I caught this film on HBO today and was immediately sucked into it and couldn't take my eyes off the screen from beginning to end. Walken turns in one of his best bad guy performances since "True Romance" - he is very good at instilling dread and fear with his piercing stare and his deadpan delivery, and yet, in a film like "The Dead Zone" he can be as sympathetic a character as any you have ever seen. For an actor with only a couple of expressions, he has a range that is quite hard to pin down.
Johnny Depp is a chameleon of an actor, playing roles as varied as Edward Scissorhands and Hunter Thompson in the highly underrated "Fear and Loathing in Las Vega$." Here, he's an Everyman, thrust unwillingly into a situation from which there is seemingly no easy escape, or, perhaps, no escape at all.
Nick of Time boils down to Depp and his daughter, kidnapped at L.A.'s Union Station, tossed in a van by two fake FBI agents who then tell him he must kill the Governor of California by 1:30 pm or his young daughter will be killed. Simple as that. The remaining 90 minutes, played out in "real time", (or close to it..).. incorporate some amazing direction inside and around L.A.'s Bonaventure Hotel, which, if you've ever been inside it, you know is an utterly confusing labyrinth of glass towers, fountains, circular hallways, and this strange space lends itself perfectly to the taught confusion and tension the film tries to project.
Your job, as viewer is to try to figure out who is part of the assassination conspiracy, and who can be trusted. It ain't easy. Your other job is to put yourself in Depp's shoes.. what would you do?
Charles Dutton shines in his supporting role of a disabled American veteran shoe-shine man in the hotel lobby.
While this film got tepid reviews, in this case, I think the mainstream reviewers were wrong. It isn't Hitchcock, no, and Depp is not supposed to be a super-hero either. Just a plain guy thrust into a situation which is sheer nightmare in nature, but with enough wit and wiles to try to find a solution. Marsha Mason is also solid as the Governor.
Well-worth renting or catching on cable. Riveting. Taut. An all-around nail-biting thrill ride. Don't miss it!
Johnny Depp is a chameleon of an actor, playing roles as varied as Edward Scissorhands and Hunter Thompson in the highly underrated "Fear and Loathing in Las Vega$." Here, he's an Everyman, thrust unwillingly into a situation from which there is seemingly no easy escape, or, perhaps, no escape at all.
Nick of Time boils down to Depp and his daughter, kidnapped at L.A.'s Union Station, tossed in a van by two fake FBI agents who then tell him he must kill the Governor of California by 1:30 pm or his young daughter will be killed. Simple as that. The remaining 90 minutes, played out in "real time", (or close to it..).. incorporate some amazing direction inside and around L.A.'s Bonaventure Hotel, which, if you've ever been inside it, you know is an utterly confusing labyrinth of glass towers, fountains, circular hallways, and this strange space lends itself perfectly to the taught confusion and tension the film tries to project.
Your job, as viewer is to try to figure out who is part of the assassination conspiracy, and who can be trusted. It ain't easy. Your other job is to put yourself in Depp's shoes.. what would you do?
Charles Dutton shines in his supporting role of a disabled American veteran shoe-shine man in the hotel lobby.
While this film got tepid reviews, in this case, I think the mainstream reviewers were wrong. It isn't Hitchcock, no, and Depp is not supposed to be a super-hero either. Just a plain guy thrust into a situation which is sheer nightmare in nature, but with enough wit and wiles to try to find a solution. Marsha Mason is also solid as the Governor.
Well-worth renting or catching on cable. Riveting. Taut. An all-around nail-biting thrill ride. Don't miss it!