Rating: 
Summary: It's been done better
Review: Out of Time is a strictly routine mystery movie, competently made but nothing more than that. It is what I think of as "sunny noir" - a standard film noir story taken out of the gritty city streets and moved to a sunny beach community. In this case, it involves Denzel Washington as a small town police chief whose estranged from his homicide detective wife and sleeping with his old girlfriend, who is in turn still married to her abusive husband. When Washington finds out his girlfriend has cancer, and that the only treatment is an expensive experimental treatment in Switzerland, he steals some evidence money to help her. Then, she and her husband are apparently killed in a fire, but that quickly turns out to be a con. Suddenly, Washington is stuck in a perilous place; on the one hand, he must evade his wife, who is investigating the crime and on the other, he must retrieve the money (which the DEA wants). As stated before, this is an utterly routine movie, with little to distinguish it from a dozen or more movies that seem to cover the same ground. Washington's performance is good but nothing special; the action scenes are only moderately exciting, and in general, the writing is bland, with no real plot twists (even the "twist" of the fake deaths can be seen a mile away). The scenery is nice, but any pluses from that are more than offset by the negatives of one character, a medical examiner who seems to be there for comic relief and just winds up disrupting the tone of the film. With nothing really good to distinguish this movie, I can only rate it a high two stars and cannot recommend it for any but the most die-hard Denzel Washington fans.
Rating: 
Summary: terrible
Review: This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It is painful to watch because the plot is so ridiculous. Do not put yourself through watching this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: pretty good
Review: We start out with a small town cop(the Chief no less) cheating and drinkin hard as his divorce is pending.The beautiful babe he is cheating with is getting beat up by her old man, Dean Cain of Superman fame. He hates the husband but loves her body. His Ex is just as bodacious and Ill never understand why he left her. Any way nothing is really as it seems as the twists and turns begin. Soon he is framed for stealin 450,000 jack he was holding from a mob bust and the murders of his main squeeze and her hubby. Now he must become a player to fool his ex(a miami cop also) the C.I.A. and his own police force. How he does it is tricky and kinda unbelivable, but our hero is down wit it. The ending can be seen coming form a mile off but, after a film full of the two babes its cool. This film is rated 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining movie, as long as
Review: you're willing to suspend common sense and basic belief. But then, isn't that what movies are about? Denzel, Mendes and Billingsley turn in very good performances, though Mendes would have been an asset to the film even if she didn't say a word. An amazingly sexy woman.
Rating:
Summary: Good thriller if you can get by the nonsense
Review: I found it odd that Denzel Washington, an actor rarely linked with romance in films, has romantic relationships with two 20-somethings in "Out of Time" and is supposed to play someone in his mid-30s. This was only the first plot twist that fractured my concept of suspended reality in this flick.
To put it more directly, I could not believe much of what was occurring on screen in this film. I enjoyed the movie and agree it is a good thriller, but I cannot lend much credibility to the overall film. I'd like to say this movie is a great work of art, but it isn't. It has many very entertaining moments but its weaknesses outnumber its strengths, in my opinion. The end product is it is not a very memorable film, although it could have been with more appropriate casting and direction.
There were too many coincidences, too many plot twists that could never occur in real life, and too many miscast characters, the first being Washington's wife that was a police investigator but looked and dressed like she was a model throughout the film. Her lipstick and eyebrows were so beautiful and so artistically done that...well, I couldn't believe she was a cop. She exhibited about as much police acumen and investigative imagination as a supermodel, too. This was a ridiculous piece of casting done obviously to show off a beautiful person.
The Amazon review said this movie was, "Partly inspired by 1948's 'The Big Clock' and its nominal 1987 remake 'No Way Out', the Denzel Washington thriller Out of Time is quite enjoyable if you ignore its implausible plotting." That is very generous praise, indeed. I see a relationship between Kevin Costner's remake of "No Way Out" and this film but none between the classic "The Big Clock" with Ray Milland.
If you order those films in terms of their place in Hollywood legend, "The Big Clock" is up among the top 200, "No Way Out" is among the bottom half of the film's of its decade and this movie is even lower than that. So enjoy the action and try not to intellectualize this movie, for their is little to think about that makes sense.
Rating: 
Summary: Fast Paced Fun
Review: Though you can see it coming, the trouble the police chief gets himself into and his just ahead of being found out efforts to get out of the jam he's in provides some great entertainment and fast paced fun!
