Photo courtesy of MGM Denzel Washington plays a cop who is framed for a murder he didn't commit and must prove his innocence before he runs "Out of Time."

Rating: 1.5

To be read in a movie preview voice:

"Framed for a murder he didn't commit, investigated by a wife who he's just lost. Denzel Washington is 'Out of Time.'"

That's my new tagline for "Out of Time." Does it seem original? Does it seem like it would be impossible to decipher what possibly could happen in the end? I don't think so.

Washington is a small town Florida police chief who is trying to cover up his relationship with a murder victim, because someone has set him up so all the facts point to him.

He has to stay one step ahead of his separated wife (Eva Mendes, "2 Fast 2 Furious") and the rest of the police department to solve the murder and clear his name.

He changes phone records and tries to cover up his giving $450,000 of drug bust money to his lover so she could get cancer treatment. As he finds out more and more, he begins to see the twisted chain of his setup.

"But will he find out everything in time? Or will he be· 'Out of Time?'"

Washington does a fine job, as usual, and makes the movie seem much better than it deserves to be. Even former television Superman Dean Cain ("Lois and Clark") shows up and does a decent job.

But it's not the acting or even the boring directing (Carl Franklin) that stands out about this film. The film leaves you with a question that will plague you for years.

"Why was this film ever made?"

Money is the obvious answer.

But beyond that, why did someone write this? Did they think it was clever and innovative? Certainly not. And the writer's only previous credits are from the hilarious and edgy "Family Guy," which puts more suspicion into why he wrote this garbage.

I'm pretty sure that writer David Collard was brainwashed. In fact, the story of him writing this script would be more interesting than "Out of Time."

"Young writer David Collard is on his way to the top. But the movie studios have another idea. Credited for a screenplay he can't remember writing, accused of sucking by audiences around the country, Collard must clear his name to get more work before he's 'Out of Money.'"

I don't even understand why the movie is called "Out of Time."

Like every movie ever made, the lead character only has so much time to get the plot resolved, but it would have been more appropriately titled "Killing Time," "In the Nick of Time," "Timecop" or "No Time." Those were all taken I guess.

When you have to use the word "Time" in your movie title, you should just pack it up and go home. Cancel the project. Save a few months. Save millions of people a couple hours.

Or else you'll end up with something like this:

"In a world·where most movies are generic, one movie stood out among them all. The most generic, the most obvious, Academy-Award Winner Denzel Washington in "Out of Time."