Tick Tock (2000)

A wealthy man becomes suspicious of his younger wife and hires a private detective in time to thwart her plans to have him killed.

Director:

Kevin Tenney

Writer:

Kevin Tenney

Stars:

Megan Ward, Kristin Minter, Linden Ashby

Cast

Cast overview:
Megan Ward	...	Rachel Avery
Kristin Minter	...	Carla
Linden Ashby	...	Travis Brewer
John Ratzenberger	...	Clay Fairfield, P. I.
David Dukes	...	Holden Avery
Hedy Burress	...	Anne Avery
Ian Barford	...	Deputy
Sarah Kaite Coughlan	...	Waitress

Storyline

Beautiful Rachel is the homebound wife of a wealthy, emotionally cold millionaire, Holden. While Holden is away on one of his many business trips, Rachel's close -- very close -- friend, the equally beautiful, plots to kill Holden for the inheritance. With murder on their mind, they seduce simpleton cowboy Travis, whom they meet in a bar, and convince him to do their dirty work. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the cunning women, a private eye hired by Holden to follow Rachel (he suspects her of having an affair) discovers the scheme on the night of the intended murder. Alibis backfire, loyalties are questioned, and more than one murder takes place before the unpredictable ending.

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Plot Keywords:

naked murderer | woman murders a man | rough | femme fatale | dead body in a car trunk | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, sexuality/nudity and some language

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Best of the Worst: Supergirl, Captain America (1990), and Roger Corman's Fantastic Four (2014)

User Reviews

Starts cleverly but the twists get silly towards the end

Rachel is a young woman married to a very rich older man, Holden Avery. However a night out with her friend Carla ends with a one night stand with Travis. Travis is working with Carla and they produce photographs of the two together. Travis tries to blackmail Rachel for $100,000 to destroy the photographs, but Carla is also working with Rachel in a bigger plot involving murder and double-crosses.

I didn't have high hopes for this due to it's unknown cast and the speed with which it reached TV. At the start it looked like another TV film with the same old plot, however it actually gets a bit cleverer than that and has some nice twists and turns, some you expect and some you don't. The clocks winding time back stuff allows us to jump back in forth in time every time a twist occurs - letting us see how the twist came about and a little back story or to see the same events from a different point of view. This is cleverly done but is nothing more than a fancy flashback tool. The twists get a bit silly after a while and aren't as credible the more the film goes on. It's a shame because it starts picking up momentum only to get too fast to be believable.

The unknown cast do a reasonable job, Kristin Minter is the best role (although I felt she was needless shot nude just to keep viewers interest). Megan Ward is not great, she is too tearful and scared at the start and too ruthless at the end, but she does OK. Ashby is also weak with a good ol' boy character. David Duke is one of the worst - not really doing anything with his character or lines. Ratzenberger (best known from Cheers) is good as a private eye but his scenes are often daft and this makes him look bad - for example he is following Rachel as she meets someone in a deserted parking lot, he parks 5 cars lengths away in the middle of an empty lot but doesn't get noticed! Most of his scenes have stupid mistakes like that, things that a real PI would never get away with.

Overall this is cleverer than I thought it would be. The "tick-tock" element makes the flashback idea more interesting, but the twists that are so good at first quickly get silly and a bit tiresome.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 September 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Friendship to Die for

Filming Locations:

Bakersfield, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Daly-Harris Productions, Davis Entertainment Classics

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1