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Clockstoppers

Clockstoppers

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A good idea that goes nowhere (especially in hyper-time)
Review: 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.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great film for the kids
Review: 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.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Stop the time to watch it over and over again
Review: This is a great film. You should see this film. It's got action. It's got adventure. It's got fun. I am defintly going to buy it along with Hey Arnold! the movie. Clockstoppers is a must-see movie. Everyone can stop the time to watch the ads on the DVD.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cool movie
Review: This is a great movie. The special effects were perfect. The plot wasn't bad. I want a watch that can stop time! The only let down for me was the lack of bonus features. A few music videos, trailers, and a quick behind the scenes video are all you get. But other than that this dvd is great. Don't let the fact that Nick made this film, drive you away. It isn't just a mindless gross out flick. But I did like Good Burger...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A mile-a-minuet, time-stopping adventure for everyone!
Review: This is a mile-a-minuet, time-stopping adventure for everyone!
This movie has it all! Action, Adventure, Romance, and lots of fun! It's rated Pg for adult laungage, and action But as long as you know your kids or you're just in the mood for a great movie this is the one you'll want!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great kids flick!
Review: This is a really good film for kids age 8 - 13. Just enough excitement without all the violence and language of other films. It's a little too high up on the intelligence scale for under 8 I think. It's a little too goofy for over 13.

But in that range of 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th graders, it should be a big hit.

There's just something cool about being able to stop time and only you keep going. The ads on Nickleodean were great. And the thing is, time isn't stopped, you only perceive it as stopped because your relative time is so fast. The moview will explain it.

The acting was real good... Not great, but real good. Believable.

Not too many extras on the DVD. Small interviews with the main characters. The TV trailers... Not much more.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hypertime review
Review: This mocie is great! I just saw it yesterday and it was everything I wanted. Action, adventure and a wonderful plot. The actors and actresses were great. It involves a watch that mistakenly gets in the possession of a teenager named Zach. Soon though, the workers at a place called Q.T. find out and come after him. Along with the new girl at school, Franchesca, his best friend, and one of his father's old students, he sets out to find his father since he was working on it. This is a great movie and a must see.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The soundtrack has Blink 182. That speaks for itself.
Review: This movie had infinite errors in logic and physics. The first one that comes to mind occurred during the introduction of the main character's father, a college physics professor. He's teaching his class about the theory of relativity. Not in terms of mathematics, but the basic theory, demonstrated with toy cars. Interestingly enough, his students knew not of what he was speaking (Professor: Einstein's theory of...? Student: Traffic laws? (yuck yuck yuck)). More amazing yet was that they had their midterms scheduled a week later. Also interesting were the complex equations written on the professor's blackboard. They didn't seem to be used much in the basic definition of relativity.

We then later learn about hypertime, where one's particles are sped up to the point where everything else appears to slow nearly to the point of stopping. That's the cause of infinite errors. I'm curious as to the physics of the stopped water droplets, for instance. When the cool teens go into hypertime around a sprinkler, the droplets all stop (well, slow) in midair. The girl then proceeds to wave her hand through them. The droplets speed off and then slowly return to their regular speed. Wouldn't they break against her skin or something? Shouldn't they at least follow the laws of gravity? Hmm... Later still, they mess with some people stuck at regular speed. The camera switches between normal speed view and hypertime view. The two hypertime coolcats move their target around at what looks like normal speed to them. It looks like normal speed to the normal speed people. A bit later, the target randomly starts and stops moving at blurred fast speeds. The hypertime people are still moving the target at the same speed. Hmm, indeed.

Anyway, I guess that was a children's movie. Speaking of which, they used "yo yo yo" seriously. That was humourous. For random nitpicks, the supposedly Venezuelan girl's accent sure seemed to come and go a lot. And why was French Stewart in it? He spends nearly all of his part in the movie as old French Stewart (indicated mainly by grey eyebrows and hair). Why not just hire an old actor and make him look slightly younger for the entire three seconds that we see young French without a disguise on (yeah)?

Ultimately, very troubling logic issues, but I suppose I'm not its intended market. Entertaining if you don't think about it at all. I suppose.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I wish there were real watches like that !!
Review: This movie isn't the best, isn't the worst. I like the storyline. I wish there were real watches like that, that would be really cool. I like the part when Zak stops time, them he and Francesca have some real fun.. they take a stilled dog with its leg up in the air, and they put it in the front seat of a police woman's car. They also did a whole bunch of other things, but that was my favourite. I recognized most of the cast. Jesse Bradford plays Zak. Jesse is in a new film called Swimfan. I highly recommend Clockstoppers!

This DVD has 2 music videos, the making of, movie trailer, etc...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Surprise Winner for Families!
Review: We want more movies like this! Clean fun for older kids. We haven't seen anything this much fun for the whole family since "Back to the Future." It's the same kind of sweet, funny teen sci-fi adventure - Zak (nicely played by Jesse Bradford of Hackers, Bring it On) discovers a watch that stops time. Of course the bad guys want it back.

Director Jonathan Frakes (better known as Commander Riker on Star Trek) displays the touch that made Star Trek such a hit - believable characters and great stories that don't resort to cynicism or slime to deliver their impact. Plenty of action (the stunt biking had my son yelling with satisfaction) and good effects (think Matrix without violence), but without having the effects take over the show.

But the best part of the movie, I think, is the truly great girlfriend. Paula Garces shows the world what 21st century women can be. She's gutsy, funny, Latino, wears fab clothes,...


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