely shows. '24 hours to midnight' has no intent of being anything but low-grade entertainment. But if it's enjoyable, it's mostly only as cheeky contrast with other films Cynthia Rothrock would go on to make, which even at their most silly, blunt, and over the top tend to be pretty darn fun. This is so direly lacking in authenticity of any shape or form, or even the most modest of storytelling intelligence, as to break suspension of disbelief within the first 15 minutes. Though Rothrock is given top billing and is supposedly the star, she's barely in the movie at all; the moment protagonist Devon first dons her ninja garb, at the 15-minute mark, one look at her eyes inform that Rothrock has already left the picture. Pacing of the narrative and even individual scenes, the timing of basic movements and character reactions, and most fight choreography are all so lethargic as to be all but sleep-inducing. Connective threads between scenes and story beats are as thin as split hairs, making the viewing experience feel disjointed and sloppy.
Acting, dubbing, characters, dialogue, costume design, props, weapons, set design and decoration, filming locations, direction, editing, and music all distinctly lack the faintest touch of passion, heart, or imagination. This is a poor effort at making an action/crime-thriller - if indeed much effort was made in the first place. A complete story is told, but it's so perplexingly threadbare that if we were discussing a throw rug, we'd be looking at more empty space then craft. That story is cohesive so long as we accept at face value what we are presented with, some of which makes no sense whatsoever, and is given no explanation - such as, chiefly, how Devon has such equipment as she does. A lot of footage that we glimpsed earlier in the runtime is recycled, repeatedly, to pad out the length. The ticking of the digital timer is agonizingly slow; the first half hour feels like at least twice that. The plot progresses with such a matter-of-fact sensibility that it is robbed of any possible excitement or thrills, and action sequences feel altogether disingenuous. Someone seemingly cared enough about the concept to see the movie come to fruition, but not enough to ensure that anyone else would want to watch it.
I can honestly, sadly say that I've seen worse features than this, but not very many. I'm truly stunned at how weak and insubstantial this picture is; there is absolutely nothing about it that manifests even a fleeting spark of joy. There is nothing about it that isn't deeply flawed. I do my best to find the worth in everything that I watch, but I just can't find any here. Even if you're a diehard fan of someone who made the mistake of being involved, or irrepressibly curious, I simply cannot recommend this. '24 hours to midnight' is a bizarre peculiarity of cinema for which "tepid" and "spiritless" seem like compliments next to what it represents, and it's something that no one needs to watch.
