'7 Seconds' (2005) - Simon Fellows.

This manner of light-hearted, banter-rich, delightfully breezy action movie is arguably one of the more deceptively hard genres to balance just right, usually it's neither one thing nor the other; leaden, sub-Seagal DTV dross, bungled, over-edited fight scenes, and dull retrograde characters spouting egregiously poor dialogue, so it came as a welcome, not so say overdue surprise to discover a genuinely comedic actioner that frequently hits the nose right on the button, and if you want buttons or noses struck, handsome, super-charismatic Martial Arts master, Wesley Snipes is just the quick-limbed fellow to do it!

The fun, zippy premise is relatively straight forward and sharply executed. Ex-Black op heavy, Jack Tulliver (Snipes) heads a crack team of black-masked crims to pull off an audacious armoured van heist against the beauteous backdrop of Bucharest, Romania; with one of several flies in the ointment being the unexpected addition of two heavily armed couriers delivering a priceless artefact! With his meticulous plan in disarray, the precarious situation becomes ever more volatile, as not only does the increasingly beleaguered, Tulliver have some rather unsavoury, gun-happy goons after him, he is being closely tailed by the pretty, but relentlessly dogged military copper Sgt. Anders (Tamzin Outhwaite), factor in some the additionally fractious, internecine machinations of perma-scowling Russian goombahs, bravura car chases, plentiful amounts of boy's own Gun Fu, a deliciously eccentric villain, Alexie Kutchinov (Pete Lee-Wilson) and the entertainingly locomotive '7 Seconds' is a rush for the entire 1hr 32 minutes!

The capable director equips himself remarkably well here, moving things along alacritously, but also allowing the actors to shine, Snipes and Outhwaite making an especially engaging pair of imperilled protagonists. Shooting the action in picturesque Bucharest adds considerable visual interest, especially since it isn't erroneously doubling for an American or Russian city which is almost always usually the case! Rock solid performances, decent 'geezor' banter, explosive action, exotic locations and two delightfully appealing leads, what more can a hardened action freak ask for? Top notch bullet-blasting thrill-spillage, and eminently rewatchable, '7 Seconds' is demonstratively one of the slicker, higher quality Fight Factory DTV gems I have seen.