Ticking Clock

Plot synopsis:
The movie opens outside a rundown suburban house. Inside, a woman is seen viciously murdered and partially dissected in the bath tub. As the killer, Keech (Neal McDonough), washes his hands, a baby starts to cry. Keech approaches the baby. Despite the savagery of his attack on the woman he is surprisingly gentle with the baby, by comforting him and saying, “she can't hurt you anymore”.
The movie jumps forward 11 years to April 17, 2011. Investigative reporter Lewis Hicks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is struggling with a failing marriage with his wife Gina (Danielle Nicolet); a dubious relationship with short time girlfriend, District Attorney Felicia Carson (Veronica Berry) and a slumping career. When Hicks pays a surprise visit to Felicia she becomes upset when she sees he is still wearing his wedding band. She tells him she is ending the relationship due to his unwillingness to make a commitment.
Later that day, Keech attacks Felicia in her home, expressing anger over a case she was involved in concerning a child being abused. When Felicia asks Keech if he is the boy's father, he replies "No, I am his guardian angel," before murdering her. Lewis arrives at Felicia's home but she is already dead and partially dissected similar to the woman in the opening scene. Lewis spots the killer and chases him into an alley where they fight. Lewis is knocked down but the killer drops a book.
The killer is seen checking a pocket watch then disappears. Lewis finds the book, which he discovers to be the killer's journal. However, Lewis takes the journal home and reads about Felicia's killing, as well as 2 more murders that the killer plans within the next 72 hours. He writes the other two names down, but the killer arrives inexplicably at his home and takes the journal back as well as the sheet of paper with the other two names.
Lewis tries to explain to the police investigating Felicia's murder, but the lead detective (played by Yancey Arias) doesn't believe him and actually suspects Lewis of the killing. Lewis discovers that he can read the names of the other two women due to the impression left by the pen on the second sheet. He tracks down the second woman: a school teacher named Vicki Ihling (Adrianne Frost). He wants to keep an eye on her and pretends to ask her for a date, but she changes her mind instead going to a local bar. At the bar she is approached by Keech.
As they make small talk she tells him she is a teacher, he states he knows one of her former students, an orphan boy that was returned to a boys' home after a teacher at the school reported him for abusing a stray cat. Vicki becomes nervous when she realizes she is the teacher that made the report and excuses herself to the restroom. In the restroom she is attacked by Keech who angrilly tells her "it was a just mangy little stray". Lewis is able to trace Vicki to the bar but again arrives too late, finding her murdered also. When Lewis tries to catch Keech, he disappears out of the window.
The police still doubt his story about the killer, Lewis' only evidence is a small piece of the killer's coat torn off during the earlier fight and a bloody fingerprint on a newspaper clipping. He sends both to a friend at a local crime lab. When he follows up she tells him the preliminary results from the DNA test on the blood only show one result. An 11-year-old orphan living in a local boys' home. She also shows him that the fabric of the coat reacts to heat, a quality she has never seen before in a fabric.
Believing that the killer may be a relative of the boy, Lewis goes to the home and introduces himself to the director Polly (Nicki Aycox) as a mentor for big brother program, and asks to meet the boy. Polly seems hesitant as the boy has had behavioral problem and been returned by several foster families, but agrees to let Lewis meet him. She introduces Lewis to the orphan, James Keech (Austin Abrams). James seems to distrust all adults and especially dislikes the nuns at the home (whom he referrers to as 'the penguins') and is at first unreceptive to Lewis but agrees to go to the zoo.
At the zoo Lewis asks James what he would like to be when he grows up, James seems unsure, but says he is good with math and would like to be an inventor, maybe even making a time machine so he could go back and fix his life. Back at the home James tells Lewis he wants to show him something, promising him to secrecy. Lewis promises and James shows him his 'private zoo'; a box with several small animals, including a mouse, a frog and a dragonfly that are all dead and partially dissected similar to the murder victims.
However, Lewis is shocked and James becomes very upset, yelling at him to leave. Polly hears the yelling and comes into the dorm where James angrily accuses Lewis of trying to molest him. Polly doesn't believe the accusation as James has a history of making similar claims. Lewis starts to tells Polly about the dead animals but James was angrily shouts that he promised not to tell. Lewis decides not to say anything and leaves.
