Clint Eastwood's True Crime shows how even at the ripe old age of 69 (or 70) he can still make a film that has an equal level of skill and practical entertainment value to his older ones. It's nothing great as art, however, and I doubt that it'll be put along the ranks of his great westerns of really chilling cop thrillers. But I remember seeing it twice in the theater (the second time as it was the only movie I could see as being worth seeing among the lot of movies that were out in the theater that time of the year), and thinking well enough of it both times. It's a perfunctory, suspenseful look at a flawed-man though hard-edged journalist (Eastwood) who is trying to find the truth of a death years earlier to save a man's life on deat5h row (Isaiah Washingon is convincing as this man). Denis Leary and James Woods give their all for Eastwood here as co-stars, and there's always a sense of other good character actors in the mix as well (Michael Jeter anyone?). With moments of sorrow mixed with touches of dark comedy, and a finale we all know is coming but keeps us biting the nails all the way, it's not bad at all. If I wouldn't rank it right up there with the best of Eastwood's it might be because of its pat predictability and somewhat lack of interest in the core case in the story. B+
