Review of True Crime (1999) by Stef — 02 Mar 2010

The film was very entertaining and all, but the problem that I had with "True Crime", was that it was plagued with just a lot of silly randomness. The main core of the film was entertaining, and had a great premise and execution, but a lot of stuff on the outer layers, as well as all together around 20 minutes of film time, was just stupid. And that's what brought this movie down.

So in a nutshell, Clint Eastwood believes that a man who is about to be executed for killing a pregnant woman, is innocent, and he has to prove it in under a day. It's a simple concept, but entertaining. The problem is, which I mentioned before, that a lot of things are stupid. First of all, I really don't think that Clint Eastwood could have a kid that age in the year 1999, I mean come on, let's be realistic. Second of all, James Woods in this film was completely unessecary. I felt that he made a drama, a bad comedy. The whole time that he is in the movie, I'm cringing, because I just feel that he DOESN'T belong in this picture. The same thing goes for Denis Leary, who is on the screen for all together 4 minutes, yelling at Eastwood for sleeping with his wife, amongst other things.

The film does go into detail about the journalist's (Eastwood) home life, but some of it is unneeded. Taking his daughter to the zoo, and sleeping with a bunch of women. It might be interesting in another movie, but not in a film with a main plot like this. I felt that all of the satire in between, really ruined the overall mood, and I know this because during some dramatic scenes with Isaiah Washington, it cuts to James Woods talking about sex, and that really pissed me off, because I thought that the film was really generating something positive.

The acting in the movie, is just basically same old same old. Clint Eastwood does the same acting that he's been doing for a long time (But that doesn't mean that that's a bad thing...I mean I like Clint's acting...I think he's a talented guy...I like his directing more...anyways back to the point), and James Woods and Denis Leary were stupid. Bernard Hill puts on a good job, and it feels like he's one of the only other serious people in the movie, besides Washington, the woman who plays his wife, and a couple of more people. I mean come on! The film could have been SO much better if it was just more serious!!

I love Clint Eastwood, and he is without a doubt one of the best directors of our time....but all amazing directors have a couple of "ehh" movies. "True Crime" is definitely one of Eastwood's "ehhs" and that's really a shame, because with a plot like this, I think it could have been A LOT better.