There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Blistering performances.

Professor J.T. Neumeyer (Timothy Hutton) and his daughter have never fully recovered from the loss of their wife/mother, but try to live a simple life of solitude in suburban Seattle. After 10 years, J.T. is finally seeing a women, who he really likes, and things seem to be going good for the family, until a mysterious briefcase shows up. J.T. opens the case only to find an old police report, dated five days in the future. The file is an unsolved murder case in which the victim is Professor J.T. Neumeyer.5ive Days To Midnight was a very unique and entertaining story, but for some reason, it was given to the SyFy channel and turned into a four part mini-series, rather than a movie. It's problematic, because to fill the extra time, they have to come up with a lot of side stories that never fully resolve themselves. Sometimes with Science Fiction, things are never resolved, because they simply can't be explained and I'm okay with that, but simple things that can be resolved should be, otherwise the story leaves more questions than it answers. That is the case with 5ive Days To Midnight, it's really well written and has an outstanding cast, but being that it's four hours long, there wasn't any reason to leave parts of the story unfinished. The conclusion was therefore the best and worst part of the whole thing. The ending was fast paced and exciting, real edge of your seat type stuff, but as soon as it was over, there was a small two minute conversation, and then that was it. With all the time the writers spent on the back story and the introduction to the characters, to just leave us with a story that basically just abruptly ends, was defiantly disappointing to me.What doesn't disappoint is the other three hours and forty-five minutes of this mini-series. I find that with mini-series, a lot of times the description and preview are actually better than anything else, but that's not the case here. This is a well written mystery, with some great action sequences, mixed with Science Fiction, and there is even a mob element to the whole thing. Timothy Hutton stars as the professor and gives the performance of a life time. How does one investigate their own murder and protect their ten year old daughter at the same time? His character was in a unique situation that really came off well. The whole package is outstanding, which is why the disappointing ending really bothers me more than it probably should.

Yes, we watched enthralled; at least the last episodes. We felt it was too much special effects, all too moody music, and way too much time wasting melodrama. Knowing we had a four hour stretch to weary our way through, we took our time until we knew we were near the denouement, at which point we watched more closely and could then feel the excitement building.But remember: it's television. Television is made in an entirely different way, no matter the artistic ambitions. This would never work in a watered down two hour format at the theatre - it just plays as television. If you're all right with television, fine; if television leaves you flat and wanting to see real cinema instead, this 'movie' will leave you flat too.The device of this movie demands a 'conceit' - and a consequent suspension of disbelief - that you either buy into or else you won't like the whole thing much.After a night of sleep we woke mostly feeling we'd wasted our time. It's not so much the movie makers' fault - remember: it's television.

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS! Five Days to Midnight is really, really good. It really is. But it is seriously flawed. The basic story is widowed college professor finds briefcase from the future containing police file of his murder five days hence. Overall it is well done. Superb direction, photography, acting (with the exception of the way over the top performance of Angus Macfayden as a mobster). The problems I had are several. 1) It doesn't address the grandfather paradox of time travel, especially after the professor changes the future the contents of the briefcase change (cute in Back to the Future, dumb here), 2) The required happy ending quite frankly falls down. 3) The miniseries is ridiculously over-padded and could have been told in half the time. Still overall I liked it and it is nice to see the Sci-Fi Channel actually using imagination and originality, not their strong point.

I was hooked and just awaiting part 4. Timothy Hutton did a great job and Gage Golightly was just outstanding. (And she does resemble Drew Barrymore) She has talent! Very inspiring to see her with such great strength and intelligence. This character could be a role model for the adults! Hopefully will see her in other projects down the road if she so desires! Let's face it; this generated the buzz on the bulletin boards. I am just glad there are stories with plot lines that you can still see on TV. I'm not a fan on reality programming so good or bad, it is great to watch something that is rare on TV today. (Sad isn't it!) So my thanks to Sci Fi for bring new shows to the public. And on a final note; the music used on this series was great.