L'heure du crime

If you are in it for the long game ... well you may have more success than others. But an interesting take and interesting character Sutherland gets to play here. Overall it still has its flaws (pacing and otherwise), but it is more than a decent thriller - casting alone made sure of that.

You may see where this is going and there are glimpses of two sides of Sutherland. Who is channeling quite a lot here. He came a long way since then, but he is multitalented, also playing music quite succesfully. Keep your expectations a bit low and you'll be more than entertained by what you get served here - no pun intended. Even if it is quite predictable.

Having just watched another Kiefer Sutherland good movie (Truth or Consequences N.M.), I found "The Killing Time" almost equal. True the end was probably as predictable as ever, but getting there was as twisty as a California coastal road. Michael Madsen kind of disappeared, and that was somewhat disappointing. The character development was very good, the acting was fine also. I found the enjoyment level better than some of Quentin Tarantino's supposed classics. It is no "Fargo" but has that kind of feel to it. You could do much worse for an evenings entertainment. I give "The Killing Time" a solid 6.5 stars. - MERK

This one could have been better. The scenario works, the good cop not being totally good and the bad guy not entirely bad. Beau Bridges does a reliable job and Kiefer Sutherland even works to do a role out of the ordinary kiefer. However, the director ruins everything. The result is boring beyond limits. All the suspense comes from the screenplay and the final is totally flat. As a matter of fact, I have never seen a movie where screenplay and direction differ in quality as clearly as in this one.

Above all, I mean the opening and ending scenes, which could be different: the first killed a lot of thrill for subsequent events, the latter was too abrupt and short. The tensions are also not maintained high throughout the movie and events connected to the past remain vague and uncompleted. Dramatic scenes end as suddenly as they begin and do often not provide additional value to the movie; the plot does not run smoothly, the scenes are rather "minced".

But performances are good (Bridges, Baker, Kath) or great (Sutherland, Rogers); Madsen could have played a bigger part. The Killing Time fits quite well into its title, especially if you like something happening in a quiet American town, without constant chases and bursts.

The script of this movie never shows why or how a seemingly decent, almost boring small-town cop is transformed into a scheming bad-ass who plans not only murder, but to pin the blame for it on a fellow officer. Love is just not enough, especially when the object of it, Camelia Kath, is so woefully lacking in the femme fatale department. Then there is Keifer, who is excellent, except we don't get to see much of him. A lot could have been done with this character, but instead we get large dollops of the poisonous relationship between two quite unattractive people (Kath and her nasty, clichéd, property tycoon husband). Hitchcock could probably have pulled off a denouement in sand dunes on an overcast day but probably not many others could. However, I thoroughly enjoyed Joe Don Baker's performance as the old sheriff.