SpuffyWeb
Sadly Over-hyped
Exoticalot
People are voting emotionally.
JinRoz
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Mickey Roberson (mickeyro)
This review does contain spoilers so do not read it if you want to be surprised about this movie. When I saw the preview for this CBS movie I told my son we should watch it as it would be a topical movie about Middle Eastern/Arab/Muslim/Al Quaeda etc. types trying to kill a bunch of people. He told me I was an idiot as CBS would never make a movie where the terrorists were any of these and he proposed the terrorists to be white supremacists from Idaho and that any Arabs in the movie would be sympathetically portrayed and that any Muslim would be a good Muslim. It turned out that in fact I am an idiot. An Arab falsely profiled is actually a humanitarian football fan, a Muslim police officer is a victim of unfair discrimination and the terrorists willing to kill umpteen thousand of innocents just for greed are a couple of white police officers. Let's see, we have 9/11, the bombings in Madrid, the bombings in London, the bombings in Bali, etc. and who carried out those? I defy anyone to find terrorists attacks carried out by legitimate police officers of any color or race. Part of the reason to watch a movie is to be taken in by the premise and buy it as it might actually happen. I should have known from the beginning that things were not right when our star when told about the results of a wiretap of some suspect Muslims told the officer to get some translators on it as one would think the police would already have thought of having Arab translators listening to the Arab wiretaps. This movie is not about terrorism, but political correctness CBS style gone wild and thus is totally unbelievable in the end. Excellent performance by Richard T. Jones.
uscmd
The movie is not bad. Which ought to tell the discerning movie watcher quite a bit. One serious problem, with 500,000 actors in the world the best they can come up with for a Kiefer Sutherland type role is David Arquette? Not a single comedic moment, unless you find humor in mass murder. I can't see or hear Arquette without thinking ditsy lame comedy. The movie is part Sum of all fears and part Die Hard part 3, and part Sudden Death.We've all seen the generic terrorist movie with minor variances, and this one is a cut above most made for TV movies. If there's nothing else on, watch a half hour and if it catches your interest, stay with it.....it does get better.
yellowdogtvray
"Time Bomb" on CBS featured Mr. Courteney Cox as a Homeland Security officer who races to save 65,000 fans... and his own family... from a threatened terrorist attack at a pro football game in Washington, D.C.Funny how Olympic Stadium in Montreal was suddenly located in D.C., but that's another matter.I had absolutely no inclination or desire to watch "Time Bomb", but it was one of those "it's on, the DVR is rolling on my other stuff, what the hell, let's check it out for a few minutes" thingies.Unbelievable.I'd actually wondered before whether Arquette could play a non-clown role, and I got my answer tonight. All the classic overacting clichés... over emoting, pounding the wall, choking back tears, tortured grimaces... were there, and it was just awful.(As for the "tortured grimace" noted above: who knew the "Dewey from 'Scream'" scrunched-up face was his default look?) One indelible moment was when Arquette's Dewey... er, DHS Agent Bookman (not the library cop from the classic "Seinfeld" episode)... was forced to squelch a crying jag while explaining that his family had been kidnapped. He stopped talking, gulped audibly, placed his hand to his face and said, "Sorry." I can't imagine what co-star Richard T. Jones was thinking at the time.You'd think it was camp, but it was played just as straight as could be.As for Angela Bassett, I see her name is missing from the current cast list. I'm betting she was added later, which wouldn't have been a problem, since all of her scenes take place in a different location.Production values were O.K., but there are plot holes you could drive a truck thru (a zip line to a neighboring house? Wouldn't security notice?).And director Stephen Gyllenhaal (also not listed) must have really loved his football footage: there are long stretches of game action shown (with play-by-play), for no apparent reason. And don't think we don't get the scoreboard clock as a "24" allusion, either.David Arquette may be a terrific guy and has certainly had his share of successes with the odd-ball stuff. I actually admire him for wanting to stretch a bit, but dude, leave the tough-guy stuff for Willis or Keifer.
leorican
First this TV effort has three of my favs, David Arquette, Richard T Jones and the great Angela Bassett. Sadly they are not enough to save this odd fast paced terrorist adventure flick. The movie starts fast and you hardly have enough time to get to know anyone. It also has one of the most annoying filming gimmicks. The moving camera and fast shots of scenes and voice overs during fast shots. Its enough to give you a headache and you can see the same annoying gimmick in past disaster flicks like "10.5" and "The end of the world films" that have been on TV as of late. The story itself is a contradiction to its own purpose. Terrorist plant bombs in a football stadium and kidnap the family of one of the homeland security people played by Arguette. They warn the agents to stay away and not let anyone else know and not to move people out of the stadium. OK...so why then do they move security people in knowing the terrorists are watching them...and if they are being watched why don't the terrorists just tell the agents to leave. I mean they see them when they find the bombs and....unless I missing something....why don't they just threatened to blow up the place if the agents don't exit the arena?....To many questions like these had me rolling my eyes....the only good thing....was the final act when suspicions make for a guessing game of who's in on the threat...but again its not enough to save this frenzy of a movie that half the time looks like its being filmed by someones camcorder....Arguette has the chops to play serious but he dangles on the over the top...as does Angela...but she has it down to an art form and it works for her....Richard's laid back performance is best here. The reasons for all this drama and whats behind the threat will make your eyes roll all the way back and pop out from the absurdity...and again it finishes the same way it started fast and quick and your left feeling like you just ate your food real fast and didn't have time to enjoy it....
