Out Of Time

Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios presents

Starring: Denzel Washington Eva Mendes and Dean Cain

Directed by: Carl Franklin

Rating:***

Plot: A small town police chief is having an affair with a woman in town. He finds out that she has cancer and decides to use money he busted off of a drug bust and use it to get her treatment. Before he knows it her house is up in flames and she is most likely dead. Now Police Chief Whitlock is the number one suspect and he has to figure out the truth before he is arrested for a crime he did not do.

Acting: Denzel is just one good actor. If you don't believe that go rent Glory sometime. Or rent Training Day in and have some fun watching that. There is something about Washington that has some reality to his acting, you feel like you might know his character at some point. I do believe he can get over the top at times in movies, but here he keeps it between the lines and goes a good job. When things start to get tense you can see the pain and frustration in his eyes and it really works in making you sit back and actually worry even though you pretty much know what is going to happen. My only complaint is in a couple scenes it feels as if Denzel was trying something different, trying to look like a bad ass and it just didn't work. Now the rest of the cast is what puts this movie together. Eva Mendes who has been all over the place since she's been in Training Day we've seen her in 2 Fast 2 Furious and Once Upon a Time in Mexico and she always stands out. Again she shows her acting talents in this movie. She keeps up and I would say even steals scenes away from Denzel where you want to watch her instead of Washington. I do wish they spent some more screen time about her character, maybe cut out some of the semi-sex scenes and got her some more dialogue, that would have been nice. The other joy for me was to see Dean Cain in this movie. Where has this guy been? He was on the show Louis and Clark Adventures and then like vanished. So seeing him in a movie was just enjoyable for me since I have always liked the guy. He plays some nasty jerk off and does it well, he should play more bad guys in movies.

Directing/Writing: The movie starts off great with a very well filmed and sexy as hell opening scene before starting credits. The movie has a slow pace at first and you start feeling a little bored towards twenty minutes in where the movie seems to be spinning around in the same spot. Only then do you realize they were setting up future scenes. After Denzel's girl friend is toasted in a fire everything goes down hill. Denzel has to back track and clean up evidence in which he could be involved. I thought this was a cute concept where he is working on the case and hiding evidence everywhere until he can figure out what is going on. A lot of neat work with cell phone's in this movie erasing calls and faking calls. The movie even sets you up in different styles by using old stereotypes to switch you up at the end. I won't tell you what they are but it was very well done. The only places where the movie loses its step is at the beginning where Denzel seems steadfast at screwing this other guys wife. It felt a little pushed and that sex was the only thing the main characters cared for so later on its kind of like, well then who really cares. Also the ending pay off is not executed very well at all I was surprised a little but then they didn't push it and the movie just ends. So you leave satisfied but empty in a way once you leave the theatre.

Overall: Its a fun ride where you get to watch Washington say some funny lines and go through so amazing plot turns. In the end its a movie everyone has seen before at sometime in there life and its just not very rewarding. I give it points for not going all the way to selling out on the script, but it just didn't do enough for me. But Out of Time is not a waste of time but I would have enjoyed something more.