Lewis deduces that the killer isn't a relative of James but rather James himself, having traveled back from the future to 'fix his life'. As Lewis continues to try to stop the killer, he tries to find the third woman from the journal. The evidence leads him back to the boys' home. While talking to Polly he sees her college degree on the wall and realizes she is the third woman on the killer's list, with Polly being a nickname. Lewis is then arrested at the boy's home and taken to the police station.
At the police station he tries to explain but the police still do not believe him. Keech arrives pretending to be Lewis' lawyer. During a private conference he reveals to Lewis that his theory is correct, showing Lewis the pocket watch from the alley revealing it to actually be a time machine, and that he is James from the year 2032 coming back to fix his life. James uses the time machine to transport Lewis and himself to the boys' home, where he has Polly tied up on the roof.
Keech demands that Lewis get the younger James from his room, threatening to kill Polly if he doesn't. Lewis quietly enters the dorm and prepares to kill the younger James hoping to set the time-line right, but can't bring himself to kill the sleeping child. Instead, he hides James inside a restroom, and goes to the roof. Keech explains that the woman from the opening scene was his mother who was abusive so he killed her, and he has been traveling through time, killing other people in an effort to set his life right.
Meanwhile, James leaves the bathroom and follows Lewis to the roof. James sees his older self and asks Keech if he is his father, but Keech tells him the truth about being his future self. James gets upset that Keech plans to hurt Polly, stating that she is the only person that has been nice to him, but Keech tells James that Polly is about to find his “private zoo” and will send him to a mental hospital where his abuse continues.
While on the roof, Keech reveals two more inventions: the small tazer like device from the opening scene is revealed to actually be a cutting torch, and the knife is shown to be an advanced motorized weapon with the serrated edge cycling like a chainsaw. During the struggle Keech drops the knife which James picks up and uses to slash Keech's leg. However, Keech pushes James away and accidentally knocks him off the roof. Keech turns to kill Lewis but as James dies from the fall Keech disappears.
During the closing scenes Lewis is seen driving. Using a voice over he explains that since James died at the age of 11 the time line was 'made right' and he never became the serial killer. Each of the killer's victims is shown to still be alive including James himself. We see Lewis driving past the rundown house from the beginning of the movie which we now know to be James's mother's house. However, James comes out the front door to take out the trash. The movie closes with Lewis going home to his wife and son.

Tags: murder

Review:
I so wanted this to be an enjoyable movie with Cuba Gooding Jr.Not the case.Although occasionally believable, on a whole the acting was way beyond par.
The storyline, although showing some potential, was far from well executed.I'm sure this made for a good movie if you'd just skimmed through the script.
An action/horror movie about knowing when a killer will kill and trying to stop it, good movie-great twist.
An investigative reporter (Gooding) comes home to find his girlfriend brutally murdered and chases the killer (McDonough).
A very original movie that has a huge twist in it that could have ruined it, but was done so well that it actually helped make the movie better then I was expecting.
Cuba Gooding Jr.'s previous movie, "Wrong Turn At Tahoe", was a surprisingly good movie, so my expectations were pretty high for "Ticking Clock".
The movie doesn't look very good for one thing, sometimes looking somewhat cheap and photographed in a way that gives the movie a muddy look.
And the big twist in the movie will become pretty obvious to just about every viewer long before it dawns on Gooding's character.
With this movie, it doesn't seem that any time soon that Gooding will work his way out of the straight-to-DVD sludge he's currently stuck in..
But only a few minutes into this and I was asking - can I stand to watch a movie where the main character is so unbelievably stupid?
It's not not the sort of twist one expects in a crime film so it could have been played for a major, "whaaaaa?" effect, but they tossed that chance away..
(Credit IMDb) Lewis Hicks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a reporter and journalist specializing in writing about the crime of murder.
Lewis investigates the murder himself and finds the killer's journal with his past victims and a death list of his future prey.
Lewis believes that he is the only person who can stop the killer before time runs out for his next victim.Ticking Clock is certainly one of the better DTV films starring Cuba.
