The "Two Minute Warning" (** out of ****) qualifies as a thoroughly pedestrian police potboiler about a mad sniper who holes up behind the scoreboard at the Los Angeles Coliseum during a championship football game, crunches on a candy bar and patiently bides his time until the title climax. Arguably, the best part of this contrived clunker is the last 30 minutes. Director Larry Peerce, who went on the helm more television shows than movies, spends the first 90 minutes introducing us to the sniper as a random shooter ensconced in a high-rise hotel that kills a college professor (Tommy J. Huff) on a bicycle. Afterward, Peerce alternates between point-of-view shots from the sniper's perspective and a motley cross-section of the sniper's potential targets as they file into the stands to watch the game. Unfortunately, most of these characters aren't sympathetic. First, Stu Sandman ("Odd Couple" TV star Jack Klugman) plays an obnoxious gambler down on his luck who needs for his team to win or the mob will kill him. Earlier, they dangled him by his heels from the balcony of their hotel room. Second, Beau Bridges is a snotty, out-of-work father with two bratty kids and a long-suffering wife. David Janssen of the TV classic "The Fugitive" is cast as Steve, an arrogant, out-of-town car dealer who cannot stand his clingy girlfriend Janet (Gena Rowlands of "Gloria") who wants to marry him. Former MGM leading man Walter Pigeon plays a pickpocket who has a field day putting his paws into other people's pockets. Of all the potential targets, we learn the least about Pigeon's generically named 'Pickpocket.' Of all the targets, the most interesting is a trio of fans: Lucy (Marilyn Hassettshe starred in Larry Peerce's "My Side of the Mountain" made before the "Two Minute Warning" and "My Side of the Mountain, Pt 2," made after the "Two Minute Warning" and later married Peerce); Jeffrey (Jon Korkes) who appears to be her nominal date after her roommate stood him up, and Al (David Groh of TV's "Rhonda") the curly-haired guy who sits on the other side of them and attracts Lucy's attention.
The chief problem with the "Two Minute Warning" is the lack of characterization. Charlton Heston's police captain is a non-entity, and John Cassavetes is just a nudge or two away from being just as one-dimensional. Cassavetes gets the best dialogue in a concluding commentary about how the media will treat the sniper. This movie would have been a lot better if they had given the heroes and the villain some kind of personality.
Around 53 minutes into the action, the Goodyear blimp spots the sniper, and Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) finally gets off his butt and eyeballs the problem. When a disgruntled stadium employee (Brook Peters of "Ace High") tries to enter the bunker-like station behind the electronic scoreboard, the killer strikes him with the butt of his automatic weapon and sends him falling to his death 60 feet below. Now, Capt. Holly calls in the S.W.A.T. team headed up by Sergeant Button (John Cassavetes of "The Dirty Dozen"). Holly wants to wait until the last minute to take out the sniper, while Button complains that the longer that they wait the worst the situation will become.
Others here in this comment section have already commented on the irony of future NRA President Charlton Heston clamoring for restraint, while liberal-minded actor Cassavetes plays a trigger-happy cop.
Once the shooting starts, the "Two Minute Warning" turns into a mini-disaster epic as the crowd of between 90 and 100-thousand fans panic and scramble for the exits. Of course, our heroes ice the sniper but learn little more than his name. Talk about an interesting trivia question: what was the sniper's name? The "Two Minute Warning" lost money and later he was re-edited by nervous television executives who felt the theatrical version did itself in because of its murderous sniper character. Gee, guess none of those guys ever saw Peter Bogdanovich's "Targets" (1968) or Don Siegel's "Dirty Harry" (1971). Mind you, sniper movies go back at least as far as the 1952 Edward Dmytryk movie "The Sniper." Peerce generates moderate suspense, but you won't be sitting on the edge of your seat. Instead, you'll be juggling your remote control trying to decide whether to fast-forward. Oh, yeah, the sniper's name is Carl Cook, and he is a transient. Our heroes never learn his motives.
Incidentally, soft-core porn director Andy Sidaris plays the TV sports director, and his assistant is none other than future sports movie director Ron Shelton. Another major complaint is with the game itself. It's hard to keep the teams straight, especially because they are fictional teams and their uniforms bear no markings. About the only use for this movie is as a time capsule. Nobody who pull off what the sniper did in the opening scenes, especially with his jacket that was modified to conceal the various components of his rifle. A better version of this movie appeared a year later in 1977 with a terrorist attack on the Super Bowl in director John Frankenheimer's "Black Sunday."
The chief problem with the "Two Minute Warning" is the lack of characterization. Charlton Heston's police captain is a non-entity, and John Cassavetes is just a nudge or two away from being just as one-dimensional. Cassavetes gets the best dialogue in a concluding commentary about how the media will treat the sniper. This movie would have been a lot better if they had given the heroes and the villain some kind of personality.
Around 53 minutes into the action, the Goodyear blimp spots the sniper, and Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) finally gets off his butt and eyeballs the problem. When a disgruntled stadium employee (Brook Peters of "Ace High") tries to enter the bunker-like station behind the electronic scoreboard, the killer strikes him with the butt of his automatic weapon and sends him falling to his death 60 feet below. Now, Capt. Holly calls in the S.W.A.T. team headed up by Sergeant Button (John Cassavetes of "The Dirty Dozen"). Holly wants to wait until the last minute to take out the sniper, while Button complains that the longer that they wait the worst the situation will become.
Others here in this comment section have already commented on the irony of future NRA President Charlton Heston clamoring for restraint, while liberal-minded actor Cassavetes plays a trigger-happy cop.
Once the shooting starts, the "Two Minute Warning" turns into a mini-disaster epic as the crowd of between 90 and 100-thousand fans panic and scramble for the exits. Of course, our heroes ice the sniper but learn little more than his name. Talk about an interesting trivia question: what was the sniper's name? The "Two Minute Warning" lost money and later he was re-edited by nervous television executives who felt the theatrical version did itself in because of its murderous sniper character. Gee, guess none of those guys ever saw Peter Bogdanovich's "Targets" (1968) or Don Siegel's "Dirty Harry" (1971). Mind you, sniper movies go back at least as far as the 1952 Edward Dmytryk movie "The Sniper." Peerce generates moderate suspense, but you won't be sitting on the edge of your seat. Instead, you'll be juggling your remote control trying to decide whether to fast-forward. Oh, yeah, the sniper's name is Carl Cook, and he is a transient. Our heroes never learn his motives.
Incidentally, soft-core porn director Andy Sidaris plays the TV sports director, and his assistant is none other than future sports movie director Ron Shelton. Another major complaint is with the game itself. It's hard to keep the teams straight, especially because they are fictional teams and their uniforms bear no markings. About the only use for this movie is as a time capsule. Nobody who pull off what the sniper did in the opening scenes, especially with his jacket that was modified to conceal the various components of his rifle. A better version of this movie appeared a year later in 1977 with a terrorist attack on the Super Bowl in director John Frankenheimer's "Black Sunday."