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.

"Tick Tock". is an excellent example of a film where less would have been best. What are obviously intended be taken as ultra clever plot twists eventually become so unbelievable that their impact is lost. Flipping back and forth in time is another distraction, and eventually the entire movie becomes "so what", due to the plot contrivances. Acting by Megan Ward, Kristin Minter, and Linden Ashby is acceptable, while David Dukes is superior. Don't get me wrong, the film is totally watchable, and if some of the plot twists that were piled on, were toned down or eliminated, this would be a neat little thriller. There is full frontal nudity, several attempts at dark humor that seem way out of place, and an unexpected ending that helps somewhat. MERK

I have to accept that this movie got my attention because Megan Ward was in it. Otherwise, I am sure I would not watch it. Luckily, I did, and let me tell you what I found.

From the beginning to the end, the movie maintains the suspense by revealing the plot gradually from different characters' standpoints. Therefore, you do not have the whole history until the director goes back in time and presents what happened from other character's viewpoint, which is necessary to be known to explain the story. Additionally, characters' motives are not so clear, giving the movie another conflict factor. I liked this way of developing the story as well as some transitions from one scene to another using a common object to both.

Respect to the story itself, it begins with M. Ward (Rachel) and D. Dukes (Holden) having sex. After that, he tells her he will be out for a couple of days to visit her daughter Anne (H. Burress) and he goes to take a shower. Then, Rachel calls her friend Carla (K. Minter) and they talk about doing something together; but Rachel is not sure. Later, Rachel drops Holden at the airport where he (knowing she talked with Carla) tells her to not spend time with Carla because she is a bad influence. From there, the story complicates when Rachel and Carla meet at a bar and casually get in touch with Travis (L. Ashby.)

Talking about the negatives, cast performance is not the best (but I expect that) and I did not like how the writer justified certain characters' conducts, although I believe it is probably me. Overall, I give this movie a solid six (6) using IMDB's user ratings as scale.

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.

Viewed this film which was called "A Friendship to Die For", and through out the entire picture you noticed a clock in quite a few scenes and I wondered why, now I find out the picture was really called "Tick Tock" and it makes more sense. There seemed to always be a rush against the clock in this film about two females who were great friends and had a wonderful deep love for each other which was boiling over and over. Megan Ward, (Rachel Avery), "Mirror Man",'03 and Kristin Minter,(Carla),"Pissed",'05 were the two lovers who had a clever plan and a poor sucker of a guy gets roped into all kinds of situations. There is a private detective who drives around a beat up piece of junk something like a "Colombo" style vehicle only Worse. All kinds of murders happen and bodies are transported here and there. You will simply love the ending, which I thought was simply Great. Enjoy