Neil McDonough provides a good antagonist to Cuba, and I loved the end showdown they had.
He makes for a formidable protagonist for McDonough, and doesn't succumb to moments of over-acting like he does at times in a lot of his DTV efforts.
Well I saw this movie about 3 months ago and as I am a big fan of Neal NcDonough, looked forward to it a lot.
I must say first of all that I thoroughly enjoyed the film, although Cuba Gooding Jnr was not the best actor for the main role, the story was great and the twist was enjoyable.
I think the last film i saw Cuba in was hardwired and I wasn't very impressed by his role but once again i did enjoy the story.I do believe that a big name actor in the main role would have made this a lot better along with some other recasting, but all in all very watchable, not B-grade by any means and definitely an enjoyable watch.
Im surprised this went straight to DVD as I think it would of done well with some good marketing at the cinemas, but none the less I hope lot's of people go out and hire or buy this one and hopefully enjoy it as much as I did.
What a Great story...too bad it is all I can say on it's behalf...very poor casting...lacking in color...intriguing; brings you to the end...not a movie I would keep in my library...I wonder if a Nicholas Cage or a Bruce Willis could of punched out the film...I believe so...Sorry Cuba...Not great...But an Excellent Story...Neil stole the lead role here and even there it was poor...I feel as though I was watching a B movie and was constantly waiting for a moment where I would of been surprised...did not happened...the surprise for me was not in the actual movie...but in the story...which is too bad because it is a great story...and had potential to be a great movie....
Lewis Hicks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a boozing reporter who took for granted his ex spouse as well as his son who he misses weekend visits with because he's always onto the next biggest scoop.
From then on out it turns into a cat and mouse game of good vs evil before more victims' lives are claimed.The "big" twist in "Ticking Clock" is more related to science fiction than an action or thriller, and causes you to suspend your disbelief and except the facts at face value.
This direct-to-video feature comes across like a scraped episode for "Millennium," with a similar, strange tone of drama and horror, where everything is baked in shadows, panned to get atmosphere, time stamped and generates tragic piano pieces to build mood.
Not a bad movie, a polish on the script would have helped this and maybe even made this a blockbuster - rather than a straight to DVD release.The writing for the cops and the first investigation of a murder scene was really poorly scripted.It must be obvious that the writer has little knowledge of police interrogation and kinda missed the entire personal emotions for it.That aside, building it up could have been done better, but still I think that the story was alright.It certainly is no Back To The Future or Terminator.
Imagine two people creeping around a dark building hunting each other with guns trying to be as quiet as possible, that is when they'd play this stringy music, not when a detective is interviewing Hicks.
Unfortunately it is like this all the way through the movie and there aren't many scenes without music though it is such a relief when they do come along.
Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. has had one of the strangest acting careers in a long time.
This has sent the once-promising actor deep into the realm of straight-to-video nonsense, like his previous films 'The Devil's Tomb' and 'The Way of War.' Why he's been doing this is a mystery.
Maybe it's bad luck, maybe it's laziness, maybe Cuba just doesn't want the spotlight he deserves.Whatever the reason for his failing success, it has led him straight to 'Ticking Clock.' In it, he plays Lewis Hicks, a journalist who gets put on the trail of a sadistic serial killer after his own girlfriend is viciously murdered.
With the killer's journal in hand, Lewis must race against time to rescue the murderer's next victims.
As the path begins to weave its way around and to a young orphan boy, Lewis begins to discover a deeper mystery surrounding the murders.In the crime-thriller subgenre, there are really only a few good ways to go about writing a story.
This is a problem because the mystery is what is usually keeps a viewer watching in a film like this.
By the third act, the audience is fairly apathetic with the story & characters and will most likely not even care about the twist, which the entire film revolves around.This major flaw is not the only problem with the film.
No, a more detrimental issue to its success comes from the extremely amateurish direction by Ernie Barbarash, a man very familiar with mediocre straight-to-video thrillers with his work on 'Cube Zero' and 'Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming.' If you look at a film like 'Se7en' (which, by the way, 'Ticking Clock' actually compares itself to on its DVD sleeve along with 'Silence of the Lambs'), you will see a perfect a example of how to craft a stunning & dark crime thriller.
