Timecop [HD DVD]
![Timecop [HD DVD]](/images/Timecop-HD-DVD-B000X1BYN8-L.jpg)
|
List Price: Our Price: $14.99 You Save: $4.99 (25%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $5.88 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Timecop [HD DVD]
Movie Review: Enjoyable despite inconsistencies (but full-screen?)
Summary: 4 Stars
Apart from the _Terminator_ series, there haven't been all that many SF time-travel action thrillers. There have been time-travel _movies_, but they're generally not action flicks. (_Somewhere in Time_, for example, is primarily a romance, and the brilliant _12 Monkeys_ isn't about "action.") Of course there's Nicholas Meyer's excellent _Time After Time_, which isn't as well known as it should be.
And there's this one. It's not (just) a Van Damme vehicle, though it works well enough for fans of the Muscles from Brussels. It's also a fairly well constructed and enjoyable SF movie.
SF readers be warned: it does _not_ have the logical tightness of Robert A. Heinlein's early time-travel stories ('By His Bootstraps', 'All You Zombies'), or even of the first _Terminator_ film. But as Heinlein found in later life, an unalterable past/future just doesn't make for very exciting drama. (As of _The Cat Who Walks Through Walls_, RAH was officially allowing the past, and therefore the future, to be changed.)
For this film, director Peter Hyams and screenwriters Mark Verheiden and Mark Richardson (also the writers of the Dark Horse comic on which the film is based) borrow liberally but loosely from Poul Anderson's Time Patrol stories. Since (according to this scheme) a physically feasible means of time travel not only exists but can be used to change the past, there will be all sorts of baddies around who will try to adjust things to their own advantage. So there will have to be some time-travel cops who intervene to preserve the 'real' timestream.
Van Damme is one such cop. And in this film he's pitted against Ron Silver, well cast as a crooked politician who wants to rearrange things so that he becomes dictator of America.
Even if you buy the theory of time travel involved here, you've still got some camels to swallow. What, for example, is this nonsense about people exploding if they come into physical contact with their earlier or later selves? The physical explanation given for it in the film is just silly, not only according to 'real' physics but even on the film's own internal logic.
But if you can manage to rationalize this stuff (or at least suspend incredulity long enough to watch the thing), you'll find a well crafted SF drama that succeeds extremely well in its strictly dramatic aspects. And you don't have to be a Van Damme fan to enjoy it. (People who criticize Van Damme's acting may not have seen this movie or some of his more recent work. He's not Olivier or anything, but for this sort of movie, he's _way_ better than his detractors like to admit.)
I'm deducting a star for the full-screen format of the DVD release. Let's see this thing in widescreen, shall we?
Movie Review: one is for no widescreen version
Summary: 1 Stars
Once again, we're stuck with a full screen version of a movie that deserved better then what it got. As with "The Shadow", this is a decent little movie. It's not going to win any awards but it will certainly keep you entertained. Nice premise and decent Van Damme presence (I don't want to call it "acting"), but once again the studio decides to go on the cheap and not even give us a decent letterboxed version.Movie Review: I am very disappointed
Summary: 2 Stars
I just wanted to say that I expected much more from this movie. I think that the best of Van Damme is when he fights and in this movie he does it a very few times and not as good as he can.Personally I think that the best movie of Van Damme is "Lionheart".
Movie Review: Ultimate Van Dammage
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm so sick and tired of movie critics putting "The Muscles From Brussels" down,can this man get any props for his acting.It isn't common for an actor to grose over 200 million for one film.Van Damme proved his movies are worth that as Timecop hit theaters.I remember the buzz it recieved back in 1994.Realisticly 2004 will not be that way portrayed in the Peter Hyams film but realisticly it was a Van Damme good movie.It was Van Dammes highest box-office hit and put Van Damme in the action hero hall of fame.This film is an A+ for great martial-arts tecniques credited due to Van Damme who rarely uses a stunt double and a great storyline,with time travel,remember Back To The Future,well if you liked that movie I advise you to watch Timecop which is just as good with Van Damme in complete control...It's Van Damme at his peak"...Movie Review: What a kick
Summary: 5 Stars
Van Damme is kickin' again in TIMECOP, the sci-fi kung fu action/adventure where he must stop a greedy politician from altering past events for his benefit, and also intercept his wife's killers. It a nice change to see Van Damme with a longer hair cut. And he even ACTS in this movie too. TIMECOP is a must for any fan of Van Damme, kung fu films, sci-fi films, or movies with actual acting.