Timecop

Rating:
Summary: 2 stars for DVD, 4 stars for movie itself
Review: Uh...where is the widescreen version? Its not saying much, but this might be Damn's best film besides Bloodsport, and no widescreen transfer? Hmm....
It's been about 6 years since Timecop was originally released on DVD, time for a new widescreen release!

Rating:
Summary: Better than average Van Dmme movie
Review: "Clever and original, Timecop is a thinking man's movie' is how People Magazine described this movie. That is pretty insulting really when you think a long time, say 5 seconds, about it.

As an action movie, Van damme has the moves here. The film moves along at a reasonable pace and the story is plausible if you do not think about it too much. Tragically there is the repetitive theme common to most of the star's movies of the family man who cares. This tends to be the major flaw in his work.

One of the things that really gets me irritated is the tendency to postulate futures where the differences betwenn the near future and now are presented in such a stark fashion that they are incredible to contemplate. here particularly I refer to the vehicles and to some of the coostumes. Look back over the last fifty years and you will see gradual change but essentially the basic styles have remained the same. I understand that for dramatic effect these are useful devices but then they are undermined by the sloppy tendency to use music from olde eras which clearly has not changed.

The holes in the plot are there for all to see although they are disguised by the clever circularity which the film makers use. The action sequences are impressive although they look very dated today, certainly in comparison with Jet Li for instance. Then there is the scene for the ladies where Jean-Claude does the splits. Alas his star has faded in recent years as his current movies tend not to have this feature.

Worthwhile watching on rainy days where there is nothing on the tv. Alas there are too few of the former and too many of the latter.

Rating:
Summary: Best Van Damme film - excellent story.
Review: "WHY ISN'T THIS IN WIDESCREEN?" they all shouted.

I picked up this DVD movie at a clearance sale for $10. Best DVD purchase I have made so far. But why, why, why is this great movie not in Widescreen format? Unacceptable.

In my opinion, this is Van Damme's best film. Peter Hyams does an excellent directing job. This movie is on a par with RoboCop and Total Recall, if you liked those.

The whole 'time loop' thing can get your head spinning trying to figure it out. Other than that, there are some great martial arts scenes. Mia Sara is enchanting. Van Damme has some great lines ("see those two red spots?") I also liked the Matuszak character, and Ron Silver is convincing as his two different selves.

The ending is great, as Walker (Van Damme) rights the wrongs and the bad guy is turned into a pile of squishy stuff.

Rating:
Summary: The best plot of any of the Van Damme movies
Review: A lot of the Jean-Claude Van Damme movies are mostly based on fighting and don't have much of a plot to them, at least that's what the critics say. But "Timecop" is a major exception. Van Damme stars as a time-traveling cop who is out to stop a mad politician (Ron Silver) who is trying to change the past in order to further his ambitions as becoming the next president. Agent Walker (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has to try and stop the madman while also trying to turn back time and save his wife, (Mia Sara), who is pregnant.

During the whole movie, you'll see that "Timecop" has a great plot and a compelling story. When you see certain parts of the movie such as when a man's arm gets frozen and Van Damme kicks it off, and when you see the futuristic cars and how Agent Walker does the time travel, you'll see that "Timecop" also has good special effects. The acting is also good by everybody to make this a great overall movie. If you like good action movies, I recommend getting "Timecop."

Rating:
Summary: The best plot of any of the Van Damme movies
Review: A lot of the Jean-Claude Van Damme movies are mostly based on fighting and don't have much of a plot to them, at least that's what the critics say. But "Timecop" is a major exception. Van Damme stars as a time-traveling cop who is out to stop a mad politician (Ron Silver) who is trying to change the past in order to further his ambitions as becoming the next president. Agent Walker (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has to try and stop the madman while also trying to turn back time and save his wife, (Mia Sara), who is pregnant.

During the whole movie, you'll see that "Timecop" has a great plot and a compelling story. When you see certain parts of the movie such as when a man's arm gets frozen and Van Damme kicks it off, and when you see the futuristic cars and how Agent Walker does the time travel, you'll see that "Timecop" also has good special effects. The acting is also good by everybody to make this a great overall movie. If you like good action movies, I recommend getting "Timecop."

Rating:
Summary: A Dazzling Movie!
Review: All in all this was not a bad movie. Van Damme played the role of the hero to the max. The role of his wife played by Mia Sara was also very good.As a villain Ron Silver was very good. He used the role of a Senator to make his part in the movie very believable. The special effects in the movie were outstanding as well. In this film Ron Silver wants to go back in time and steal a storage of Civil War gold to be used to finance his campaigns. It is the role of our hero as a time cop to stop him. This proves to be a nonstop battle. Van Damme is even forced to use the time device to save his wife. But the battle between Van Damme and Silver is the main event. This movie is a true action movie. Watch it because you will enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: One of Van Damme's Best
Review: Although the story line is questionable and confusing, the action was very intense. Mia Sara looks great on camera. Ron Silver plays the villain trying to use time travel as a monetary benefit for his presidential campaign is perfect for the part. Van Damme doesn't speak much here either, letting his fighting do the talking. If you liked Back to the Future, then Time Cop without the comedy, is your choice.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable despite inconsistencies (but full-screen?)
Review: 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, was a romance.) 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, Peter Hyams borrows 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?

Rating:
Summary: Van Damme's Best
Review: As far as his fighting films go... KICK BOXER is the best. But for story, and cool action, this is Van Damme's best work. Again, Though, UNIVERSAL should have put this one out in Widescreen. Like the adds say, "Wider is Better."

Rating:
Summary: Action packed and just plain fun to watch
Review: By far the best Van Dammne movie. It has an action packed plot and good story. Hey, even my wife enjoys watching this one.