Day 4- Movie 4. True Crime (1999)

I'm a pretty big Clint Eastwood fan. The man is undeniably talented, and has had one of the more impressive careers both as an actor and a director. His ability to stay relevant and effective for the last six decades is almost unbelievable. All that being said, you'd expect that I would really, really like True Crime. Besides the awful, boring title, this seemed like another great Eastwood film- starring him, directed by him, great cast, and a powerful story. And yet, I couldn't help but feel like something was missing from this film. It was lacking any real power or effectiveness.

The story itself has been done over and over again- a hardnosed reporter tries to save an innocent man from death row. Isaiah Washington plays the maybe-innocent, maybe-guilty prisoner about to be executed (and is certainly one of the best aspects of the entire movie). The film takes place during a surprisingly short amount of time- this was supposed to add to the tension. And yet, I could never really get into the story or the characters. Clint Eastwood plays one of his typical characters, but he's not exactly a good person- he's a recovering alcoholic and a womanizer. I appreciated his performance, but I just didn't like him very much here. It is hard to like a film when you don't really like any of the characters.

While this film was a disappointment, it's still better than many other films out there. Eastwood is such a talented director- Gran Torino, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, Unforgiven, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil are all very effective films. I think it's pretty amazing that after appearing in over 60 films, the 80 year old Eastwood has directed 35 movies as well. He shows no sign of slowing down. While this wasn't one of his better films, it wasn't completely awful, either.

I'm going to keep this short because this was kind of a "blah" movie. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't very good, either. I really wish the story and the characters had been a bit more compelling. I would give this film a 6.5/10.

So here's the question- what is the best movie Clint Eastwood has directed? For me, it would have to be between Unforgiven, Mystic River, and Million Dollar Baby (although I really, really liked Space Cowboys, too). It's a hard choice, but I think I have to go with Million Dollar Baby. What do you think?