Tick Tock

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.

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.

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.

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.

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