John Turman takes a break from writing comic book and cartoon based movies to pen this tale of Lewis Hicks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) a newspaper reporter who gets drawn into the homicide investigation of his mistress and finding the killer's diary/sketchbook.The film starts off well enough, nothing to special, but watchable enough. But as the movie goes on, the plot unravels more and more with each subsequent ridiculous twist. Furthermore, Neal McDonough, such a brilliant heavy in the most recent season of Justified, is sadly wasted in this ridiculous little film.PS: Newspapers seem to be extremely affordable in the future

***SPOILERS*** Both confusing and dreadful film that incorporates science fiction like the movie "Frenquincy" into a psycho serial murderer movie like "Se7an" and comes out looking like neither one of them. You have to give Cuba Gooding Jr as investigative reporter Lewis Hicks credit in him being able to keep a straight face in all the scenes he's in the movie. I can just imagine how many takes to took Gooding to achieve that which should have at least gotten him, even though their not haded out until the spring of 2012, an Acdemey Award nomination if not the Award itself for best actor of the year 2011.The story itself,psycho on the loose in the big city, is really nothing new here but there's this twist added in that makes the film at least watchable. That's to find out if the mad dog leather clothed killer in the movie Keech, Neal McDonough, accomplishes his mission that he's planned for at least 30 years since his birth. The fact that Keech in 2011 seems to be out of place in the world that he's in makes you wounder if he's not really a human being at all but an alien from outer space. ***SPOILERS*** Hicks does get the drop on Keech when he investigates the orphanage that 11 year old James, no last name, played by Austin Abrams is confined to. Both Keech and young Austin seem have this strange connection,in their DNA, to a string of brutal murders that's been committed around town. Those that were murdered besides what seems like James mom, Erica Bardin, as well as school teacher Vicki Ihrling, Adrianne Frost, and news reporter Felica Carson, Veronica Berry, had some influence on James' life that wasn't at all good.The big mystery in the movie which if you put two and two together wasn't that much of a mystery at all is what exactly did Keech have to do with James in the first place! We as well as Lewis Hicks get the big surprise or answer well before the movie ends. Which makes the ending, in young James putting an end to all this insanity, about as predictable as the Chicago Cubs, who haven't won one in over 100 years, not winning the 2012 World Series.

(Credit IMDb) Lewis Hicks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a reporter and journalist specializing in writing about the crime of murder. Instead of writing his next story, Lewis becomes the story when his new girlfriend is sadistically murdered, and he is the only suspect. Lewis investigates the murder himself and finds the killer's journal with his past victims and a death list of his future prey. Lewis believes that he is the only person who can stop the killer before time runs out for his next victim.Ticking Clock is certainly one of the better DTV films starring Cuba. Wouldn't exactly call the premise original, but it does manage to avoid a lot of clichés and add its own spin on things. Neil McDonough provides a good antagonist to Cuba, and I loved the end showdown they had. Cuba actually looks motivated. When he is not motivated his DTV films usually suffer because of it. I'm not saying this is anything groundbreaking but for a DTV film it's very decent, and considering the depths Cuba has fallen? That is a big compliment. Cuba Gooding Jr. His performance is astute, and amiably well done. He makes for a formidable protagonist for McDonough, and doesn't succumb to moments of over-acting like he does at times in a lot of his DTV efforts. Neil McDonough plays a very good villain. Suitably twisted, and interesting to watch, he certainly did what was required pretty well.Bottom line. Not perfect but it has some neat ideas and most of them were executed nicely. Good performances, intriguing story. What is not to like? Worth a watch 6 ½ 10

Cuba Gooding Jr.'s previous movie, "Wrong Turn At Tahoe", was a surprisingly good movie, so my expectations were pretty high for "Ticking Clock". Sadly, Gooding takes a step back with this movie. I admit that I can't say that this is a BAD movie - while watching it, it kept me interested in seeing how it would be wrapped up - but it's not a successful movie. The movie doesn't look very good for one thing, sometimes looking somewhat cheap and photographed in a way that gives the movie a muddy look. Gooding's character comes across as a somewhat dumb and irresponsible character, and Gooding adds a touch of whine to a lot of the lines this character speaks. And the big twist in the movie will become pretty obvious to just about every viewer long before it dawns on Gooding's character. With this movie, it doesn't seem that any time soon that Gooding will work his way out of the straight-to-DVD sludge he's currently stuck in.