Tweekums Set between seasons six and seven of the TV series this film sees former counter terrorist agent Jack Bauer in a fictional African country where he helps at a local school. He is still wanted by the US authorities but refuses to return home. His peaceful life is turned upside down again when local warlord General Benjamin Juma starts a coup and his underlings kidnap local children to force them to fight in his army. The country's president requests help from America but the timing could hardly be worse; it is only two hours till the new US president is sworn in and the incumbent has ordered the evacuation of the US embassy. One of the boys from the school is killed and another injured as Juma's men try to press-gang them in a nearby village. The injured boy is picked up by Jack's friend Carl Benton who warns Jack that the rebels are on the way to the school. Jack gets the children to safety but is captured and tortured; luckily when Benton gets back they overcome their attackers and head towards the capital hoping to get there before the last helicopter leaves.This TV movie has a solid story that contains plenty of excitement and many elements that fans of the series are sure to enjoy. Of course given that the story is set over a much shorter time period than a whole series it does feel a little rushed at times and many plot threads remain unresolved; presumably as a set up for series seven; this is especially true of what we see happening back in the US. The African setting does make a nice change and even though it is set in a fictional country the idea of rebels forcing children to fight is all too depressingly realistic. The action is well handled and the final evacuation where desperate locals pressed against the gates of the US embassy while US personnel and their dependants board Hueys to fly them to safety was clearly inspired by the evacuation of Saigon during Operation Frequent Wind in 1975. Overall this is a solid '24' story; it isn't essential that one watches the series first but some knowledge would be useful and the number of unresolved issues would make it frustrating to anybody watching this as a stand-alone film.

creiss Spoiler free review / opinion.First off, I am a huge fan of the 24 series. There were good seasons and not-as-brilliant ones *cough*season6*cough*. But at least every season got me caught up in the middle, and I always craved for just one more episode.This movie should prove me otherwise. The first half of the movie I was trying to get to know the "real" storyline. I was waiting for serious threats, terrorists, bombs, data espionage... well, something. Then it hit me, this movie is really just about moving a bunch of kids around. It was so blatantly mindless boring that even the action sequences did not get my mind of tomorrows grocery list.In the series there was always an imminent danger to something. A nuclear bomb, poison gas or some nasty viral stuff that put a large portion of the citizens in jeopardy. Granted, it can also be fun and extremely exiting if only one person is at risk, as it was on the first season. But you could feel with Balmer and you actually were worried for him.This movie is just about a bunch of kids, so it's not the "mass effect". And since the kids did not really bond with me, that is, I never had the feeling of "knowing them" I never really cared. I was hoping the other plots in the movie would cause some excitement, but it failed at that too.My recommendation: If you are interested as hell in Jack Bauer hauling a bunch of kids around AND if you are a hardcore fan, watch this! Everyone else: Watch the athletes foot of your best pal grow! Much more exciting. AND you care about the person, at least.