With 'Se7en,' David Fincher used the gritty city setting as almost another character, having the actors play off the direction in a way that added a deep realism to the film.
Add this to the rather annoying cinematography by Phil Parmet and 'Ticking Clock' is just all around unpleasant to watch.Unfortunately, there isn't much else to cling onto to try to save the film from being a total disappointment.
The lack of mystery & thrills for the first two acts gives no real drive to continue watching for anyone but completionists who don't like to leave a film unfinished.
Even the ridiculous, supernatural twist isn't original, and ends up hurting the film anyway due to the number of plot holes it creates.
For being so crucial to the film's success, one would think the filmmakers would be willing to do what they can to seal plot holes (like a simple case of incorrect eye colour, for example).
Add in some shoddy gore FX, CGI that looks like it should be in a mid-90s sci-fi flick, and a mundane cast of supporting actors, and you have nothing more than a sad excuse for a crime thriller here.Overall, 'Ticking Clock' is just one of those films that will be stuck on the Blockbuster® shelvse for a few months trying to bait renters into biting onto the former star power of Cuba Gooding, Jr. Sadly, it will do nothing but disappoint with its unoriginal & unthrilling story and amteurish filmmaking.Final Verdict: 3.5/10.
On 17 April 2011 the life of the investigative reporter Lewis Hicks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a mess: he misses his son and his wife, from whom he is separated; he is stalled trying to write a book about murders; he has refused a position of assistant professor in the university; and his relationship with the assistant DA Felicia Carson (Veronica Berry) is not working well.
The stranger has dropped his journal on the alley and Lewis finds the diary and discovers that the man has planned several murders of women on the next following days.
When Lewis unsuccessfully tries to save the next victim, he finds evidences that the killer and James is the same person.
But the police led by the resented detective Ed Beker (Yancey Arias) believe that Lewis is the criminal and are chasing him."Ticking Clock" is a flawed film with a story with great potential and also full of inconsistencies but paradoxically is also an enjoyable B-movie.
The screenplay deserved a better development and the character Lewis Hicks takes the worst attitude for each situation.
But using the words of Lewis Hicks, time traveling is complex and the best thing to do is do not think in the plot holes and you may have a good entertainment.
The film follows Cuba Gooding Jr. playing a Private Investigator who's girlfriend gets murdered by some guy who reminds me of a younger Malcolm McDowell.
Seriously, I give the film props for having this guy play the villain because he was good at it.
Coincidentally enough, it lists all the people he is going to kill and what date.So Cuba takes it to the police, the police investigates it, finds the woman he is about to kill, and arrests him before it happens.......
Oh, I'm sorry, that would have been too logical and the movie would have been over: Instead, he takes it to his best friend who doesn't even acknowledge the fact that Cuba showed it to him, the bad guy magically transports to Cuba's home to get the book back, and the cops think that Cuba is the murderer.
Imagine the movie Se7en, with all those seven deadly sin murders and who it could possibly be.
At that point, you would ask yourself, "When did this movie start becoming science fiction and why?" Ticking Clock is the same way.
***SPOILERS*** Both confusing and dreadful film that incorporates science fiction like the movie "Frenquincy" into a psycho serial murderer movie like "Se7an" and comes out looking like neither one of them.
You have to give Cuba Gooding Jr as investigative reporter Lewis Hicks credit in him being able to keep a straight face in all the scenes he's in the movie.
I can just imagine how many takes to took Gooding to achieve that which should have at least gotten him, even though their not haded out until the spring of 2012, an Acdemey Award nomination if not the Award itself for best actor of the year 2011.The story itself,psycho on the loose in the big city, is really nothing new here but there's this twist added in that makes the film at least watchable.
That's to find out if the mad dog leather clothed killer in the movie Keech, Neal McDonough, accomplishes his mission that he's planned for at least 30 years since his birth.
***SPOILERS*** Hicks does get the drop on Keech when he investigates the orphanage that 11 year old James, no last name, played by Austin Abrams is confined to.
