High Crimes
Dir: Carl Franklin
2002
**
At its core, High Crimes has an interesting story to tell. Unfortunately it tells it badly and is full of unnecessary characters, plot twists, action, etc. A good thriller should be thrilling and High Crimes is pretty far from Thrilling. Carl Franklin experiments with different styles of editing (at least in the first 20 minutes or so) that serve no purpose at all, he adds pointless and irritating characters like Jackie (played by the pointless and irritating Amanda Peet), spends next to no time on character development (Give the bad guy a scar over his face, just so people know he's the bad guy) and in the end, you couldn't give a hoot if Jim Caviezel's character is guilty or not. Also, if you're going to advertise a film as a 'Courtroom drama' you might want to have more than 10 minutes worth of courtroom footage. Morgan Freeman is the only reason I kept watching, not because he's particularly good in it but because he's likable. I would say this film is instantly forgettable but I think it may be too bad for it not to be remembered.

Out Of Time
Dir: Carl Franklin
2003
***
Out of Time is a slightly above-average action thriller. It's entertaining enough but at times everything gets just that little bit too convenient which I'm afraid is down to the fault of unimaginative writing. To call it mediocre would be unfair, it's not great but it does have a certain unique charm to it. The cast is good, Dean Cain is totally underrated in my opinion (I've met him, he's a really nice man) but other than that though I'm afraid it is forgettable and feels like something we've seen before. The ending could have and should have been something special but unfortunately it was a clever twist away from satisfaction. A generous 3 out of 5 stars.