An overlooked mystery thriller clears its name on streaming 20 years after cratering at the box office

There isn’t much in the world of cinema that can be designated as a guaranteed box office success, but for the most part, history has shown that an action thriller starring Denzel Washington in the lead role is about as bulletproof as it gets. The two-time Academy Award winner is one of the most bankable names in the business, but as Out of Time showed 20 years ago, even he isn’t immune from the odd flop on occasion.

The murder mystery thriller came bearing a talented cast, intriguing concept, and a decent-sized budget, which is usually the exact same recipe that sees Washington’s hard-boiled genre flicks do a solid turn among paying customers. Instead, director Carl Franklin’s sun-baked procedural barely recouped its $50 million production costs, despite winning strong reviews from critics and crowds.

Set in a small Florida town, Denzel’s police chief is in the midst of a divorce from his wife, while at the same time engaging in an extramarital affair. However, when he finds out that his new paramour has been stricken with terminal cancer, he illicitly steals a seizure of drug money to pay for her treatment. When she turns up dead under suspicious circumstances, though, he ends up being named as the number one suspect in the arson-assisted murder.

“Denzel Washington trying to clear his name and uncover a conspiracy” is about as reliable a form of cinema as you can find on screens both big and small, so there shouldn’t be any shocked faces after FlixPatrol revealed Out of Time to be one of the Top 10 most-watched movies on Prime Video this week. The legend keeps knocking them out, and we’ll never get enough.