MovieChat Forums > 5ive Days to Midnight (2004) Discussion > Potentially good movie completely ruined...

Potentially good movie completely ruined.

posted 20 years ago by dylanmay
10 replies | jump to latest

I turned the first episode of this mini-series off probably about half way through. I couldn't bare to watch it anymore. It wasn't the story, however unrealistic it is (but hey, most real movies are unrealistic). It wasn't the poor cinematography, I could tolerate that. It was the annoying 5 motif. It was funny at first, I was saying to myself "Ooh, 5 Days to Midnight, 5, 5, 5! I get it."

After repeating this 6 times, I stopped watching. I'm talking of course about commercials. I don't watch much TV at all. I find it for the most part to be poorly written, and then the "reality" television plague is extremely annoying. Add this with commercials and you have what's become one of the most painful sources of entertainment. I'd almost say it's worse than internet pop-up ads. At least they don't last for 5 minutes, I can click them away almost as fast as they appear. The hilarious comedy team over at the Sci-Fi channel must of thought it'd be a riot if they went with 5 minutes of movie, 5 minutes of commercial, 5 minutes of movie, 5 minutes of commercial, 5 minutes of...well, you get the point by now I'm sure.

This wouldn't be such a problem if the mini series had been hyped up more to me, and the mini series was actually decent, which it seems to be alright. I can say for sure that it's definately not good enough to interupt with so many commercials, as it's certainly not the T.V. event of the year.

Needless to say I won't be watching the last half of the first hour, nor will I watch the remaining 4 episodes.

[–] SupJessica 20 years ago

i always change the channel during commercials.. sci-fi sucks for overpromoting their shows.. i remember when Taken was on, every-other commercial was for Taken.. It's so annoying.. but i liked the first episode of 5DTM.. i didnt think i would but i did.

----
Kill Bill: Volume 1 is awesome!
Volume 2 is even better!
mrp-, previously known as defsoft

[–] dylanmay 20 years ago

I found it funny when they'd promote what was fixing to happen when they got back from commercial break. Like they needed to show that something was going to happen, otherwise people might stop watching.

[–] eljay-8 20 years ago

For some reason it's a miniseries rule that you show spoilers for the next segment of the show before the commercial break. It makes no sense to me either.

The only thing that annoyed me more than the ads was the weird jagged shutter effect that was severely overused. Beyond that, I thought it was a good two hours of entertainment and I look forward to the future episodes.

[–] HellBoy13 20 years ago

You don't know what you're missing. It starts out slow in the beginning, but when the clues start making sense, things just start speeding up. This is actually Minority Report meets Paycheck meets 24. I know a lot of people didn't like Paycheck, but the idea the main plot was based on was actually quite inventive. I saw the first part of 5 Days a couple of times...

Actually, each part is 2 hours long, so the mini-series is 8 hours long. So by only watching a half hour, you're judging a movie based on watching only 6.25% of it, without seeing the other 93.75% of the work...

"What do we do now?"
"Enjoy it..."

[–] Eric-1226 20 years ago

I believe the series is actually 5 hours long, not 8 hours. The first broadcast (on Monday night) was a two-hour episode, which is followed by one-hour episodes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights, making for a total of 5 hours.

[–] Reptileworld 20 years ago

The commercials do annoy me on scifi, but it really isnt a good way to judge a show/movie. Its pretty stupid to not watch something just because of commercials. Do you think the actuall work put into the movie/show is less because of the commercials? Do you think the actors/actresses/producers/directors are responsible for the constant interuptions? I dont think so. So far what I have seen of the miniseries has been great, and I will continue to watch the next few episodes.

And as for the commercials, my solution is to record everything I watch on my DVR first and then watch them later on so that I can fast forward through all commercials or use the commercial skip feature. Its really the only way I watch TV today. I set it to record everything I want every day and by the time I get to sit and watch things I can just go right through all the commercials.

If you dont have a DVR then I guess youc ant do that, but you could still use a good ole VCR if its a show you really want to see but dont want all the commercials.

[–] Eric-1226 20 years ago

Good point.... and for people with older VCR's it's also helpful to know (in advance) that the commercials last for 5 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of the program, then back to 5 minutes of commercials, etc. Makes it easier to time your taping.

[–] dylanmay 20 years ago

Don't get me wrong, it's not just the commercials fault. The actual mini-series itself didn't really grab my attention that quick. I am a sci-fi fan, I really enjoy watching them, and usually I can enjoy even the worst of the poorly done movies. Usually though, those movies are the extreme fantasy ones, with fighter space crafts and crazy plots about a mining colony being taken over on some obscure and desolate planet/moon. It's when the plot of a sci-fi movie is based in modern time that I start getting skeptical of it. Especially since it's a plot that's not only been done before, but has been done before and better, ala Minority Report.

So perhaps I was a bit quick to judge the mini-series like this, but I disagree, from what I saw, coupled with way too many commercials, it ruined it for me and I have no desire to sit through even half of it again.

[–] fictionalman 20 years ago

Did you see the product placement for Eclipse gum in ep 3 during the airport scene? Not to mention the same commercials for Eclipse gum show during the breaks?

[–] jwars 20 years ago

coke and mcdonalds were also featured prominently
as well as a nice slow pan, by the large poster advertising the Chronicles of Riddick movie, on a bulletin board at the college