The Clock is Ticking in True Crime (1999)

There weren't any plans for seeing a particular movie today, so I just picked something at random that was handy. I lucked out in that there was a Clint Eastwood movie among my choices in the form of True Crime. At first I assumed from the title that Clint Eastwood would be a cop or something like that. But it turned out that he plays out-of-work reporter Steve Everett. It was an interesting role that I never thought of him playing, but can still be involved in crime all the same. Hit the jump to see if the role worked out or if he should have stuck to cops and cowboys.


Steve's been out of work for quite some time due to his indiscretions with women. When a fellow reporter dies in a tragic traffic accident, he is brought in, despite the editor's misgivings, to cover the story the deceased reporter was going to cover that day. Time is a factor as the story he has to cover is on a death row inmate scheduled to die that night. It should be an easy story though because he just has to do a human interest piece on the inmate. One quick interview on what it's like to be on your last hours and it's all wrapped up, right? Maybe not, because Steve gets one of those feelings. You know the kind. The ones that reporters get that there's more to the story. Could this inmate actually be innocent? That's the mystery!

Inmate Frank Beechum speaks with the Warden about his final day

I felt the story was a little "by the numbers", but it still managed to keep my attention for the most part. The film did have some pacing issues when it tried to force a bit of a family drama story in the background. Those parts of the movie really didn't work for me. In fact there was a scene where he takes his very young daughter to the zoo that I don't understand why it was even included in the movie. Even Clint Eastwood's character was rushing to get through that scene and get back to his investigation.

I thought the character of the death row inmate was really good. Played by Isaiah Washington, he is a born-again Christian and very calm and at peace with his fate. He has a family of a wife and young daughter who visit him and they're very nice scenes. He wasn't the only good side character though, Steve's newspaper office is filled with interesting characters from the weird lady that brings him coffee to his boss. It also doesn't hurt that Dennis Leary and James Woods play roles in at the paper which adds some needed talent to side cast. Eastwood was good, there was just that family side story that I felt didn't work.

Clint Eastwood and James Woods play off each other very well

In terms of the mystery, sometimes it's nice if the answer is a little... mysterious. But it was actually pretty basic and straight forward in the end. The solution may not have been enticing, but the end was pretty heart-pounding. It was a pretty odd mix of predictable doldrums and high speed race against the clock.

In the end I was left feeling that it was just OK. Not bad, but not really good either. I can already tell not much about this movie will stay with me, it just wasn't very memorable. I'd say the only way you should end up seeing this movie is if it comes on TV and you don't really have anything else to do. Maybe even then, just check to see if there could be something a bit better on.