Deadline

A film with some of the worst acting ever seen, Deadline (an AWFUL title) came across as a bad student film destined for a very short theatrical release. Saw this in Tennessee, and figured it's only in theaters here hoping to capitalize on the that it was filmed here.

Clichéd dialogue, stereotypical characters & unbelievable story development plague this film "inspired by a true story". Felt like a film from the 60s, not one from 2012.

There are many great films dealing with racial issues, but this is not one.

But it was great to Eric Roberts, who was the lone bright spot.

March 5, Addendum Note the two new "positive" user reviews are from the same person. Click on Cole and you'll see that the reviewer's name is Leslie Hutchens! My hunch is she worked on the film or is related to someone that did.

This is most definitely an anti-racist film and an intelligent one at that. There is also a good love story thrown in, in fact two good love stories if you count the one between father and son. That latter one is maybe not explored enough and dealt with in a rather "cartoonish" way but what can you expect to cover during 90 minutes? Eric Roberts has never been better and as far as I can see, being a guy, never more attractive-looking. Never knew he had so much stile.

Definitely one of them feel-good films and a pity to miss. Lucky for me that I expect people who vote for films are usually made up by the same crowd that would vote for a noise like "Stairway to Heaven" being the best song written. The masses are always wrong and there's a lot of deception-work constantly needed to keep it that way.

Yup it is pretty bad and its hard to figure how who is mostly at fault .. but I'm going to say the direction caused a lot of that stilted acting. We go from one scene to the next of conversation .. two people or three, standing or sitting, and giving either expositional dialogue ad infinitum, or right on the nose dialogue, which is just as boring. So, the accomplice to the murder of this film would go to the writer.

And if wouldn't it be great if actors, having been given such an awful script and such plodding direction, could at least try to find some way to work against the predictable and the stereotypical. If you can't, then try to find some charm in your character, something we'd like, or identify with.

Deadline is actually a very surprising, well-thought out little genre film centered around an unsolved murder mystery in the South and a pair of journalists sent in to uncover what really happened. Eric Roberts does a fine job as the older mentor, while Steve Talley is the younger, eager reporter trying to track down the story. For the budget, the film looks impressive and is well edited. Some of the scenes were actually shot on location in a Nashville newspaper newsroom, which adds some authenticity to it. From what I understand, the storyline is based on actual events from 20 years ago, which is an interesting side note. Overall, pretty good job and worth watching if you like 'reporter' movies.

"Deadline" could have been a near-great film, but the script, acting, and particularly the music and pacing were all badly done. This is the best illustration I've ever seen that any movie needs to have a beginning, a middle and and ending, if only for the purpose of building the dramatic tension needed to propel the story to its conclusion. The rock songs that were heard intermittently throughout did absolutely nothing to set the mood or tone, amounting instead to an annoying distraction. One has to wonder how any newspaper short of the New York Times could afford to pay two reporters to work primarily on obituaries, as apparently was the case with the two male protagonists (Eric Roberts and Steve Talley). The scene in which an inept deputy is drugged is utterly bizarre and unbelievable. It is hardly likely that a young cub reporter could afford a sports car (I was unable to recognize the make or model) that would typically cost upwards of $40,000. The courtroom scene near the end is a prime example of self-indulgent use of dramatic license that could have been avoided in the hands of a better screenwriter. Various other set-ups, which I'll not describe as they might be considered "spoilers," simply didn't ring true, again probably the product of hurried, poorly-vetted screen writing. Did anyone ever inform the screenwriter of this movie that the craft is labor-intensive, and it requires painstaking hours to eliminate the bugs from a plot? Am I sorry that I watched the movie? No. Does "Deadline" stand as further proof that the film industry, far from being any sort of meritocracy, is a dysfunctional system in which---despite all of the barriers that stand in the way of innovation and the infusion of new talent---consistently produces mediocre product? Absolutely. John Streby, attorney and novelist; jstreby003@comcast.net.