There is one ring that will control the rest. This isn’t J.R.R. Tolkien’s world, but a sci-fi B-movie featuring Josh Hutcherson and Morgan Freeman. Their latest endeavor is called 57 Seconds, and it features an odd couple living in a futuristic society ruled by drug company CEOs while time-traveling jewelry can destroy or save the earth as we know it. Ring a bell? The movie has familiar themes: about a flimsy plot of revealing the darkest secrets behind the most influential men on Earth.
The Hunger Games franchise, The Kids Are All Right, and The Disaster Artist are some films where many would recognize Josh Hutcherson. For all these good movies, 57 Seconds seems like a small step backward for him as an actor. Here he plays Franklin who serves as an investigative journalist and blogger narrating this story with his usual expositional style that goes with some technology-featuring opening credits. He introduces Anton Burrell (Freeman), a healthcare tech giant, and Sig Thorenson (Greg Germann), a pharmaceutical chief whose addictive painkillers keep him at bay.
Franklin typically bashes Sig through his online articles especially when his twin sister died from an overdose on one of Sig’s products though Franklin writes using a pseudonym to protect his identity. Furthermore, he simply desires to have an opportunity to meet Anton so he takes up work at one of Anton’s bases earning less money just to get into these presentations secretly . On this journey he meets Jala (a standout Lovie Simone) another employee who shows him how things work on the first day at the office. And eventually Franklin finds a hidden way into Anton’s much-awaited presentation which seems like something Steve Jobs would do – introduce new tech that could help save the world.
Franklin was lucky to attend since he saves Anton from getting killed when an angry man burst into the room with gun loaded. After stopping him, he discovers a strange-looking ring that allows him to go back in time exactly 57 seconds ago. The next scenes are pretty fun to watch as Franklin plays around with this device some more, helping him get his first date with Jala just right by doing the bedroom scene over and over again.
He then goes to collect his car from where it was towed and makes a killing at a local casino using his new unusual trinket. Meanwhile, Sig and Calvert (Sammi Rotibi), Sig’s right-hand man have their eyes on Franklin believing that Anton is behind Franklin’s casino luck after being saved by Franklin himself. Sig offers him a job writing fluff pieces for his brand which he accepts but only so he can get inside and expose Sig’s true darkness eventually: Sig knows that his painkiller drugs are addictive but sells them anyway.
Also, Anton still keeps in touch with Franklin, which seems to be just another way of ensuring that Academy Award-winner Morgan Freeman remains on screen as much as possible – even if these scenes don’t necessarily move the main plot forward. Sig talks of being involved in an attempt to create a new type of quantum technology that could eliminate every accident involving cars and make a safer world. But then, Franklin is back at Sig’s headquarters, displaying his skills to him and his team but without actually telling him what the secret is.
There’s an occasionally fun soundtrack and a couple little twists and turns along the way about how exactly Franklin’s time-traveling piece of jewelry works. Besides, sci-fi concept might easily become a franchise given they ever develop one more sequel behind the camera. Unfortunately, this film fails to impress due to some weak low-budget special effects in today’s modern 21st century era. They should have asked Miller Lite for more money whose beer can be seen in several scenes throughout the movie.
Some parts of the plot do not make sense. He is supposed to be bright–why wouldn’t he think that security personnel at any casino would catch on when they saw him winning large sums of money at roulette? Also sometimes Sig and his own security staff watch Franklin like hawks – didn’t they see that weird ring on his index finger (the one most people are careful about)? Don’t they see anything suspicious when Franklin keeps reading their minds?
Oh well; whatever! As it pertains to genres, however, 57 Seconds is all over the map as far as films go; indeed it moves pretty fast with rather peppy tone from beginning till end.
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