bob the moo It has been some time since we last saw Jack Bauer. The writer's strike saw him run out of tough things to say and a generally negative response to a weak season 6 has seen him leave America and travel the world. We join him in a non-existent African country where he is spending time with former brother in arms Carl, protecting children at the orphanage he has set up. It is not all helping and healing though as his past pursues him in the form of a subpoena from the US Government to face questioning on charges of prisoner abuse (damn these liberals). However, just as Jack packs up to leave the country and move on again, a coup begins and rebels come to snatch up the children to be soldiers. Meanwhile in the existing country of USA , the first female President is being sworn in while, in the background, figures are covertly supporting the coup for their own reasons.Everyone has been saying how long a wait it has been since day 6 finished, using words like "impatiently" etc but for me (as a viewer since hour 1) I felt that the break was a good thing. Day 6 was such a lacklustre season and played like an exaggerated pastiche of itself that the break does feel like an opportunity to send the makers away to sit in the corner and think about what they have done - and don't come back till you're sorry! With this bridging special I did worry that we would continue the trend of Jack being the hub of everything in the world, perhaps with the coup either being about him or with him preventing the entire thing - after all, the Bauer family are seemingly to blame for all evil deeds in the world. Fortunately the special harks back to the approach of season 1 and 2 which has dark deeds at a higher level and Jack thrown into them for reasons out of his hands, rather than being the creator and driver of all things.This takes the form of a simpler plot where Jack is looking after the fleeing children in their short run to safety. It starts slow though, with a good thirty minutes of establishing material and scene setting before any urgency kicks in. After this we have the usual 24 material of action sequences, heroic/sacrificial deaths, neo-conservative subtexts (although that suggests they are subtle, which they are not), political going-ons and shadowy men doing hits on behalf of powerful men. All these are in place and, with the stripped down plot and Bauer influence, it does feel a lot more like the 24 I like. This is not to say it is perfect of course, because 24 never was - even when really good there was always plenty to make fun of it for. Here we have less that produced laughter but we still get handed a terribly clumsy attack on the UN in the form of a weirdly "European" character who is cowardly - clinging to "talking" like a weak-wristed liberal. Not only was this poor writing but it is a bit rich when you consider the real life conflicts in Africa and the level of US intervention in them, however even ignoring that it was a typically conservative piece of politics from 24 that must be a bit like a wet dream to Fox viewers!Talking of real-life for a moment, I did find the setting and scenario of this special to be a little off-putting. The pace and "24-isms" of the film helped me keep my head in the world of fiction but there is no doubt that the world of child soldiers and African coups is a little too real to be purely entertainment and not have an edge of sorrow to it. The film mostly ignores the latter but it does manage to produce the former despite this, again by focusing on what the series does and just doing it. The cast are reasonable enough, all fitting into the classic clichés of the show. Sutherland is gruff and tough as ever and has a bit of chemistry with Carlyle, who doesn't have a lot to work with here other than hanging out with Sutherland for a bit. Bellows, Jones, Gunton, Feore and Voight all represent new faces in the usual characters. They do offer some hope though if Day 7 can keep the political mystery that this film had.24: Redemption isn't a significant change to the series and those that do not like the series will not like this. However for those who found Day 6 to be a massive disappointment then it does represent a sort of redemption as it appears to be taking a slight step back towards what hooked us originally. This means the usual weaknesses as much as the strengths but it is still a quite entertaining film for 24 fans.

jzappa If Rodney Dangerfield were alive, hardened and seasoned as a government agent, he would be Jack Bauer. Jack don't get no respect. Without spoiling the sixth season for those who have yet to watch it, our world-class hero Jack, always the odd one out, is now in a fictional African country, helping his old friend, played by the wonderful Robert Carlyle, with missionary work, trying to heal his staggering emotional wounds with peace. He has been served a subpoena to appear before the U.S. Senate concerning torture charges, but declines to go. A U.S. State Department official hints that the Embassy will cut funding for the school if Carlyle goes on protecting Jack, so Jack decides to leave. If that's not enough, he winds up stuck in the middle of a bloody military coup.Redemption is entertaining and well-acted, and it certainly primes us for the seventh season. Nonetheless I can see why it has been a very long process preparing the theatrical 24 film. Redemption maintains the real-time structural element, which the theatrical film reportedly will not have, but either way, 24 is a series that has transcended the conceivable scope of the feature motion picture. The character archs, gigantic sequence of unravelings and long-term investment in the characters is inherently designed for hours and hours of television. Redemption, on the other hand, is only an hour and forty minutes, which even still is twenty minutes longer than the version that was broadcast on TV not including commercials.Also, I am unsure of whether or not the creators wanted to have the opportunity to do a lone Jack Bauer piece, but using this TV film as objectivity, one can easily tell that one of the vital elements in the show's scaffolding is its colorful, deeply observed and brilliantly histrionic characters.However, I am looking forward to Cherry Jones being president and hopefully being rid of Powers Boothe's weak and uncompromising president. And I hope Jon Voight doesn't play essentially the same character as he did in Enemy of the State.