There are many reasons to watch this movie.

One is not to appreciate the acting, or plodding direction, but to see how badly a film can date.

1996 does not seem that long ago to me, but after seeing this, it feels like 1985, because of the costumes and the sets, it dated the moment it was printed.

It's Natural Born Killers light, Baldwin re-enacts Postlethwaites murders on the titular programme, and the more murders there are, the more famous and involved Baldwin becomes.

It's an interesting concept, visual media wanting crime to carry on in order to boost ratings, but it's handled so poorly. Sluzier hit the jackpot with 'The Vanishing' but here he seems like he has given up on the whole movie business.

Postlethwaite is as reliable as ever, and Baldwin proves again, he is the third most popular in the family business.

It's a little overlong, and the ending feels a bit rushed, but there is something unique in the movie and the story trying to get out, which is a shame, because this is a cracking concept.

George Sluizer of THE VANISHING fame ( He made both the haunting European original and the Hollywood remake ) directed CRIMETIME . He shouldn't really be blamed for this confused , poor movie because all the problems lie in Brendan Somers script . It's ill focused and lazily written . For instance the killer hangs around a nightclub waiting to pick up a victim , any victim and starts talking to a teenage girl . Cut to the next scene where she tells the villain " I've told you everything about myself , tell me about your life ? " Unfortunately the girl has told the baddie her life story off screen and is a terrible example of the screenwriter not being able to bring a character to life through dialogue . I know for a fact how bloody difficult this is but for a screenplay that is produced the writer should have tried harder

It's difficult to explain the message of the film . At some points it feels like it's trying to be a British NATURAL BORN KILLERS satarising the media's voyeurism with crime ( Perhaps it even influenced the infamous video game MANHUNT ) but the script isn't witty enough to carry this off . When you've got a sex scene that doesn't progress the plot or characters or hint of subtext you know you've got a badly written screenplay and CRIMETIME is a badly written screenplay

It may appear that I was lording it over all commentators, that it was I and not they who was brilliant enough to write this or any script. NO!!! And a thousand times NO!!! My lording it is ONLY over those who hysterically criticised the film and not those who saw good things in it. And please ..... have a little sense ..... a first time screenwriter is not at all powerful enough to force a bad screenplay on the financiers/producers etc. They made me write about ten scripts until I got what they thought was right. Crimetime was meant to be a funny/clever/ nasty little slasher movie and I think the producers and financiers were afraid of that - the video nasty scare was still in the air and they hadn't the guts to understand what the public wants. I'm afraid the acting with the exception of Pete and that wonderful actress playing the waitress(I'm serious!) wasn't what I wanted at all. Bobby was meant to be an utterly normal nice guy not the brooding presence that Baldwin was from word go. Finally read the Sight And Sound review (1996) for a less hysterical view that my detractors (one even criticised me for only having written German TV films!!!!).