Timecop
In the year 2004 time travel is not only a reality but an opportunity to alter the past for power and profit. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 03/28/2006 Starring: Jean-claude Van Damme Bruce Mcgill Run time: 98 minutes Rating: R Director: Peter Hyams
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars An average movie…but one of Van Damme’s best.
Timecop was Jean-Claude Van Damme’s best grossing movie…and while the plot isn’t easy to follow…the movie does flow at a steady pace. Released in 1994 and based off a comic book by Mark Verheiden…Timecop is a time-traveling romp that spans ten tumultuous years. The movie begins with one of the best opening scenes ever to start a film. Confederate Soldiers are delivering a shipment of gold to General Lee and in the midst of pouring rain an outlaw stands in the way of their progress…with the words “I’ll let you pass, just give me the gold” the movie is underway. In this opening scene there are five heavily armed Confederate Soldiers escorting the general’s gold…and they would sooner shot this lone outlaw than continue any sort of discussion. With a final request by the outlaw to hand over the gold…General Lee’s soldiers reach for their muskets…only to be out drawn and gunned down by a man with two fully loaded automatic hand guns.
The movie then flashes to the next timecrook. TEC (Time Enforcement Commission) Agent Walker’s (Jean-Claude Van Damme) partner has turned rogue and time travels back to the great depression. While stock market traders are jumping from high rise buildings, the rogue cop visits his penthouse, pulls out a USA Today, and buys highly valued stocks of modern time at 1920 prices. Agent Walker is sent back to bring his ex-partner to justice. At this point in the film the plot begins to reveal itself. A young Senator, Aaron McComb (Ron Silver) is a presidential hopeful and uses time travel as a way to illegally obtain money to finance his candidacy. Agent Walker, thus spends the rest of the movie trying to stop and prove that Senator McComb is trying to buy the election and alter the future.
The film does has some notable co-stars. Melissa Walker (Mia Sara) plays Agent Walker’s wife…and is instrumental in advancing the story. Eugene Matuzak (Bruce McGill) is head of the TEC and directs the agents on which cases to pursue and when to travel…he is also Agent Walker’s best friend in the film. Sarah Fielding (Gloria Reuben) is an internal affair’s agent assigned to follow Agent Walker after his ex-partner went rogue. She is also instrumental in advancing the film…and while the plot is difficult to understand…this is one of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s best films…and his most acclaimed.
4 Stars Better than Expected!
The movie is a somewhat typical Van Damme film transplanted into a realistic sci-fi world. Regardless of the quality of the movie (which was not that bad) the quality of the transfer was exceptional! For a ‘94 film I was impressed with both the audio and video quality. Bravo!
4 Stars Good movie
I got this movie because a friend broke the original DVD I had. When I watched the HD version, I expected the quality to be better, but it was only just as good as the standard DVD.
5 Stars A Good Time Travel Cop Show
I’ve always been a mixed fan of Jean Claude - I like some of the movies he stars in and then there are others that are I could take or leave.
Timecop is one of those that is good even for a movie that is more than a decade old.
Basically, Jean Claude plays a time enforcement cop who works for an agency that polices the timeline for people who try to go back in time and make things better for themselves. I won’t spoil the movie, but just know that things wind up getting personal and he winds up having to go back in time and at one point “goes rogue” as he works to apprehend the bad guys.
Overall, the acting was good, the directing was excellent, the special effects were good for the time. Time travel movies are hard to do because you risk confusing the audience at large, you risk exposing plot flaults when things don’t add up, and you risk the critique from the people who analyze the consequences of changing timelines etc. As a time travel movie, this is pretty tightly put together and the direction is very good which makes things hold together fairly well.
The movie has a fair degree of review value (you can see it several times as background) associated with it.
This movie comes from when Van Damme was peaking in his career and surrounding himself with excellent directing and production teams and undertaking good projects. I’m also a great fan of Bruce McGill’s acting so his presence in the movie elevates it somewhat for me. Additionally Ron Silver plays a great bad guy. Mia Sara is stunningly beautiful and a wonderful actress as usual and Gloria Reuben plays a great sidekick to VanDamme. Overall, very solid actors with great fighting scenes from Van Damme.
If you like cop shows and can tolerate a bit of sci fi/time travel, you should enjoy this film.
5 Stars Back to the Future on steroids!
The Jean Claude Van Damme Review Matrix (JCVD-RM)
1) Who is he? Max Walker, a law enforcement officer for a government organization that regulates and monitors time travel. He protects the past from those who would take advantage of the technology, like Biff and Skynet.
2) Which family member/friend must be avenged? Unfortunately for JCVD, and 80s movie fans everywhere, he must avenge his lovely wife who learns that nothing is unblowupable.
3) Does he take his shirt off? Only once, and he’s shredded.
4) Does he have sex with a C-List actress? This is the pinnacle of JCVD’s legendary black book. He bags Mia Sara, the same gorgeous young lady who played Sloane Peterson from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
5) Is there a tournament? There is no tournament, just a race to fight crime.
6) Is training needed for this tournament? One does not simply travel into the past without training, or a Delorean.
7) Does he do the splits in training or in the tournament? He CONSTANTLY does the splits. In the kitchen; in the living room.
Does he punch someone in the balls? First JCVD beatdown of the movie = stick to the junk
9) Does he do a series of flying or 360 kicks? Oh hell yes. This is classic Van Damme.
10) Is his enemy unbeatable? He’s fighting time travel, government corruption, and futuristic weapons…that’s about as close as you get to unbeatable.
11) Does he overcome an injury or other hindrance? I’ve never been shot while wearing a bullet proof vest, but it looks like it would hurt like hell. JCVD shook it off like a champ.
12) Does he win? No, and then yes, and then no again, and eventually yes. Awesome.
When a movie starts during the Civil War with a hillbilly sporting eight teeth, two laser-sighted machine guns, and a singular intention of robbing the Confederacy of gold bars, there is no doubt that it’s about to be awesome. JCVD has never looked cooler. He’s rocking a massive coif of 80s hair on the verge of a permullet, and he struts/walks in every scene like it looks good. With a supporting cast of Ron Silver and Bruce McGill, Timecop registers as one of the better acted JCVD movies. In addition, the script and pacing are better than the majority of most action blockbusters - there is real creativity in the story composition. Exploring the spectacular concepts of Back to the Future and amplifying them, Timecop is superb on all levels. Narrowly missing out on being the top JCVD movie of all time, any action or sci-fi fan should thoroughly enjoy this JCVD thriller.
Filed under: Comic Book DVD Reviews