Tick Tock

Rachel is a young woman married to a very rich older man, Holden Avery. However a night out with her friend Carla ends with a one night stand with Travis. Travis is working with Carla and they produce photographs of the two together. Travis tries to blackmail Rachel for $100,000 to destroy the photographs, but Carla is also working with Rachel in a bigger plot involving murder and double-crosses.

I didn't have high hopes for this due to it's unknown cast and the speed with which it reached TV. At the start it looked like another TV film with the same old plot, however it actually gets a bit cleverer than that and has some nice twists and turns, some you expect and some you don't. The clocks winding time back stuff allows us to jump back in forth in time every time a twist occurs - letting us see how the twist came about and a little back story or to see the same events from a different point of view. This is cleverly done but is nothing more than a fancy flashback tool. The twists get a bit silly after a while and aren't as credible the more the film goes on. It's a shame because it starts picking up momentum only to get too fast to be believable.

The unknown cast do a reasonable job, Kristin Minter is the best role (although I felt she was needless shot nude just to keep viewers interest). Megan Ward is not great, she is too tearful and scared at the start and too ruthless at the end, but she does OK. Ashby is also weak with a good ol' boy character. David Duke is one of the worst - not really doing anything with his character or lines. Ratzenberger (best known from Cheers) is good as a private eye but his scenes are often daft and this makes him look bad - for example he is following Rachel as she meets someone in a deserted parking lot, he parks 5 cars lengths away in the middle of an empty lot but doesn't get noticed! Most of his scenes have stupid mistakes like that, things that a real PI would never get away with.

Overall this is cleverer than I thought it would be. The "tick-tock" element makes the flashback idea more interesting, but the twists that are so good at first quickly get silly and a bit tiresome.

This film is so confusing, you don't know who is going with who and eventually you don't really care. There is some interesting casting in this. Megan Ward a dumb blond, Kristen Minter a ruthless bitch and Linden Ashby as the guy in the middle who sleeps with both on their off nights. By the way Ashby is a dead ringer for Chris Potter, also a LMN favorite. Then we have David Dukes wasted, John Ratzenberger wasted in thankless roles. It was such a mix up of plot, focus and intentions. What is the screenwriter trying to say? My favorite part was when the blond bimbo shot the bitch. I cheered for she was that horrible. Ending was silly and ridiculous. No vote on this trite.

To start off with my review on this flick I will say that if anyone is expecting an awesome cutting edge thriller then pass on my review. But if you have an open mind when it comes to direct-to-video flicks then read on. Now "Tick Tock" is actually not too bad of a thriller. Getting a pretty face like Megan Ward doesn't hurt at all. The movie does start off slow and it may not catch your interest, but hey it is only for the first about 15-20 minutes. Then when Megan Ward and pal are at the bar and a "cowboy" walks over to them to chat, the first thing Melrose Place viewers will do is laugh because for those of us who watched MP, Megan Ward played Connie and Linden Ashby played Dr. Bret Cooper "Coop" at the hospital, he plays this "cowboy" Travis. Anyhow, the director of this flick makes you think "what the?" when after certain things happen, the clock turns back and we see an in depth type of view of a character which will explain why a certain thing has happening at points in the story. This happens throughout the flick and definitely kept me interested. John Ratzenberger, Cliff from Cheers, is in this and he plays his small role actually good as a P.I. And David Dukes plays the rich husband,Holden,of Megan Ward's character Rachel. The plot is Rachel and Carla are planning to kill Holden and from there the story has lots of twists and turns. Even her husband has a certain plan. So everyone in the movie crosses paths one time or another in this movie and it is really cool how it is done. Sort of like 2 Days In The Valley. The cast is small and that is good so you will keep on getting into this story as each character is not what you think they are. The poorest acting out of this is done by Kristin Minter. Her acting is sub par compared to Megan Ward's and I think Megan is under rated. Was she not good in Encino Man? All in all this is a good thriller/mystery movie but the ending will make you say "what kind of ending is this?" I guess the director just couldn't come up with a great ending, but then direct to video movies/B-movies usually end that way. Oh and yes the usual lesbian type scene is in there. Megan and Kristin both share a kiss, where else, in the women's washroom at the bar. Megan Ward is sexy and maybe she will start to do some more of these types of flicks like Kari Wuhrer. 5 out of 10.

I flicked on to this movie at about 2 a.m. this morning.

I read the brief overview and thought it warranted closer attention. The reviewer had used the phrase 'gripping thriller'.

The only regret I have about this movie is that is was shown so late at night / early in the morning. Definitely a 9 p.m. showing.

The clock-thing puzzled me but I realized that this was an innovative way of showing a scene from a different person's perspective.

Lots of nice touches and details punctuate the story, especially the final scene.

I won't try to categorize it - it falls into a miscellaneous category of movie. It's not a Citizen Kane, but it's definitely not a B-Movie either.

We stumbled across this movie on TV whilst on holiday in Croatia and watched enthralled as it developed. It's like watching a car crash: you feel awful for the people involved but you still can't tear yourself away.

It's as if the script writer kept attempting to put in ever more unbelievable plot twists all the while thinking "they'll never go for this... or will they...?". The only thing that really annoyed us was the fact that Holden's body managed to extricate itself from the car boot with no help or explanantion.

All in all this film made me appreciate the fact that as British TV has improved, there's now less room for this kind of risible American nonsense - and perhaps we're the poorer for it.