Nick of Time (1995)

Johnny Depp wears severe wire rims and a gray suit in Nick of Time, his bid for mainstream action stardom. Depp is an accountant randomly selected by Christopher Walken (on menacing-villain autopilot) to assassinate a liberal California governor played by Marsha Mason. If Depp doesn't blow her away, Walken will kill Depp's sweet little cherub of a daughter (Courtney Chase); he has 90 minutes to do it. The movie plays itself out in real time, a bad gimmick because we know early on that nothing significant is going to happen until the final seconds. Set in an L.A. hotel, Nick of Time, produced and directed by John Badham, has a subtext: The only people Depp can trust to help him are the hotel's maids, janitors, and a shoe-shine man played by Charles S. Dutton (Alien 3); working-class folks are brave, while people in expensive clothes are corrupt. Depp staggers through this bleeding-heart botch with his mouth open, his bespectacled eyes blinking with supplication. He was more of an action hero when he was Edward Scissorhands. D