Rating:
Summary: Takes Too Long to Get Going, But Fun Movie Nonetheless
Review: 'Out of Time' tells the story of a police chief in a small town in Florida. Chief Matt Whitlock, played by Denzel Washington, is in the middle of a divorce and also in the middle of an affair with a married woman stricken with cancer. Whitlock has a pristine reputation, but when his girlfriend's seemingly only chance to beat cancer slips away for financial reasons, he makes a morally questionable and illegal decision to help her. Shortly thereafter, his girlfriend and her husband turn up dead in a house fire, and all signs point to Whitlock as the culprit.
The real strength of the movie comes from the characters and Whitlock's attempt to stay one step ahead of the investigation. Washington, as usual, is excellent. His performance makes the viewer want to like him and pity him for the mess he has gotten himself into. John Billingsly, as Whitlock's sidekick medical investigator, is also excellent. His character is a little more willing to bend the rules, and 100% loyal to Whitlock. Eva Mendes, as Whitlock's estranged wife that is investigating the murders, Sanaa Lathan, as Whitlock's girlfriend, and Dean Cain, and Whitlock's girlfriend's husband, also turn in decent performances.
This is a suspense movie. As Whitlock raced to stay one step ahead of the investigation, I found myself on the edge of seat to see if he could pull it off. Washington really sold the suspense with a wonderful portrayal of a man that was cool and collected, but on the verge of a nervous wreck at the same time. Whitlock's tricks were clever and made sense (you'd probably find yourself doing many of them in a similar situation).
There are a few problems with the movie. One, the setup for the movie takes entirely too long. It takes about thirty to forty minutes to really get into the plot. A few people I watched the movie with had given up on it by then. Second, the movie does seem a little implausible on the whole. The scheme that surrounds the problems Whitlock finds himself in seem overly complicated and elaborate for the scope of the crime. Not to mention, everything pulls together a little too neatly and is wrapped up a little too tightly.
Overall, it is worth a viewing. I'd give it 3 1/2 stars, but since that is not an option, it seems more deserving of 4 than 3. I'd recommend the movie to Denzel Washington fans and those that enjoy a good suspense story. Just be prepared to wait out the opening and to suspend your disbelief.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining "B" neo-noir film
Review: Denzel Washington makes any movie good, even a standard whodunit.
I watched this movie while suffering from a cold and it totally took my mind off my aching head.
John Billingsly was a scene-stealer as the M.E. I hope to see him in more films...maybe Denzel will team up again with him; they had great chemistry.
This is a great rainy Saturday afternoon movie!
Rating:
Summary: It won't win any awards, but...........
Review: "Out Of Time" is a good thriller. Simply put, it's a 'who-dunit' movie with good acting, good story, decent script, great locations, and pretty good directing.
Like in my title of this review, this movie isn't going to win any awards or anything. But, it is definately worth the price of admission. Denzel Washington plays a cop that is sleeping with this high school sweetheart behind her husband's back. To complicate matters, his soon-to-be ex-wife is back in town. She works for the FBI. After he is framed for the murder of his mistress and her husband, she is put on the case. At this time, nobody even thinks to imagine the police chief would be involved in such a crime. And not only is he being framed for the murders, but the drug-bust money that he gave his mistress the night she died (she needed it for cancer treatments) has come up missing and the DEA wants their money. The problem is he can't explain what happened to it.
I know that sounds complicated and convuluted, but it's not a bad plot. It has many twists and turns that keep you guessing....most of the time. Basically, Denzel runs around the whole movie trying to stay one step ahead of the FBI and the invistagtors all the while trying to find proof of his innocence. He has to try to solve the crime himself, while at the same time trying to keep the FBI off his tail.
It does keep you on the edge of your seat at times. And it is interesting to see how he can play both sides of the fence while actually keeping his sanity. The pacing of the movie is a bit slow at times, espcially at the beginning. The whole movie has a bit of a sexy feel to it and it definately has the steamy Florida thing down. The problem I had with the story was that it was too obvious to me what the ending was going to be. I saw it coming a mile away, which usually kills movies like this. But the acting was so good, it made up for the shortcomings of the script.
Denzel is the man. I have always said that. He picks some stinker movies sometimes, but he is always good in them. "Out Of Time" is no exception. He just plays the role perfectly. He is constantly going against the clock in this flick and portrays a constant sense of urgency. He is just a guy who made the wrong decision and tried to help someone and is now getting screwed because of it. You never really think, "Well, this guy is technically cheating on his wife while sleeping with someone else's wife.....". He is that good.
