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Originally posted by bams:
I liked Time better than Rock. But that dumb, only-in-Hollywood ending, made me want to smack somebody. NO WAY would that wife (and more importantly, that POLICE DETECTIVE) just let Matt slide like that. No frickin way. That divorce would've been finalized before he was out of surgery. I HATE chinzy Hollywood endings, arrgh.

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First of all, welcome back Bams!

Second of all, I liked Out Of Time. Seemed like the whole theatre was on the edge of our seats waiting to see how it all turned out. Thumbs up!

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Originally posted by aquairush2o:
but there is NO WAY Eva Mendes' character should or would have taken Denzel's character back...NO, NO NO!! He was innocent of murder, true, BUT he was a thieving adulterer, and she took him back...sisters, help me with this, would YOU have taken him back..

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For me, it's not the "adulterer" as much as the "thieving" (and all the issues thereof) that's the sticking point. Let's face it {begin blatant stereotype}: Black women as a whole are notorious for Forgiving They Man, to the point of begin stupid about it {end blatant stereotype}. But as a detective, for pity's sake - especially one who was never told the truth from jump - I just could NOT buy Alex's actions at the end. That single moment nearly ruined the whole movie for me.

As badly as Hollywood treats Blacks in the movies (and yes, this includes Black Hollywood too), Black women really get the short end of the stick. Yes, the same thing would've probably happened had the character been White, but my lord, is there ANYONE out there who can write a strong, sensible Black female character without succumbing to the temptation to reduce her to yet another Warm Place To Put It?

I thought it looked pretty generic from the trailer, but when I found out that Carl Franklin (has anyone seen the great "One False Move"?) directed it, I got a little interested. Disappointed.

I just thought it was very bland, very ordinary, the characters were a snooze, it was very easy to put together what was happening, and I was never emotionally engaged at any time. It was like any episode of any cop show stretched out way too long.

Plus, the cliches....wow. (Spoiler territory.....)
Gee, I wonder if RIGHT when you think she's about to shoot him, the other character will show up and shoot HER at exactly the right moment?
I wouldn't mind stuff like that if I was into the movie, but by that time, I just wanted it to end so I could go home.

There was no comparison between the School Of Rock and this for me. School Of Rock left me inspired, happy, and excited. This left me cold as ice, because I've seen in hundreds of times before under different titles.

There was absolutly nothing in the movie that would throw anyone off. It was obvious that Sana was apart of the scheme. It was also silly for there to be a scene showing Dean Cain's character looking at a dead body in the mourge, can you get more obvious? The only mystery I saw was why everyone on screen was so dumb.

I really, really, really wanted to like this movie. I kept hoping they were going to surprise me at the end and I got nothing. Instead I get to watch Sana going back to her man even though he cheated on her repeatedly, and stole money. I've got to find a woman like that!!!

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Originally posted by truheart:
Utz, you must have seen this movie in a theater full of people who've never seen a movie in their life.

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On the contrary, my friend. We all accepted the flick for the CHEESE that it was.

Here's a question: How did the medical examiner end up with the money? Here's my theory, but I want to know if I missed something: When Matt first got the briefcase, he climbed into his truck, talked to his M.E. friend and said [Big Obvious Plot Point], "Yeah, I got it. It's on the seat right behind me [or something to that efect]." Then Matt returned to the station. Are we supposed to assume that Matt left the briefcase full of money in his truck while he went into the station? And then, unbeknownst to Matt, his M.E. friend took the money out of the briefcase, stuck the tracker in the briefcase, and then followed Matt to Runyon Point? If so, why? What was his motivation in all of this?

Also, why did Matt give Ann the money to hold in the first place? "Take this money and meet me at my house at 11:30," he says. Why not pick up the phone and say, "Meet me at my house at 11:30" and bring the money himself. Oh...I guess there would be no movie if he'd done this.

I had a problem with Ann's character, her motivation to be exact. When she's about to kill Matt, she screams something about how living without money is a drag. Well, that explains everything, but we never saw that side of her character earlier, not a single hint. Well, she was always dressed to the nines, but other than that...

As far as the almost-ex taking him back...hmm. I'll buy it, why not? I didn't get to know the Detective Diaz-Whitlock character well enough to know if that was plausible for her or not, so what the heck. She was a detective, but she wasn't a very good one, so her judgment could have been screwy overall. That one little scene they had after the hotel, the trip down memory lane, didn't tell me jack. Personally, I wouldn't have taken him back; the fact that he didn't actually love his mistress wouldn't have been enough to persuade me.

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Originally posted by Jason Alley:
...but when I found out that Carl Franklin (has anyone seen the great "One False Move"?) directed it, I got a little interested. Disappointed.

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I saw One False Move. I wonder why didn't bigger things happen for Cynda Williams. I first saw her in Mo' Better Blues and then Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. She's got some other credits, but nothing I've seen.

~D

What Bams refers to as fully-clothed hot monkey love in her review...is this a contractual thing with Denzel, that he not show any skin? Spike Lee couldn't get him to do it in Mo' Better Blues (if I'm not mistaken).

There are ways to do hot, fully-clothed sex scenes well, but Out of Time employed none of them. The only reason these scenes "worked" at all in my mind was because Denzel and Sanaa both have such natural sex appeal.

It was weird...I don't think his pants were even unzipped. Ouch.

~D

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Originally posted by Dnice:
And another thing...

What Bams refers to as fully-clothed hot monkey love in her review...is this a contractual thing with Denzel, that he not show any skin? Spike Lee couldn't get him to do it in Mo' Better Blues (if I'm not mistaken).

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Legend has it that Denzel won't do buck-naked hot monkey love scenes because of his children. I read this in my "Making of Mo Better Blues" book written by Spike himself. Spike tried the best he could to convince Denzel that getting buck was intergral to the script, but Denzel wasn't having none of that!

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Originally posted by utzworld:
Legend has it that Denzel won't do buck-naked hot monkey love scenes because of his children. I read this in my "Making of Mo Better Blues" book written by Spike himself. Spike tried the best he could to convince Denzel that getting buck was intergral to the script, but Denzel wasn't having none of that!

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Just to clarify: I have nothing against Denzel's wishes for a modicum of modesty, nor with either fully-clothed or simulated butt nekkid HML love scenes. But I haven't seen dry humpin' like what Denzel & Sanaa did since I was in the 6th grade...