A mild mannered single father accountant (Johnny Depp) arrives in LA and is greeted by a man claiming to be a cop (Christopher Walken). However, the last time anyone checked cops don’t kidnap your daughter and threaten to kill her if you don’t shoot the governor. Johnny has 90 minutes to either do it or find a way out!
This was pre-24 so doing something real time was quite novel there. Points to the film makers. Also its not the worst idea in the world. More points. And it stars Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken. More points.
Unfortunately it plays like a bad episode of Columbo. You know those episodes that are only really watchable because of Columbo? One of those. Remove most of the points.
So this movie is pretty pointless.
While it has a good cast, they aren’t given huge amounts to play with a lot of the time. It’s very repetitious, 90 minutes was too long for the material. And it shot like crazy with some truly insane choices made in camera work and editing. There’s a couple of dreamlike sequences in the last act that feel completely out of place. The camera occasionally has seizures and this is 15 years old so there’s no excuse as that hadn’t become a wide spread problem.
Depp is good, not one of his best but not his fault. Walken is Walken, and therefore a bit batshit which is fine. The cast on the whole are pretty good, even the cute little girl who isn’t in it too much.
It’s just that the film feels so lacklustre. The characters watch the clock a lot and so do you as every 10 minute block consists of Johnny Depp trying to get out of it and Chris Walken giving him shit for it. Repeat 5 or 6 times. Then it gets a bit more lively. There are 5 REALLY GOOD minutes towards the end. And your done.
Unless you’re a Depp or Walken fanatic its not really worth bothering with this. TV movie on the big screen
Next up: Gargantua
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