CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

TonyMontana96 (Originally reviewed: 17/03/2017) Clint Eastwood has a lot of great films to his name, and some fairly good ones, I would class this one around the fairly good mark, as it's oh so predictable and not exactly original and packed with clichés, but good Clint Eastwood films are still worth your time and thanks in part to Eastwood himself who is equally as skilled as a director as he is acting. The casting is smart, Eastwood (Steve Everett) is cool, conserved and gives a solid performance, the supporting cast includes the brilliant James Woods as his boss, a good Isaiah Washington (Frank beechum) as the death row inmate, and Denis Leary as Bob, a superior who has it out for him, and Leary is very believable. Other good performances include LisaGay Hamilton as Bonnie Beechum, Diane Venora as Barbara Everett and Bernard Hill as the Warden in charge of the execution.The acting was not a problem, but there were scenes from lesser character's that were aggravating, such as an African American homeless guy who is running around saying "pussy on toast" to random women and stupid stuff like that, he was just annoying as hell, another was execution humour from a guard who pretended to be dead and said "Sir, I repent", thinking execution is a funny matter which it certainly is not, and there are a fair amount of jokes that don't land here. Other flaws include the dialogue, it had some real howlers, like for example when the warden says "Let's do work, while we feed our faces", which I thought was atrocious and there's a really bad cliché involving a little girl getting hurt, where Eastwood put's her in a chair and play's speed zoo, or whatever you want to call it which involved his daughter falling over, yet who would have thought right, with no restraints on the chair. The film's flaws were mostly minor but there were a good few and then they add another melodramatic scene for good measure, where the daughter of the man on death row starts making a scene because she doesn't have the colour green in her crayon box, yeah that sentence speaks for itself.I did enjoy the picture however, Eastwood's direction is impressive, there's some decent humour on display, it's well paced, and despite being predictable it offers some thrilling sequences, and has enough strong performances, worthwhile moments and funny jokes to make it well worth seeing; especially a scene where Eastwood is intoxicated, trying to save this guy from getting executed in a race against time, whilst outrunning the police in a pursuit that's utterly enjoyable; another highlight would be the scenes between Woods and Eastwood, two great actors, making the most of their dialogue and delivering some truly memorable moments in this effective, entertaining, if unoriginal thriller.

dankj The book has huge tension and builds drama throughout. The actions of the accused and the witness recounts in the movie make the guy look much more guilty than the book. Clint is famous for removing dialog and "extra" stuff from the screenplay, but this stripped down version has little of the "clock is ticking" tension and the witnesses are actually doing their best rather than embellishing to just convict the guy the police and prosecutor have pegged. The characters are not as well defined by the dialog or the direction/editing. The motivations and intensity of the characters is lacking as well.That said the movie is good, but a huge let down from the book.

