I dare you to hate this movie. Directors Brian Cunningham and Matt Niehoff create such an entertaining and raucous amalgam of movie genres, that “Overtime” ends up being a very easy and memorable ninety minutes. Often times when directors attempt comedy, they fail big time, but “Overtime” manages to be one of those movies where everything goes wrong, and I laughed through most of the mishaps. Raph and Max are two gangsters that are trying to live their lives by some form of morality, and are trying to see what it’s like to go about their everyday lives without beating or killing someone.
However when their boss sends them on a routine hit, Raph and Max find themselves in a conundrum. Raph is a man who is humongous and good with a gun, but he’s deftly afraid of his domineering wife. His son’s birthday is only hours away, and now Raph has been trusted with gathering party supplies, a gift, and must carry out the hit before the party begins. Al Snow and John Wells are hilarious as the pair of hit men trying to get their cake and eat it, too. The pair have wonderful chemistry together, while providing their own unique and entertaining performances. Al Snow in particular is fantastic as the lovable and gruff Raph who has to pull out every stop to please his wife, while also trying to please his boss. Both go hand in hand. But just when they think things couldn’t get even worse, Max and Raph pursue their latest hit only to discover they’re being pursued themselves by rabid alien zombies.
Now trapped in a laboratory with a group of survivors, it’s up to the two hit men to save the world from an apocalypse and make it home in time for the party. Snow really embodies this character and seems to have a good time fighting zombies and alien queens. Wells on the other hand garners great comic timing and is able to play well off of Snow, while also hitting the right one-liners with precision. Directors and writers Brian Cunningham and Matt Niehoff manage to balance many tones in the film wonderfully, and thankfully “Overtime” never feels messy or uneven. The pair of writers manage to balance out the mixture of genres well, and “Overtime” works absolute wonders as pure entertainment. While the characters are plentiful, they’re all very well drawn out, given their own moments to spur laughter from the audience.
John Wells and Al Snow work well off of the survivors, trying to get out of this horrific situation while focusing on their main agenda of getting home for the party. There are moments of pure hilarity to be had in the midst of the zombie chaos, with Raph having difficulty keeping the zombie horde back in spite of his ability to easily dispense of them. There’s also a great running gag where Wells character Max has trouble comprehending why anyone would hate cake. “Overtime” is an unusual genre mix, but one that will satisfy nearly any movie fan in the mood for a splatter film, an action comedy, or a good gangster flick. I was very surprised at how great “Overtime” was. For a film obviously shot on a low budget, it shines through as a genre mixture that will prove to be a fun ninety minutes for movie fans in the mood for laughs, chills, or a raucous shoot em up.