Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

MartinHafer "True Crime" is an exciting film to watch...and I am glad I saw it. And, the film brings up some really important reasons why the death penalty, at least in some cases, is a crazy punishment because you cannot undo it once it's done.Clint Eastwood (who is actually too old for this role) plays Steve, a reporter for an Oakland newspaper. He's a mess...a womanizer, a drunk and a jerk. But when he's given a last moment assignment to interview a man about to be executed, something odd happens to Steve...he begins to give a darn about something. And, the more he digs the more the case looks shaky...built upon only eyewitness testimony and circumstantial evidence.This is an uneven film. The portions with Eastwood were okay but not much more. Where the movie really, really shined was in portraying the man on death row and his family...that was marvelously made and Eastwood, in this case, was a better director than actor and got some marvelous performances out of everyone. Worth seeing but uneven and, when you think about it, hard to believe. Plus, that homeless guy...why was he in the film and who thought having him sexually harass ladies was funny or worth including in the story?!

Predrag "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.

Frank Lampard There was so much laughter in the theater when I saw this movie. It was making me mad, because I had paid a fair amount to watch this thing. However, as the movie went on, I found myself having a hard time not laughing either. The script as awful. The acting was terrible. The direction, horrific. It was just a really bad movie that looked like it was made by a first time director, with a learning disability. Then there is the total lack of any realism. Growing up I was such a big fan of the actor that was Clint Eastwood. As an adult, I cannot believe how truly terrible he is as a director. And the uncomfortable romance scenes had be squirming. Hey gramps, quit being a pervert. But I digress, horrible and unrealistic movie.

Tim Kidner 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.