Time of Fear (2002)

Fresh and Exciting

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Off-beat, yet winning, this is low-budget film-making at its most imaginative.Clearly burdened by genre plot -- plus a need that I won't quibble with to add a certain amount of nudity -- this is a triumph of style over budget. The actors -- especially Nick Mancuso and Cheryl Pollak -- are terrific. And hats off for including the late, great Soul star Solomon Burke! Extra points given for the unexpected use of great R&B and Gospel.Why this film isn't more appreciated is a mystery to me. It has a great look, an excellent sense of place, a distinctive mood and feel, and flies by at great speed.

The FBI agent Cheryl Hammer (Cheryl Pollak) arrives in San Pablo, a small town in California, to help the local police to investigate a gruesome and violent murder where the victim's boyfriend is the prime suspect. The joiner Jack Barone (Nick Mancuso), who lost his daughter Lisa ten years ago and is considered insane by the police, tells that the modus operandi of the killer is the same of the man that killed his daughter. When another woman is decapitated with the same savage perversions, agent Hammer asks Barone to help her. Barone's employee Samantha Jennings (Vanessa Lee Evigan) tells him that the last victim was her friend and she noted that she had been followed by a man after her religion encounter in the local church. Hammer and Barone visit Father Patrick LeDoux (Kristofer McNeeley) and they disclose that the murders are related to passages of the Bible. When Samantha is also kidnapped, Barone and Hammer follow their lead to find the serial-killer.The low-budget "Time of Fear" has nothing to do with film-noir as written in a review that promotes this flick and it is actually a predictable, flawed and forgettable thriller. The story is a rip-off of "Resurrection" (1999), and it is very easy to discover the serial-killer due to the small number of characters. The screenplay is badly written, with many points that are not clear. I can list some of them: (1) Did Barone kill the serial-killer in the end? (2) The actor that performs the killer is miscast since he is too young for committing a murder ten years ago. (3) Why would a well-prepared FBI agent with degree in psychology need a joiner to help in the investigation? The FBI agent leaves the detectives in the precinct and follows the leads with the cabinetmaker. (4) Why did Barone kiss her in the harbor? (5) Last but not the least, the grieving father had his life completely destroyed with the loss of his beloved daughter. Why did he spend time talking to the killer instead of putting a bullet in his forehead. In addition, the story has the usual clichés (snoopy reporter, good cop / bad cop, wrong suspect etc.) and shows beautiful breasts to distract and support the weak plot. The ridiculous and corny conclusion, with Barone, Hammer and Sam in the church like a family, is adequate for this flick. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): "O Medo Não Tem Pressa" ("The Fear does not Have Hurry")

Obviously working with serious budget constraints -- not to mention what seems to have been a mandate to include a measure of nudity -- this film approaches "film noir" in a very European way.The storyline of an outsider with a past working outside the law to find a serial killer is clearly a metaphor for a kind of "outsider" film-making. The result is troubling yet striking, with a visual sense and an editing design that breath fresh life into low-budget cinema.As to the performances, Nick Mancuso and Cheryl Pollak lead a strong cast. And whoever thought of using Solomon Burke deserves a pat on the back. Which leads to the music, which is awesome!

Premise of the movie basically okay but I was left with a bunch of unanswered questions such as: * the grieving father - what gave him the credentials to be helpful to the FBI? * Why did he kiss the FBI agent? * why was there so much gratuitous breast-showing? * the jerk came around nicely at the end - why did he do that? * who was the dead body briefly shown towards the end? * who wrote this thing and didn't the word "continuity" make it into his/her vocabulary? * Did the grieving father really kill the bad guy in the end?This movie is muddled, poorly written and sadly predictable. I can't believe I sat through the whole thing but I think I was stunned into something resembling a coma. I lost a couple of hours of my life to this stinker.