Ticking Clock (2011)

Fresh and Exciting

Absolutely brilliant

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

(Credit IMDb) Lewis Hicks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a reporter and journalist specializing in writing about the crime of murder. Instead of writing his next story, Lewis becomes the story when his new girlfriend is sadistically murdered, and he is the only suspect. Lewis investigates the murder himself and finds the killer's journal with his past victims and a death list of his future prey. Lewis believes that he is the only person who can stop the killer before time runs out for his next victim.Ticking Clock is certainly one of the better DTV films starring Cuba. Wouldn't exactly call the premise original, but it does manage to avoid a lot of clichés and add its own spin on things. Neil McDonough provides a good antagonist to Cuba, and I loved the end showdown they had. Cuba actually looks motivated. When he is not motivated his DTV films usually suffer because of it. I'm not saying this is anything groundbreaking but for a DTV film it's very decent, and considering the depths Cuba has fallen? That is a big compliment. Cuba Gooding Jr. His performance is astute, and amiably well done. He makes for a formidable protagonist for McDonough, and doesn't succumb to moments of over-acting like he does at times in a lot of his DTV efforts. Neil McDonough plays a very good villain. Suitably twisted, and interesting to watch, he certainly did what was required pretty well.Bottom line. Not perfect but it has some neat ideas and most of them were executed nicely. Good performances, intriguing story. What is not to like? Worth a watch 6 ½ 10

There are some amateurish takes at the beginning where fight scenes are glaringly fake; we know they are but it should not be so obvious. The story has, at its core, a murderer who can travel in time but the time travel itself appears to have been written in as an afterthought and it's mentioned only incidentally. The movie's 101 minutes may not have allowed more time be spent on such trivial thing as time travel. Think about that; perhaps you better not. If it weren't for Neal McDonough and Cuba Gooding's participation I would not have bothered watching. Usually McDonough is the believable villain and Cuba G.Jr. is too sympathetic not to like and they were both that. Unfortunately it wasn't enough and I'm sorry I can't get back those 101 minutes. I'm still trying in vain to come up with something factual and positive to say; I'm usually criticised for being too wordy, verbose even and yet I can't manage anything positive. I'll tell you why. Make a movie about the bible and leave out the part about the 10 commandments, see how that turns out.

Man, I wanted to love this movie! I saw this on a suggestion of my mother. We usually have the same taste! Granted, the first half hour of this was really good! I'm not going to lie, I thought I was in for some suspenseful, riveting picture. I was even going to write it off as a poor man's Seven. The film follows Cuba Gooding Jr. playing a Private Investigator who's girlfriend gets murdered by some guy who reminds me of a younger Malcolm McDowell. Seriously, I give the film props for having this guy play the villain because he was good at it. Cuba finds McDowell-lookalike running down the street but when Cuba catches up to him, the man has super human strength and somehow Cuba just goes airborne every time he hits him. I'm not sure if his super human strength is ever explained, but it sure was odd seeing Cuba fly around everywhere after McDowell-lookalike hits him.So after Cuba makes a report to his police buddies (who makes fun of him), he decides to go snooping around to the place where he fought the McDowell-lookalike again. Sure enough, he had dropped a book. Coincidentally enough, it lists all the people he is going to kill and what date.So Cuba takes it to the police, the police investigates it, finds the woman he is about to kill, and arrests him before it happens....... Oh, I'm sorry, that would have been too logical and the movie would have been over: Instead, he takes it to his best friend who doesn't even acknowledge the fact that Cuba showed it to him, the bad guy magically transports to Cuba's home to get the book back, and the cops think that Cuba is the murderer. What an idiot.Then as the police are searching for him, Cuba befriends some kid. I really don't remember the reasoning behind all this or if it was even a good one, but let's just say there is a connection to the murders. That's where the plot twist comes in. The plot twist was so asinine that it's hard to put into words to avoid ruining for those who are still curious to see this movie. Imagine the movie Se7en, with all those seven deadly sin murders and who it could possibly be. Now instead of the killer that was revealed at the end, imagine it being an evil alien bent on world domination. At that point, you would ask yourself, "When did this movie start becoming science fiction and why?" Ticking Clock is the same way. It's a lot like it wanted to be The Terminator. The concept is cool, but the execution is way off.Cuba, what's wrong with you? Was there really no good roles after Jerry Maguire? Okay, there might have been promise with the script. I'm sure you read the script and was like, "This will be my comeback!" As I'm sure it was pretty cool to read. But direct to DVD? I sure hope you find that comeback, or there's a Cop Drama with your name on it.

Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. has had one of the strangest acting careers in a long time. Ever since he won at the Academy for his performance as Rod Tidwell in 'Jerry Maguire,' he has been caught in a sort of downward spiral. This has sent the once-promising actor deep into the realm of straight-to-video nonsense, like his previous films 'The Devil's Tomb' and 'The Way of War.' Why he's been doing this is a mystery. No talent agent is bad enough to actually think these scripts are worth while or think they're anything more than a guaranteed failure. Maybe it's bad luck, maybe it's laziness, maybe Cuba just doesn't want the spotlight he deserves.Whatever the reason for his failing success, it has led him straight to 'Ticking Clock.' In it, he plays Lewis Hicks, a journalist who gets put on the trail of a sadistic serial killer after his own girlfriend is viciously murdered. With the killer's journal in hand, Lewis must race against time to rescue the murderer's next victims. As the path begins to weave its way around and to a young orphan boy, Lewis begins to discover a deeper mystery surrounding the murders.In the crime-thriller subgenre, there are really only a few good ways to go about writing a story. One maintains consant mystery, concealing the identity of the killer until a final reveal that should be a shock to the audience. The other is to reveal the killer from the start and use his intentions and motivation as the mystery. With 'Ticking Clock,' however, both approaches are mostly thrown out, revealing the killer's identity, his motive, and everything else pretty much immediately. This is a problem because the mystery is what is usually keeps a viewer watching in a film like this. If you don't have it, the audience just won't care. Here, the writers knew what they wanted to accomplish with an interesting (though ridiculous) twist, but didn't give enough reason to stick with it in the first two acts. By the third act, the audience is fairly apathetic with the story & characters and will most likely not even care about the twist, which the entire film revolves around.This major flaw is not the only problem with the film. No, a more detrimental issue to its success comes from the extremely amateurish direction by Ernie Barbarash, a man very familiar with mediocre straight-to-video thrillers with his work on 'Cube Zero' and 'Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming.' If you look at a film like 'Se7en' (which, by the way, 'Ticking Clock' actually compares itself to on its DVD sleeve along with 'Silence of the Lambs'), you will see a perfect a example of how to craft a stunning & dark crime thriller. With 'Se7en,' David Fincher used the gritty city setting as almost another character, having the actors play off the direction in a way that added a deep realism to the film. Barbarash, with 'Ticking Clock,' blows his opportunity to do this by squandering the Baton Rouge & Las Vegas settings he had at his disposal, instead limiting the entire film to a few boring settings like living rooms & back alleys. Add this to the rather annoying cinematography by Phil Parmet and 'Ticking Clock' is just all around unpleasant to watch.Unfortunately, there isn't much else to cling onto to try to save the film from being a total disappointment. The script is boring & contrived, providing nothing much that hasn't been done better many times before. The lack of mystery & thrills for the first two acts gives no real drive to continue watching for anyone but completionists who don't like to leave a film unfinished. Even the ridiculous, supernatural twist isn't original, and ends up hurting the film anyway due to the number of plot holes it creates. For being so crucial to the film's success, one would think the filmmakers would be willing to do what they can to seal plot holes (like a simple case of incorrect eye colour, for example). Even the once-talented Cuba Gooding, Jr. has nothing much to offer thanks to how poorly his character was written. Let's face it, an actor can only do so much with what they're given. Take De Niro & Pacino as examples in supremely disappointing 'Righteous Kill' from a couple years back. Add in some shoddy gore FX, CGI that looks like it should be in a mid-90s sci-fi flick, and a mundane cast of supporting actors, and you have nothing more than a sad excuse for a crime thriller here.Overall, 'Ticking Clock' is just one of those films that will be stuck on the Blockbuster® shelvse for a few months trying to bait renters into biting onto the former star power of Cuba Gooding, Jr. Sadly, it will do nothing but disappoint with its unoriginal & unthrilling story and amteurish filmmaking.Final Verdict: 3.5/10. Hopefully Cuba will get another chance in the spotlight some day.-AP3-