Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

seymourblack-1 Just like many of the old B-movies, this fast, exciting and often tense thriller makes a big impact by delivering its story with great economy and style. The circumstances under which an ordinary man finds himself embroiled in a political assassination plot, unfold very quickly and from that point on, his desperation, fear and confusion are both obvious and understandable. Audiences naturally warm to characters who are extremely average and through no fault of their own, find themselves thrust into dangerous circumstances where they're completely out of their depth. In "Nick Of Time", the combination of just such a character, circumstances that seem to offer him no way out and the need to conform to an extremely tight deadline, all create plenty of intrigue and suspense which is ratcheted up even further by the action being presented in real-time.Gene Watson (Johnny Depp) is a recently-widowed accountant who arrives at Union Station in L.A. with his 6-year-old daughter Lynn (Courtney Chase) and is spotted by a man and a woman who approach him claiming to be police officers. After ushering him to their nearby van, the very threatening Mr Smith (Christopher Walken) instructs Gene to kill the Governor of California, Eleanor Grant (Marsha Mason) by 1.30pm that afternoon or he will kill Lynn who is held in the back of the van by the sinister-looking Ms Jones (Roma Maffia). Smith gives Gene a gun, a photograph of the Governor and a copy of her schedule for the day and Gene, unable to think of any way out of this nightmare, makes his way to the Bonaventure Hotel where the Governor's due to give a speech as part of her re-election campaign.On numerous occasions , Gene attempts to tell people such as a taxi driver, a cop and anyone he thinks might be able to help, about the plot but Mr Smith always suddenly appears at the critical moment to prevent him from doing so and to reiterate his threat to kill Lynn. Despite this, Gene eventually manages to convince a young campaign worker called Krista Brooks (Gloria Reuben) of his sincerity but when she's killed in shocking circumstances, he realises that an awful lot of people are involved in the conspiracy including many of those who are close to the Governor and those who are responsible for her protection.With time running out and his anxiety increasing by the minute, Gene makes his most meaningful breakthrough when he conscripts the help of Huey (Charles S Dutton) who's the hotel shoeshine man. This one-legged Vietnam veteran enlists the co-operation of the other staff in the hotel to enable Gene to alert the Governor to the danger she's in before she's due to make her speech. A shootout follows in the ballroom where Governor Grant is due to speak and Huey uses his initiative to good effect to delay Ms Jones from harming Lynn before the story reaches its surprising conclusion.It's really interesting to see Johnny Depp in a role where his character doesn't have numerous eccentricities and his understated portrayal of Gene Watson is both skillful and effective. Christopher Walken is always superb in menacing roles and his work in this movie is no exception.Gene Watson's predicament creates great natural anxiety and this is intensified further by Mr Smith's ubiquity and the numerous shots of clocks and watches which are a constant reminder of how little time is left. The fact that so many people are involved in the assassination plot introduces an element of paranoia into the action and the fact that Gene is being watched all the time and is unable to leave the hotel makes the whole atmosphere incredibly claustrophobic. "Nick Of Time" is essentially a very modest undertaking but one which creditably achieves what it set out to do.

Prismark10 Nick of Time has a rather novel concept of taking place in real time some years before the TV series 24 made this its central conceit.Johnny Depp plays an everyman accountant whose young daughter is kidnapped by villainous Christopher Walken and ordered to kill the Governor of California or else his daughter will die.Walken gives him a gun and a time limit of 90 minutes and it has to be done when the Governor is giving a speech in a hotel.Depp in an unusual role playing a normal guy has to keep his wits about him and try to find help but Walken and his cronies are watching his every move. Depp still manages to unravel a conspiracy.The film may have a preposterous plot, surely there are easier ways to kill the Governor but the film kicks in quickly and director John Badham clearly brings a Hitchcockian sheen to the film. You seem the time motif regularly in the film and an increasingly frantic Depp as time goes on.

callanvass (Credit IMDb) An unimpressive, every-day man is forced into a situation where he is told to kill a politician to save his kidnapped daughter.This isn't your typical Johnny Depp film. It's quite surreal to see him play such a usual, everyday man role. While this isn't exactly original, and it's undoubtedly derivative, I still managed to have some fun with it. It has some fair suspense, and Johnny Depp makes for a likable, if flawed hero. It does get a little convoluted in the second half, but it moves at such a swift pace, I managed to block it out. Christopher Walken can do this type of stuff in his sleep. He always makes for a fantastic villain. Charles S. Dutton plays a shoe shiner, and is Depp's helper. He did a pretty good job, and adds solid presence like he does in most movies. Courtney Chase is quite tolerable as the daughter. With kid actors, I can't ask for much more than that. It's not original, it won't make your day, but it's fairly entertaining. If you need time to kill on a slow moving day, this is your ticket6.3/10

AaronCapenBanner Johnny Depp plays Gene Watson, who disembarks off a train at Union station in Los Angeles with his daughter Lynn. He is approached by two people named Smith(Christopher Walken) & Jones(Roma Maffia) who claim to be cops who need his help. Unfortunately they lie, and instead Lynn is taken by Jones and held captive in a van. Smith informs Gene that he must assassinate the California governor(played by Marsha Mason) in the next ninety minutes, or his daughter will be killed. He is given a gun with six bullets, and sent to the hotel where the governor will be giving a speech, and that he better not tell the police, since Smith will be watching him closely the whole time. How can Gene get out of this situation alive? Interesting idea for a thriller to be told in "real time", and though it has good performances, it never really gels because the premise is so far-fetched. (Enlisting a random person to do a killing seems far too risky. Why not get a professional to do it?)Watchable enough if you have 90 minutes to kill, but that's all.