Time Bomb (2006)

Poor, unconvincing and weak are the only words I can say for Time Bomb. There was no Time Bomb, from beginning to end the so called terrorists gave Home Land Security all the time to diffuse the situation "bombs" at their leisure. The acting was so poor and unconvincing I pitied and loathed the entire cast, from the protagonist to villain. David Arquette's emotions were as bad as Will Smith's in Seven Pounds. How this movie got the rating baffles me. Arquettes's wife and child have been kidnapped as leverage on the 65,000 people's lives, so what! Who is he that his family should come first before thousands? My 3 year old could have written a better screen play, and his reaction is so, so... unconvincing it's like he's had his neighbours' pet parrot taken for ransom. You can actually see him forcing to feel a connection to these 2 people (wife and son) when called by the so claimed "terrorist". This plot is becoming so generic that I can now almost guess the bad guy won't be the Arab, foreign type but the patriotic money hungry/warlord (weapons dealer) American. 24 has done all the foreign and internal terrorists scenario and pulled them off but the rest are like a fumbling copy cat serial murderer without the murderer's secret signature. Watch it if you've seen everything else on telly but otherwise wait till you're hospitalised (on you death bed) and can't change the channels.

Homeland Security Agent Michael Bookman (David Arquette) has not been spending enough time with his wife Lynn and son Sean. That may be about to change as they join 63,000 other fans at Washington's Memorial Stadium for the football game against New Orleans, a team which lost badly in the last game against Washington and now wants revenge.Also watching the game: fans at a bar where masked terrorists enter and handcuff them to a bomb which will go off if they move. The bomb is set on a timer, so it will go off anyway unless ...Somehow, one of the people in the bar moves carefully enough to make a phone call, and Bookman has to make yet another excuse to his wife and son.The first bomb was only a warning. A phone call made by someone with a disguised voice warns that the football stadium will be destroyed at the end of the game unless a prisoner with a Middle Eastern name I won't attempt to spell is released, and $100 million is deposited in an offshore account. The terrorist group Circle of Fire is blamed. Al Qaida is mentioned in the movie, but it is apparently separate. No one can announce this news to the crowd, and if the people start leaving--BOOM! When Bookman gets this news, he is on the phone with his wife, and he warns her to leave the stadium with Sean. Unfortunately, someone connected with the bombing threat knows where they are.Bookman and bomb expert Douglas Campbell (Richard T. Jones) must lead the search for the bomb or bombs, with numerous complications standing in the way of preventing a tragedy. Among these is the fact that in the event of nuclear war, Congress would move to quarters accessible from the stadium, and this is where the terrorists might be.Only a few people connected with the stadium or the game are allowed to know what is going on, and they are required to keep quiet--with men standing nearby with guns making sure they do.The tension level remains constant in this movie, and the excitement builds to a climax enhanced by spectacular mixing of audio and video from the game with audio and video of the efforts to prevent the bombing. If there were an Emmy for just editing in a TV-movie or miniseries, as opposed to just audio editing or video editing, they could hand that one out right now. This is also true because of the impressive job done for editing the disarming of the first bomb.Angela Bassett gave the standout performance here as the Homeland Security Agent who communicated with Bookman from the office where the investigation was taking place. She had difficult decisions to make--some of them life-or-death, and some having to be made with little warning.David Arquette also showed a take-charge attitude, though his character had trouble controlling his temper, and while his anger might have been justified, his performance needed a little more range.The football announcers did quite a good convincing job, especially the play-by-play man, who had one moment that could be ranked with the 1980 Olympic Hockey victory among the great events in sports broadcasting.I also need to single out the actor who played a suspect who was arrested. He didn't have a lot of lines, but he did a good job. At this point, I should also mention that several Muslims and Middle Easterners, or people believed to be one or the other, were unjustly accused. This to me was not a weakness because it added to the drama, though several valuable members of the explosives team could have been lost as a result.The writers really seemed to know what they were doing. I don't know enough to know whether the explosives experts were doing everything right, but they certainly dealt with a number of confusing and dangerous situations.The football game seemed real enough, though I know little about sports. Based on the commentary from the announcers, the game added a lot to the movie's excitement.This was one of the season's better TV-movies.

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.

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....