I saw the real news footage at the time this all happened and i can tell you that this movie in my opinion is a waste of time. A complete senseless drama with over dramatized acting. One word about this movie that keeps coming to mind is STUPID. To sum up this version of the story as it is portrayed in this movie: think of Days of our lives on steroids, and that's it. That's what this is. What i still can not believe is that 100 LA cops and not a single one can or even thought of shooting at the head or legs till the very end. Even then our swat team hero who was late ("I'm 10 min out"-"There in 2 min"-"I'm on the scene") and went on about being a hero and how he came to be a hero and what it's like to be a hero didn't really do much to the last single bank robber who was down to his handgun because his AK-47 got jammed. Another word just come to mind: PATHETIC. I hate this movie.

Fabulously edited together from dramatised story "highlights" and direct-to-camera "debfriefings" played by actors, 44Mins(2003) is a very effective retelling of this infamous robbery.The chief protagonist is Frank McGregor(Michael Madsen), the filmic representation of the actual LAPD Robbery and Homicide Division(RHD) detective who led the real 1995 task force for the so-called High Incident Bandits. The real bandits first became known to police during their anomalous career of deadly high-powered bank-and-armored-car robberies during 1993; by 2nd May 1996 they netted $2mill in one bankjob alone, and disappeared to waste their fortune.Michael Mann's Heat(1995) was based on this same crime gang, as is the opening prologue of the new Batman--Dark Knight(2008). At the time, the LAPD thought the gang had 6 members; by 1997 there were only 2 left. Obviously these two wound down to few friends or safe-houses, or goals other than fantasizing about Corvettes, Mustangs and "Mexican b!tches". The other driver of this true story is a young SWAT Team leader, "Donnie" Anderson (Ron Livingston, "Sex and the City" favorite and older brother of actor John Livingston). Curiously, the characters are are only referred to by their first names in this docudrama, so the "Donnie" character is composited as one of the three SWAT officers who finally brought down the second gunman.The beauty of 44Mins's storytelling is its emphasis on how people, even the LAPD, rise to the occasion during extraordinary events. It really is an ennobling tale.This one day, the 28th February 1997, has gone down in the annals of Hollywood history for its real-life police heroism, in ways that no Batman movie can equal. Despite frequent high profile accusations of racism (eg the Rodney King bashing in part due to police overreactions to LA violence during the early 1990s), some actual LAPD bravery trumped the criminal assault on them that day.Incredibly, the real HIB criminals were jailed years before over AK47 possession, but were (almost certainly corruptly) allowed to keep their rifles and sell them to pay for their legal costs! Another gun-related incident that outraged the real LAPD was the easy availability at the time of assault rifles through gun shops--let alone bullets at K-Mart.There are NO DEER in Los Angeles. Even Al-Qaeda only use jet fuel and possibly dirty nukes; so if we can't trust the LAPD with 9mm Barettas, why should we have to "wrest" AK47s from Chuck Heston's "cold, dead hands"?Indeed, watching the real events recreated, the scene of ignorant Laurel Canyon drivers actually driving up to and around the getaway car still looks heartstopping. "It was a SERIES of miracles that no civilians or police were actually killed", observed one of the policemen on the day.Eagle-eyed viewers will catch in Donnie's on screen family photos the actual much older Don Anderson being awarded the Medal of Valour in 1997, who has since died at age 62 in his squad-car, still training young LAPD officers. Much of the credit for 44Minutes' achievement has to go to the Casting Directors (Kim Williams of Reuben Cannon &Associates) and the Director/Co-Producer of this high quality made-for-TV docudrama, Canadian Yves Simoneau("The 4400" (pilot), Void Moon(2009)). These people have put together not only an enormously credible team of actors who each have the requisite gravitas, but this police procedural's tone of cinema vérité is always sensitive, and frank. Simoneau pulls few punches with some minimal human gore: his caked-on blood realism, for instance, is incredibly effective, as the police finally peel off one gunman's blood-soaked mask sticking to his lips and eyes. The bloodied eye and mashed face look far more satisfying--and authentic--than Two-Face's CGI hatchet-job in the new Batman(2008).Very subtly, Simoneau also reveals the shallowness of the LA civilians who quickly flooded the LAPD with gifts, cakes and "I (heart) LAPD" signs the day after the shootout, when just days before they'd been completely hostile. Granted, Simoneau might deny any intention to achieve this, but the juxtaposition is obvious to anyone who knows how fickle LA is.Simoneau's cast is faultless; I can well accept Office Space(1999) "slacker" Ron Livingston as a SWAT team leader, Michael Madsen(Kill Bills 1&2, L.A.P.D.: To Protect and to Serve(2001)) as the seasoned lead detective, and even Col.Dale Dye(Ret.) as the SWAT Chief. But the film also boasts a most impressive Latino actor, Jullian Dulce Vida, as the Assistant Manager of the Bank of America branch. Dulce Vida capably repeats the real man's personal heroism in the face of terrifying assault, as he saves the lives of all the civilians within the bank, including that of his somewhat haughty Anglo boss. The boss is forgettable; Dulce Vida is a standout. His pitch-perfect characterisation has him frequently looking askance at his largely useless boss, a sign of the actor's wonderful commitment. Just excellent casting by the director.This un-hyped but shocking story plays like the 9/11 collapse footage shot in situ by the French Naudet brothers. Simoneau's dramatisation depicts similar professionals on the job so that there is only hindsight "distance" for the viewer between watching 44Minutes, and having survived it.Brilliant.10/10.

The funniest scene of this movie is probably when our saviours get their medals and plaques and whatnot. So the basic idea is, the police outnumbers these gangsters by like a million to one, but they're powerless because the villains' guns are just a bit bigger. I guess police ammo just kinda bounces of. They decided to shoot this movie in documentary style with fake interviews and all and seriously, what is wrong with these guys? They're talking like they were armed with rolled-up newspapers. Okay I admit, it's probably still dangerous to be in the line of the fire, even when the situation is so much to your advantage, but don't go nuts. And why the hell did it take 44 minutes to solve everything anyway? I'd say that's a very long time when you have them surrounded and you're allowed to shoot. They're like ten ft. away, they hit absolutely nothing. Then they go and buy bigger guns themselves to increase their heroism. And then yeah, there you have it, one of the cops actually hits someone. Bullet was probably diverted by a lamp post or something. I had a good laugh I guess.

On 28 February 1997, two men heavily armed with AK-47 try to heist the Bank of America of North Hollywood, but their plan fails and they are kept under siege by the LAPD. Along forty-four minutes, Los Angeles witnesses live on television one of the greatest shoot-out of the American history.Based on a true event, this movie impresses regarding the scenes of intense shoot-out, with the cast having also great performances. However, the statements of the characters, showing the LAPD as a brotherhood or family, do not seem to correspond to the reality showed in other police stories in American movies. Anyway, this film is a surprisingly good and worthwhile entertainment. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "44 Minutes - O Tiroteio de North Hollywood" ("44 Minutes - The North Hollywood Shoot-Out")