Fall Time

Mickey Rourke and Stephen Baldwin are about to pull off a small-town bank robbery. Unfortunately for their careful plans, three local youngsters have decided to do a fake robbery of the bank as a prank. Baldwin and Rourke subject them to sadistic and even sexual punishment.

It's an interesting central story, and the performances are good. However, the film makers have decided to set it in the 1950s and excoriate the entire decade. They also include several dozen shots of a woman baking an apple pie, and three children -- presumably the youngsters some years earlier -- playing around a swimming hole. Clearly intended to add depth to whatever the message this film tries to offer -- something like "don't try to rob a bank as a joke, because it probably won't turn out well" -- this movie would have turned out a lot better without that.

I recently rewatched Fall Time (1995) on Tubi. The storyline follows a group of kids in a small Midwestern town who plan a fake kidnapping as a prank. Unfortunately for them, their timing coincides with a real bank heist, and some of the kids end up as hostages. Can they find a way out of their predicament?

Directed by Paul Warner (Portraits in Dramatic Time), the film stars Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler), David Arquette (Scream), Stephen Baldwin (The Usual Suspects), and Jason London (Dazed and Confused).

This is one of those films where you're glad you're not in the situation but can't help watching to see how it unfolds. The characters and circumstances are well-established and engaging, with a cast that fits the roles perfectly. The hostage situation balances humor and intensity, with one slapping scene that cracked me up. The plot is clever, full of twists and turns, keeping you guessing about how things will resolve. The final shootout is excellent, and the ending is a blindside, though I'm still on the fence about how I feel about it.

Overall, Fall Time is a unique and entertaining bank heist movie that's worth a watch. I'd rate it a 6.5/10.

I didn't know what to think at first because there were so many nutty things going on in this juicy little film. Yea, now that I read some of the other reviews, the homoerotic thing fits. I wondered if I was imagining things, or what. All the touching, close contact,. . . is he going to kiss him?! Mickey Rourke was amazing! And he had the best lines many of which were sheer poetry/philosophy/Rourke. I was sure he wrote the script, but no. Baldwin was also in excellent form. Actually they all were. Sheryl Lee was a riot having fun with the role -almost too much fun, as the clever "girl who got away." See the film!!! Oh, and the Mom who was always baking pies -too funny. Not a word from her, but she stole the scenes from the ranting Dad.

Ambitious in its use of Gay leads (no overtones here, completely in your face), period setting, and crazy goings on. The Movie starts sort of weak with overacting by the three teenagers wildly flailing about and trash talking incessantly. But once our two ferry-land psychos enter, the thing sort of becomes entertaining in a low rent hoodlum kind of way.

Although it goes to some length to be 1950's kitsch some of the props look like modern thrift shop and antique store borrowings as they are worn out and do distract somewhat from believability. But that is a minor quibble because things do perk up and turn into some fun.

The convoluted plot and some of the explanations of some of the behavior develop confusion, it is the violence and the Gay behavior of the characters that bring this home with a different feel and is a near winner despite some of its missteps. This is one of Stephen Baldwin's best performances and Mickey Rourke is, well the always interesting Mickey Rourke.

Man, how I regret wasting my precious time on this film. Fall Time is so awful that I kind of feel ashamed to have it in my DVD collection. Not for long though… Don't be fooled by the Sundance nomination (how this piece of junk achieved it is a mystery) and the promising cast: Fall Time is an annoyingly bad film. Its plot is contrived, the developments of the story border on the ridiculous and to top it off the acting is poor. Even those actors who proved elsewhere that they can do much better (Mickey Rourke, Sheryl Lee) fail to impress.

When you feel that it is a movie that you are watching and not a story that you could immerse yourself in, when you see sweating actors instead of characters or cheap sets instead of real locations you know that the illusion you expect to get from a film will not arrive this time. Try as I might I would be hard pressed to find a single redeeming feature in this film. I only gave it 2 stars to reserve 1 for the absolute black holes of cinema. Avoid it like the plague!