Directed by Carl Franklin
Carl Franklin's "Out of Time" is another film that I have, for a long time, confused with another, in this case the vastly superior "Man on Fire." As you may already know, the only commonality between these two films is that they star Denzel Washington and feature guns and explosions at some point. Since I thought "Out of Time" more or less equaled "Man on Fire" I checked out the former film from the BANQ thinking I would get a rather healthy dose of Washington helmed action, only to find myself knee deep in a messy, directionless film that completely fell apart after the first thirty minutes.
Denzel stars as Mattias Whitlock, a recently separated detective slaving away in the Banton County, Florida police precinct. Whitlock strikes up a relationship with a local girl Ann who informs him that she is terminally ill. Hoping to pay for an expensive cancer treatement only available in Switzerland (what?), Ann quickly enlists Matthias's help to defraud her abusive husband via an insurance scam. All appears to be going smoothly for Matthias (or at least as smoothly as he could hope a felony would go) until he finds out Ann and her husband, unbeknownst to anyone besides Matthias, fake their deaths and take off, leaving Matthias to cover his tracks as the FBI searches for clues to the pair's disappearance that will, invariably, lead to the discovery of Matthias's fraudulent dealings!
"Out of Time" was the last of what I like to call the "Denzel Slump," three very bad movies (the other two being "Antwone Fisher" and "John Q") which he starred in following his Oscar winning role as crooked cop Alonzo in Antoine Fuqua's "Training Day." Of the three, however, "Out of Time" is probably the best (that isn't saying much) and I must say that the first half of the film was surprisingly gripping stuff. Indeed, I found myself ignoring the bad acting and awkward script and enjoying the film for what it seemed to be--a mindless, forgettable, but still entertaining film. As anyone who knows me will attest, I'm a big fan of films without pretensions that aim strictly to please the audience and nothing more. However, even films that don't plan on delivering anything profound or spectacular still need to keep it together for their duration, something "Out of Time" fails to do. Indeed, right around the halfway mark of Franklin's films, things start to go off the rails. Too much time is spent on establishing some type of bond between Washington and Mendes' characters, a useless endeavor if there ever was one, and the actual nature of the treachery Washington's character is involved in is revelaed too quickly, robbing the film of its suspense. Furthermore, Franklin and company waste time with a number of tangential plotlines that bring nothing of value to the film, further straying from the essence of the plot.
If Franklin would have focused primarily on Washington's characters attempt to keep his cover safe while still participating in the ongoing investigation, this film would have been a winner. Washington is a great actor and using him as your meal ticket is always a good bet. Unfortunately, "Out of Time" tried out this winning combo during its first half, then inexplicably failed to go back to the well during the second. It reminds me of basketball teams that work the low post for the first half en route to a big lead, then comes back in the second throwing up three pointers from all over the place.
6 comments:
I LOVED "Man on Fire," and boy was Denzel on fire in that one, sure it was a little violent...Haven't seen this one, but I'm going to have to watch, even if it was a "C."
As I said, "Out of Time" was actually pretty decent until about the 45 minute mark, then it goes downhill. Denzel is the man though, and even his worst films usually have some redeeming elements.
Got it from the library and watched it. You're right, probably a C. Good premise, but not worked out to well. I have to say I loved Chae, great character, and at least in terms of life it redeems itself by demonstrating the real damage of extra-marital affairs and how we get easily caught in a web of deception.
I thought the movie stood up pretty well for awhile but it really did collapse midway through. I was kind of confused by the Chae character since I thought he was going to play a more integral role in assisting Denzel's character at the end of the film (which he sort of does, I suppose). I thought Eva Mendes was totally useless, though.
Eva Mendes totally useless?!? She was there to get teenage boys to see the movie! Hahaha.
Useless from a perspective of what she brought to the film, but you're correct--from a marketing perspective....PURE GOLD!!!
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