Clockstoppers
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.09 You Save: $5.89 (59%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of Clockstoppers
Movie Review: A good idea that goes nowhere (especially in hyper-time)
Summary: 3 Stars
The idea is attractive: what if you could move so quickly that everybody else would look like they were frozen? You would not be stopping everybody in their place, as in the old "Twilight Zone" episode, but rather you would be going at living in hyper-time. Dr. George Gibbs (Robin Thomas) has invented a way of making this work and put it in a witch, which ends up in the hands of his teenage son, Zak (Jesse Bradford). Of course, Zak sees this as a great way of impressing the new girl at school, Francesca (Paula Garces), but there is also the problem bad people in the employee of millionaire Henry Gate (Michael Biehn) are after Zac for the watch. To make things worse, Zac gets help from Dr. Earl Dopler (French Stewart), who has been trapped in hyper-time and aged by the process, and his father is kidnapped by the bad people. The movie has one problem, but it is big and ultimately undermines the entire film. Given this incredibly neat premise, script writers Rob Hedden, Andy Hedden, J. David Stem and David N. Weiss fail to exploit the comic potential to its fullest. The guy with the nose ring trying to steal the bicycle gets a nice comeuppance, but everything else is rather lame. Come this with what happens to Jim Carey's character in "Bruce Almighty," who is given divine powers and knows immediately what is on his "things to do" list when granted divine powers. We should all have our lists for what we should do if we become a god, can turn invisible, or move at super speed. At least Zac's girlfriend enjoys exploring the sense of wonder over their newfound ability.
Most of "Clockstoppers" is not about using the hyper-time device but rather about getting control of the it, which means they come up with this great idea and then make it a minor plot device. Maybe the special effects budget was not big enough, but this is a film where the gimmick has to be at the core of the film. Then again, even without big money you should be able to come up with some good routines provided you have the IMAGINATION to think them up in the first place. Besides, thinking through the plot possibilities here was clearly too much. It turns out you do not have to be wearing the watch to be affected, you just have to be touching the person wearing the watch when they turn it on. I might buy warp drive and transporter beams because of what they do to facilitate the telling of a story, but this is too much for me to accept.
Granted, there is one good joke at the expense of director Jonathan Frakes, but even the Nickelodeon age audience is going to figure out that the idea of "Clockstoppers" is much better than the execution. This is another one of those movies where all the best bits are in the trailer. Too bad the writers could not spend a couple of months in hyper-time coming up with better ways of exploiting their basic premise.
Movie Review: Great film for the kids
Summary: 3 Stars
The movie is about a watch that stops time - or rather, it speeds up the wearer of the watch and anything he is touching when he activates the watch and appears to stop time. That leads to some interesting effects. The watch lands in the hands of Zak, a high-school student played by Jesse Bradford - and the film becomes a teenage comedy. The omnipresent evil government agency wants the watch and the chase is on. French Stewart is the developer of the watch and has a nice funny role. Zak's African-American high-school buddy is about a half step away from Stepin Fetchit (a very underrated comic, by the way) and Michael Biehn has very little screen time. Paula Garces plays the girl-friend Francesca with some style. The movie has so much going on that it leaves too many loose ends and lapses of logic; there is too much time spent on scenes that do not advance the film and not enough time spent on scenes that do. Adults will have to work hard to stay interested. Jonathan Frakes is a better director than this.
I suggest watching the film with children present because they will applaud the wonderful things they could do with a watch that stops time and they will laugh at every comic moment. I have to tell you that I got as big a kick out of watching my children watch the film as I did watching the film itself. If you are looking for a nice inoffensive movie to watch with your children this is right down your alley.
Movie Review: fun movie, especially for younger teenagers
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm not so harsh a reviewer as some have been on this movie, I thought it was a fun way to spend 90 minutes. The plot concerns a research project headed by a government agent (Michael Biehn)that is supposed to develop a means of altering time. The concept , to speed time up so that an agent can do a mission undetected, works but has a drawback in that using it too much speeds up the aging process. Because of this drawback Biehn's projcet will be shut down unless he can find a solution. The kids get into it when the boy discovers that a watch his father had (sent to him by the other scientist)isn't actually a watch at all but a device that appears to freeze time except for the wearer or someone in contact with them. The viewer is 'treated' to a long run of scenes in which the boy and girl have fun with the device, these are mostly very well done. I can't remember how far you actually get though the movie before the kids come into contact with the first scientist from the project but they soon are drawn into rescuing the boys father(an associate of the first scientist, he was kidnapped to do what the other man could not)and defeating the evil Govt. agent and his crew. The plot is very thin but fun to watch, much better suited to young teens than their parents.Movie Review: Fair afternoon special
Summary: 3 Stars
The concept is not original. You have seen this before many times from Twilight Zones to "The Girl, The Gold Watch & Everything" (1980). Some do it well as in "Timestalkers" (1987) and then there is this movie.
Standard premise, misunderstood youth know better than parents. Yep and of course has to save sire from the evil bad guy that has gone amuck. Zack has Henry's (Michael Biehm) molecular watch and he wants it back. On the side father of Zack can be useful in completing project. So will Zack save his dad or will Francesca runoff to Tahiti with the bad guy?
One plus is the presents of French Stewart; I guess they needed one actor in the movie. And for distraction purposes Paula Garcés.
Movie Review: Could be better
Summary: 3 Stars
Clockstoppers is a great idea for a movie but it's a bit too kiddie for most people to enjoy. I think if this was more of an adult movie it would have been fantastic. The corn ball comedy and silly characters (Francesca? Could they have come up with a dumber name?) really holds this movie back. Some of the special effects are pretty good. But then some of them are pretty bad like when Zak and Francesca make their DJ friend spin in the air in front of a crowd of people. Naturally the people didn't notice anything odd about that.