Eva Mendes really proved to me that she can act with this role. I haven't seen her in many movies before this, but I was impressed by her. She plays well opposite Denzel and owns the screen when she is on it. Sanaa Lathan is pretty good here, as well. The two ladies steam up the screen and take some of the heat off the lead. John Billingsly plays a perfect side-kick to Denzel's character. He is the comic-relief, and has very clever diologue and gives the movie a light-harted tone it needs. He was my favorite character in the movie.
The one actor that surprised me the most was Dean Cain. He plays a 'badguy' role here and does it quite well. Like the women of the picture, when he is on screen, you just watch. It's such a different role than he has previously played, that it may shock some people. I would definately like to see him in future movies and I still think he would make the perfect Superman in the newer, upcoming movies.
I liked this movie, but it just felt like it was missing something. The pacing was a bit slow and the ending was predictable, but I enjoyed the flick. If you can get this DVD for under $15, I would snatch it up and enjoy a good thriller. You won't be disappointed.
Special Features: There is a boring, but informative audio commentary from the director, Carl Franklin. Most of the time he just talks about the locations of what is on screen and some technical stuff. It's not the most entertaining I have heard, but it's informative. Then you get the usual crappy promotional featurette. I hate those things. Basically it's the actors just raving about each other and the director. There are outtakes and screen tests, and the trailer. I know this has "special edition" written at the top of the box, but I didn't find it all that special.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping Thriller. Not Washington's Best, but taut drama
Review: `Out of Time', a Denzel Washington thriller showcase directed by Carl Franklin is an object lesson in how to put a character into a bad situation, then turn up the heat until it seems he cannot escape his predicament, and he feels the pressure all the more so because it was created to a great extent through his own mistakes. It is easy to put heroic people into desperate situations, subject to terror and the brink of death, yet their entire predicament is for a just cause. The feeling you have, for example, for Frodo and Samwise on the slopes of Mount Doom surrounded by lava is quite different from the feelings you have for Washington's character. This is true not the least because it is so much easier to associate with a person bound in a web of his own mistakes than it is with a hobbit bound in the web of a giant spider.
This is the stuff that tragedies are made from, except that instead of being destroyed by the situation of his own making; the hero does manage to make it out in the nick of time. The best part of his ultimate liberation is that it is brought about by the help of a very good friend who covers for him on two critical points in the story without even being asked and with an assist from his estranged wife who also happens to be a police officer working on the case which drives the plot.
Washington is the chief of police for a small town on a small Florida key island, very similar to his role in his earlier movie `The Mighty Quinn'. His recently separated wife is a homicide lieutenant in some much larger, overlapping jurisdiction, possibly the Miami / Dade police force. Washington's best friend is the local medical examiner. In the opening of the movie, it is revealed that Washington is having an affair with an extremely attractive local dental technician married to a former NFL football player who is currently employed as a security guard at the local hospital. It is also revealed that Washington has about 450 thousand dollars in cash in his office safe confiscated from a recent drug bust.
The main action of the story is set in motion when Washington's mistress talks Washington to accompany her to her oncologist who reveals that an earlier malignancy has reoccurred and is in an incurable state. After the expected distress, compounded by what is believed to is an abusive husband, the woman signs a 1 million-dollar life insurance policy over to Washington as beneficiary. Washington, thinking the drug money will be tied up in court procedures for months, turns it over to his girlfriend in order to get expensive experimental treatment for cancer. Shortly thereafter, bodies of girlfriend and husband are found in the ruins of their house set on fire by arson shortly after a witness sees Washington running away from the victims' house.
All this easily adds up to evidence against Washington, giving him clear means, motive, and opportunity. The pressure mounts as Washington's wife is assigned the case and sets up shop in the town's little police station, right outside Washington's office. The pressure gets turned up as the head of the Miami DEA office calls Washington for the drug money and wants it `yesterday'. So, the second act is largely Washington desperately working at staying one step ahead of both his wife and the DEA.
The average viewer will figure out part of the mystery with little trouble, but I won't spoil the fun by revealing it here. The full story, however, is not revealed until the very end. And, the construction of the problem for Washington and his being able to resolve it at the very last minute makes great entertainment spiced up by the very believable situation. There is an almost dreamlike quality to Washington's predicament. No matter what he does, things just seem to get worse, without quite catching up to him.
The resolution between Washington and his wife after the case is closed seems a bit improbable, but I can live with that. This is by far the most excitement I have experienced with a PG-13 movie in quite a long time. The writers were even able to keep the body count down, limited to the immediate perps of the crime.
Highly recommended for all with reasonably good nerves.
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