Highly Overrated But Still Good

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

"True Crime," directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, is a taut thriller that goes to the wire as Steve Everett (Eastwood), a journalist and recovering alcoholic, tries to find out what really happened that fateful day when Frank Beechum (Isaiah Washington) entered a convenience store to buy a bottle of steak sauce and wound up being convicted of murdering the store clerk. It's not a campaign born entirely of compassion, however; Everett has had a checkered career that has taken him to the top of his profession, only to have his own errors of judgment (attributed to the bottle) precipitate a swift decline that has ensconced him in a job at a large paper in the Bay area of Northern California writing personality pieces and sidebar profiles. He's not a man of tremendously high ideals or great conviction, and his moral character is somewhat ambiguous, but he demands one thing from himself and everyone else when it comes to reporting a story: The truth. In that he is adamant, and he pursues it without compromise using the one tool in his personal arsenal that has never (when he is sober) failed him, his "nose" for news, that innate sense that unfailingly leads him to that which he is seeking.At first, "True Crime" could be considered as another movie about capital punishment. Well filmed, with a good rhythm and convincing actors, this movie is the perfect movie to rent. But take a second look at "True Crime" and you won't be disappointed. This movie can be seen one, two or three times, it will still unveil a lot of goodies. One can admire how Clint Eastwood compares with subtlety the destiny of Steve Everett and Frank Beechum by using descriptions of similar situations: for example, the two little girls harassing their fathers with multiple demands at a crucial moment. Let's also observe how Clint uses a clever editing to pass from Beechum's cell to Clint's scenes: cigarettes, paintings (the green pastures) for instance are themes that bind the two destinies. Eastwood still has the nose for the truth in this good script. If you favor capital punishment, you may think it through again after seeing this film.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

True Crime (1999): Dir: Clint Eastwood / Cast: Clint Eastwood, Isaiah Washington, Denis Leary, Michael McKean, Lisa Gay Hamilton: Typical Clint Eastwood thriller where an innocent victim is arrested. Title regards Eastwood as a reporter and the reality he is undertaking. He is a womanizer who is well aware of his lifestyle. A female friend dies in a car accident and a story she was doing prior catches his attention. Isaiah Washington is sentenced to death by lethal injection in 24 hours for the murder of a pregnant woman. Eastwood visits the crime site and comes away believing the guy's innocence. I could have lived without the on screen needle injection. Eastwood makes everything uncertain despite its lackluster visual appeal. He is effective as a man who goes to great lengths to insure the truth. Washington is well cast as the inmate who waits for the clock to tick down. Unfortunately supporting roles are not nearly as interesting. Denis Leary has a dreary role as a co-worker whose wife was involved with Eastwood. Michael McKean plays a corrupt Priest and this will no doubt turn off religious crowds. It doesn't have as much intrigue with the locations as Absolute Power does in the White House and a two way mirror. This is not one of Eastwood's best films as is Absolute Power, but it does contain a strong theme that regards sacrifice and justice that pull through despite its recycled concept. Score: 8 / 10

Good suspense mystery but to be honest, it has just about every cliché in the book. The innocent condemned man, the hard-nosed battle scarred journalist with the marriage on the rocks thanks to an affair with a colleague's wife and the condemned man saved from the fatal injection at the last possible moment (perhaps even beyond it). And while I realise Steve's on-screen daughter is the real-life daughter of Clint Eastwood, there is a perception of disbelief at a man looking on the wrong side of 70 having a kid of about 5. Add to that this man who appears to be a nursing home candidate having a wife looking more like a daughter and having a fling with a woman who had a husband in his prime and finally in the last scene flirting with a girl who should have called him "grandpa", the credibility got a little lost. And did I mention the clapped out old clunker of a car held together with gaffer tape in the style of Columbo? Don't get me wrong, Eastwood is a damn fine actor and director but the lead role in this one should have gone to someone thirty years his junior. Still a good story told but in the end, nothing we haven't seen before.

Crusty old Clint! He seems to have taken, as grizzled journalist Steve Everett, a piece of every TV detective cliché, stuck them all in a bag of M & M's and given it a good shake.So, of course he's a boozy old swine, who neglects his much younger wife and inconceivably conceived young child of a daughter, drives a rusty old convertible that overheats and has repair patches on its roof. Naturally, he's sleeping with his boss' wife and is constant fear (wish?) of getting fired. And, of course, he made one giant wallop of a mistake years ago, when someone went free and they shouldn't have and that hangs over him like his worst hangover.Meanwhile, a six year old murder case and the accused, a black father and husband is on his last day of his life, before a lethal injection will claim him. So, of course, everything is left until the last second to prove his innocence.Clint is amiable enough, haphazard in a slightly appealing way but the film is long and there are many distractions and detours to endure along the way. If you're undemanding and don't need to go to bed etc. then you won't complain too much, but don't expect it all to be profound and meaningful police deduction techniques. There's also some rather cloying emotional stuff going on with the death-row prisoner and his daughter that may seem a bit overdone, depending on your point of view.There are, of course, worse crime thriller/dramas and thankfully, a lot of much better ones, too. The fact that it's Clint goes an awful long way and it might just have been unbearable without him.