Also Playing

Outta Time

Mario Lopez and Ali Landry star in 'Outta Time,' from helmer Lorena David.

Most Viewed: 'New Moon' crosses $200 million(4891 views) Invictus(2127 views) The costs of Hollywood spending(1759 views) Hollywood sea of change(1502 views) Pearce hops on to 'Hungry Rabbit Jumps'(677 views) Football player elbows vampires on Turkey day(676 views)

Brief pre-credit sequence badly apes "Seconds," as a businessman is kidnapped and drugged under the supervision of "Access Hollywood" co-host Nancy O'Dell playing -- in one of the nuttier casting bits of the year -- an evil, leather-clad doctor who could have been chummy with Dr. Mengele.

Meanwhile, collegiate soccer player David (Mario Lopez) is cut from his squad after struggling with knee injuries. After visiting his mom (Dyana Ortelli) in Tijuana, where he grew up and where she supports him with two jobs, David gets a break with a work tip from ex-g.f. and assistant professor Emma (Tava Smiley): Biochemist Jonas Darabont (John Saxon) is hiring at his San Diego firm, but with a catch -- he'll pay David handsomely to illegally transport serums across the border for animal tests in Mexico. It's obvious trouble from the start, but David goes for it, desperate to pay off his tuition. Emma gets too curious for her own good, and David's off to the races.

No more than a chase pic from this moment on, "Outta Time" basically pushes David's character into one pool of hot water after another, to the point where he could be, in a vastly different film, some kind of cousin to Harold Lloyd. Among the inanities: David running around half of Southern California and Baja holding onto a picnic cooler; FBI agents chasing and shooting at him like madmen frothing at the mouth, while the combined forces of two nations can't find him; David conveniently grabbing a ride with an attractive, upper-class, raven-haired ex-con (Ali Landry), who's also on the run.

Helmer David occasionally reaches for comedy (our hero loses his cooler in a park full of them; O'Dell wisecracks her way through heart surgery), but she can't find the right tone. In any case, the cast is no help, with Carlos Mencia as David's just-in-the-knick-of-time pal the only source of real comic levity. Though it's not hard to imagine Lopez someday finding the right vehicle to release his full charisma, this particular "Outta" auto has nothing but flats.

Production manages extensive Tijuana and San Diego exteriors on a budget, but lab process to make Mexican settings overexposed and "dirty" proves a terrible idea.

Camera (FotoKem color), Lisa Wiegand; editor, Allan Spencer Wall; music, Scott Gilman; music supervisor, Locomotion Music; production designers, Devorah Herbert, Cliff Spencer; costume designer, LuEllyn Harper-Thomas; sound (Dolby Digital), Mathew Nicolay; supervising sound editor, Jeremy Hoenack; special effects coordinator, Michael Lambert; assistant director, Thomas Kuk; second unit camera, Igor Meglic; casting, Katy Wallin-Sandalis. Reviewed on videotape, L.A., April 9, 2002. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 89 MIN.