johnnyboyz The unexpected catalyst, that eventually comes to propel the lead, through Clint Eastwood's 1999 detective thriller True Crime and into a realm of investigation; intuition and towards the truth arrives when a young female journalist on a very specific job is tragically killed in a road traffic accident. It is deemed, by most therein, that the woman was a great girl; a wonderful person and really good at her job – a woman who was "really on top of things" at the time of her death, and yet it appears was careless enough to be doing something around sixty, late at night and on a rain-sodden road having had the odd drink and on a stretch of track notorious for a certain deadly bend. Such stark differences between assumed sentiments and gruff realities having taken a good look at the situation are at the core of True Crime; a film driven by the force of Eastwood both on the screen and off it, in what is a film all about murky underestimations combating with hard-up truths. Fittingly, it is a film about a man placed into the same situation as the aforementioned deceased young journalist; a situation that has already run its course in terms of trials, allegations and musings although doesn't necessarily come out infallible to meaner, stone-wall truths which our lead eventually comes to suspect are omnipresent.Eastwood's character is Steve Everett, a California based journalist with years of experience but a debilitating marriage and a wavy track record of cracking open big stories though making bogus claims when all appeared right to him. The character is one of those old and wily, without necessarily being particularly nice, archetypes of movies of old whom just have that natural gift of being able to work their way through grisly problems and to both spot and comprehend things no one else seemingly can. He enjoys a drink and the company of a younger woman, whilst symptomatically struggles with his wife and infant daughter. His credentials are somewhat impressive, in that he managed to expose political sleaze, in spite of his own lifestyle, more broadly linked to that of the town's mayor, although the attempting to prove a rapist's innocence prior to their controversial confession was an instance in which his ability failed him.He works for that of a hotshot journalist chief named Alan Mann, played in that spitfire fashion by James Woods; a character of whom we are introduced to by way of a long tracking shot down and through the corridors of his building, as he spouts everything he needs to say - the scene concluding in his office which is rife with qualifications and journal covers of past newsworthy events. The case Everett ends up inheriting is that of the reporting on the execution of an African American individual who was given the death penalty for a store robbery and murder. He is Frank Beechum; a man, like Everett, with a wife and infant daughter and is played with effective understated regret by Isaiah Washington. Beechum is due to be killed via lethal injection in a few hours time, immediately rendering what eventually formulates as the crux of the film as a dramatic race against time – the manner in which he will be killed is somewhat agonisingly outlined to us with a measured precision by the warden and his staff, in that we are granted access to the chamber; steal a glance at all the switches and buttons and realise the magnitude of the situation. Additionally, the sheer chasm between the staff there and the likes of Everett, in regards to law enforcers or those of whom merely seek justice, is made prominent when one staff members shrugs upon being asked for an opinion and allows Beechum's court verdict to stand for his stance.The core of the film is Everett's attempt at uncovering something a little more concrete on why it is one would suspect Beechum of innocence; Eastwood doing really well to keep the film moving along, even if we don't necessarily buy into him as the sort of character Everett is - a younger, more aggressive presence in the mould of what Woods pulls off perhaps required. The film carries somewhat of a Bad Lieutenant vibe to it, as this tale of a man with some considerable power and questionable priorities charges through a world attempting to get to the bottom of proceedings plays out. Despite this, the film arrives with much more of a grounded; more accessible procession to it, and veers away from a more hardened edge of anti-heroism and such to the point that it perhaps required to be more dramatic and more biting.The film's element of its lead and his race against the clock is clumsily surmised every so often with inert insertions into proceedings of compositions of clocks or clock faces in some form; a persistent reminder that time is indeed running out, and an element overall which, try as it might, does not necessarily feel as prominent as it might have. In spite of what's at stake, there appears very little on the urgency scale and it lacks a wounding, cut-and-thrust dynamic which may have worked really well. Principally, Everett fights for a truth which will allow a victimised man to return to his wife and young daughter, as he himself disparagingly neglects that of what he has in that exact form. Running on this theme of redemption or righting wrongs, it is an opportunity for him to correct what happened in regards to that case of the misjudged rapist from years gone by; the film functional without necessarily being overly involved, a film which isn't necessarily dull but is safe, uninspiring fare which happens to conclude with the sort of sequence Robert Altman was actually sending up mere years previously in his Hollywood satire The Player. Whoops.

dunmore_ego TRUE CRIME has the potential to be a powerful thought experiment, exploring the psychology behind the perception of what True Crime truly is. Aside from implicit racism, no real issues are broached in this dialog-driven Clint Eastwood actioner. From an Andrew Klaven novel, TRUE CRIME is merely the tale of a wrongly-convicted murderer on death row, Frank Beechum (played stolidly by Isaiah Washington) and curmudgeon reporter, Steve Everett's (Eastwood) 11th-hour hunt for the truth to grant his stay of execution.The question of what criteria constitutes True Crime is never raised. The plot involves a young black man robbing a grocery store and accidentally killing the pregnant female clerk, while Beechum happens to be in the store. Beechum is convicted for the crime on the tried-and-true Whitey charge of "Being Black And Nearby." To really bite at the meat of the movie's title, we would be exploring who is more of a criminal: the robber-murderer, or the congressperson whose mismanagement of social policy created the necessity for the robber to turn to crime for survival in the first place.In other words, is the bottom rung of society to blame for their survival instincts, when those instincts are only brought into prominence because white-collar criminals create a disparity of wealth in society to begin with? Well, slap a little racism in there - keep the deep thinkers at bay. For a second.There are a few too-convenient plot points and pulp coincidences, and we shudder to think how a less talented director might have made a mush of them. Only Eastwood directing Eastwood can get away with contrivances like Everett knowing the governor personally and later calling in a favor in the dead of night when the clock is ticking down; only Eastwood directing Eastwood can make sexagenarian Everett a convincing skirt-chaser, involved with a fellow reporter's (Denis Leary) wife. Only Eastwood directing Eastwood, Etc.For the simple story it is, TRUE CRIME hits its marks and pays off: dialog is snappy, especially the uber-masculine repartee between Eastwood, James Woods (as his editor) and Denis Leary; the principals give nuanced performances - Lisa Gay Hamilton as Washington's loyal wife, Diane Verona as Everett's estranged wife, Michael Jeter as a slimy eyewitness; Bernard Hill as a sympathetic warden and Michael McKean as a boneheaded priest. Eastwood's real-life daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood (from ex-wife Frances Fisher), plays his cute little daughter.--Review by Poffy The Cucumber.