Those that were murdered besides what seems like James mom, Erica Bardin, as well as school teacher Vicki Ihrling, Adrianne Frost, and news reporter Felica Carson, Veronica Berry, had some influence on James' life that wasn't at all good.The big mystery in the movie which if you put two and two together wasn't that much of a mystery at all is what exactly did Keech have to do with James in the first place!
We as well as Lewis Hicks get the big surprise or answer well before the movie ends.
Cuba should be saying "show me the better movie scripts".
John Turman takes a break from writing comic book and cartoon based movies to pen this tale of Lewis Hicks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) a newspaper reporter who gets drawn into the homicide investigation of his mistress and finding the killer's diary/sketchbook.The film starts off well enough, nothing to special, but watchable enough.
But as the movie goes on, the plot unravels more and more with each subsequent ridiculous twist.
In this film, Cuba Gooding Jr. plays an investigative journalist so moronic he might be fired even by Fox News.
Blame writer John Turman, who did not think believability was required so long as the "suspense" was maintained.Crazy psycho serial killer "Keech" is played by Neal McDonough with all the woodenness, but none of the humor, of Arnold Schwartzenegger.
When the plot veers out of basic suspense and into science fiction, one begins to wonder if some thoughtful serial killer might not wander out of the future and knock off John Turman before he writes this bomb..
If it weren't for Neal McDonough and Cuba Gooding's participation I would not have bothered watching.
Usually McDonough is the believable villain and Cuba G.Jr. is too sympathetic not to like and they were both that.
The movie starts off with a killing of a woman that takes place 12 years ago.
She is also the gf of Cuba Goodling (Lewis Hicks) an investigative crime journalist who is separated from his wife (6 months) and he likes his liquor.Lewis comes into the home of his gf in time to see the killer.
(He does this several times in the movie and the killer tosses him around like a rag doll.) The killer drops a book with dossiers on everyone who he plans to kill, how he will do it, and the date he will do it.
Lewis copies down the names, fails to turn the book over to the police, and then the killer comes and gets the book back.The killer seems to vanish into thin air at times.
Since he knows who is going to get killed next, he shows up just in time to be the prime suspect- no surprise there.The movie does have a twist that didn't seem to fit well into the genre of the film.
The murderer turns out to be a guy from the future who wants to give his younger self a better life than he had.
In the end, the time-traveling murder ends up killing his younger self, which in turn kills the future self and rights everything.
The Sci-Fi Twist Added Little Of Importance To A Less Than Impressive Movie.
It was shaping up as a pretty standard story of a serial killer case being looked into by an investigative reporter (Lewis Hicks, played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) At some point, it becomes an open question whether there really is a serial killer, or whether the serial killer is a fiction of Hicks' imagination, and Hicks is really the serial killer.
Posing as someone from a "big brother" type agency, Hicks is able to convince a social worker to let him leave an orphanage with a young boy?
This will be the last Cuba Gooding movie I watch.
Where is the Cuba Gooding that acted in A Murder of Crows, bring back the Cuba and maybe he'd get some better roles.
TICKING CLOCK is a shabby straight to video serial killer thriller in which a slumming-it Cuba Gooding Jr. plays a reporter investigating the journal of a crazed killer, played with customary relish by Neal McDonough.
As the story gets more complex and Gooding Jr. befriends a twisted young boy who has an unusual link to the crimes, things take on a sci-fi twist that reminded me a little of the ones in FREQUENCY or DEJA VU.
When he finds a killers book with names and dates in it he goes after him, trying to stop his next attacks.When the movie started I laughed, I'm sorry but does anyone notice that each one of Cuba's movies start off with him drinking or him sweating?
The movie goes at a pretty good pace.
The storyline is OK, you may figure out what's going but if you don't the twist in the movie is a half decent one but could have been done a little better.The acting is a always a problem in Cuba's movies and it was suspect again in this one.
I did enjoy Mcdonough's acting, it gave support to Cuba and added interest to the movie.Overall you may like this if your a Cuba fan but don't expect anything mind blowing and don't expect anything better than an average straight to DVD release.
I give this a movie a 6/10 because I give credit to Cuba for improving since his last performances but he still has a ways to go.--Forza Azzurri