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Timecop (1994) - Kick Some Damme Ass in the Past

 



Like many I’m sure, I can often spend an hour just browsing various streaming platforms available to me just trying to settle on one thing to watch. Sometimes more than an hour if I’m being honest. So sometimes I just simply have to put my foot down with myself and say “Okay, you’re just going to throw on the next thing that sounds remotely interesting for the next reason” with whatever streamer I’m on at the time. Well this time, I was on the Roku Channel, and for some reason the film that was chosen was Timecop.

The first thing that’s notable is that they use my favorite cheapass stunt in 80s and 90s low budget time travel movies, which is setting it in the future so that the primary time travel is to the year the film was released so most of the time they don’t have to do anything to dress things up. Sometimes, such as Terminator, this device can be used quite effectively, most of the time though it is clearly pretty low effort like here. Jean-Claude Van Damme is a pretty awful actor even with years of practice by this point to the point that you wish they’d limited his already sparse dialog even more. There is very little science in this “science fiction” movie, they never really establish how the time travel works or was invented and just sort of flash forward to when it has become the norm, and it is very much a JCVD action flick with some goofy haircuts and cheap sci-fi getups and “equipment” than anything else.

However, I was shocked at how much I really did enjoy the film. What the lead lacks in basic acting ability, they make up with surrounding him with character actors pros like the great Bruce McGill as the leader of the time enforcement agency at the center of the film or Ron Silver as the chief villain who could chew scenery if he wanted but instead gives the subtle, menacing performance you would expect from him and is truly excellent. They even Kenneth Welsh for a long scene, which any fellow Lynch-heads would know as the one and only Windom Earle from Season 2 of Twin Peaks, and he is a delight. Even Mia Sara, who does not get much to do outside of the opening of the film but scream, makes the most of the little bit of real acting she can get.

The direction isn’t particularly special, but it is solid and wholly competent the whole time with fluid movements and workmanlike composition. The explosions are grand, the signature JCVD kicks pack a big wallop, the special effects are not bad for mid 90s CGI except a notable part towards the end. The plot is simple and kind of dumb but in a really enjoyable way that you don’t really have to wrack your brain to understand it like a time travel film that may take its subject a little too seriously. That is the best way I can describe this movie, it is a great turn off your brain and just sit back and enjoy the action kind of film, which I mean as a compliment. I didn’t regret for one second my decision to put it on, and I’ll probably watch it again in the future someday.



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