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Timecop (1994)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri May 29, 2015 3:29 pm    Post subject: Timecop (1994) Reply with quote



Not many time travel movies have exciting gun battles and skilled martial arts fighting.

In fact, only one does, and this is it.

It's also a very good time travel movie, delving into some interesting aspects of the whole temporal paradox and the cause-and-effect-reversal concept that each movie seems to deal with in its own way.

The time traveling hardware is unique, too. It's a kind of rocket sled that races towards a concrete barrier and then -- well, they don't actually show the and-then, but one of the characters makes a veiled reference to some smears on the concrete barrier that are the residue of unsuccessful time jumps.

But the rocket sled doesn't go back with the time traveler, he just appears at the destination (a very imaginative special effect), and he comes back by activating a small device he carries with him.

Like any good time travel story, the twists and turns in the plot (and the time line) will challenge your brain and stimulate the growth new dendrites.

Not every movie can claim to do that!
Shocked
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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Dec 05, 2022 2:38 pm; edited 4 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 4:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Watch the trailer (it's short) —


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— and then write a reply (it's easy). Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Mar 11, 2024 4:10 pm; edited 4 times in total
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was in Vancouver, BC when this was released and saw it with my girlfriend. We had MORE fun identifying the filming locations than the movie at that time. We later watched the movie a second time to write down the locations, then a 3rd time to actually watch the story! Then we made a day-trip to visit the locations to get a better feel for the movie.
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Fri May 10, 2019 4:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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For me, this is inferior to the best time travel films (THE TIME MACHINE, TIME AFTER TIME, etc.).

As a Van Damme vehicle, it's typical. So we end up with a rather generic action sci-fi piece, from my standpoint, some of it copying the tone of TERMINATOR 2 (1991), which probably influenced many sci-fi action films in the nineties. It's not bad; it just doesn't rise above the mediocre.

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I think the complexity which someone else may gleam from this is that it switches to different time periods. It starts with a short scene during the Civil War — a dreary one with gunfire. Then there are some scenes in 1994, when Van Damme's character loses his wife to paid assassins. Then we switch to a scene in 1929 — the start of the Depression.

And finally, to the future of 2004 (now, the past), when time travel is a reality to be regulated (by TEC, a new government agency — the Time Enforcement Commission).

I was amused by the efforts here to show futuristic automobiles — 2004 is now over a decade in the past; according to this film, we should all be driving tank-like vehicles now. I'd forgotten that this was based on a comic book; it shows — much of this is very simplistic.


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One example of this simplicity is a statement made, offhand, near the beginning — a bureaucrat states that time travel to the future is not possible, because that hasn't happened yet. So, we're left with time travel to the past. We just have to accept this limitation and be done with it.

Then there's the warning that two identical objects cannot occupy the same space; i.e., two versions of the same person better not touch each other. However, a person who is 10 years older is not identical to his past self, is he? Also, even if a person physically touches another, aren't they still separated by molecule-sized space? Whatever.



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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri May 10, 2019 6:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Wow, I'm surprised at how completely Bogmeister overlooked the considerable merits of this excellent and highly imaginative time travel story. He states that it's inferior to both The Time Machine and Time After Time.

I love both those movies, but I maintain that Timecop stand's shoulder-to-shoulder with those fine classics because of its intriguing concept and fine execution. It's a "pure" time travel story which explores the weighty concepts and unexpected consequences of time travel better than either of the movies BoG named.

For example, Bogmeister objected to the suggestion that we can't travel into the future because "it hasn't happened yet" (according to the movie). That's a concept unique to this film . . . and frankly it's hard to argue against it! Shocked

The beauty of that idea is that it removes the troubling paradox caused by a time traveler who leaves the present and travels to a future in which he ceased to exist the moment he departed!

He arrives in a future where his absence from the universe from the moment he left the present until the moment he arrives in the future will cause a change in the timeline no different than if he'd died the day he departed!

If you're confused, I'll explain what I mean.

If I died of a heart attack right now, then the world would be denied the pleasure of my existence from this day forward. My children and grandchildren would mourn my passing, my possessions would all be disposed of one way or another . . . and All Sci-Fi would eventually cease to exist. Sad

But suppose instead of dying, I'd simply climbed into my a time machine and traveled twenty years into the future. What would I find in the year 2039?

Again, the world in which I arrived would have my children and grandchildren mourning my passing, all my possessions would have been disposed of, one way or another, and All Sci-Fi would have eventually ceased to exist.

But of course, when I eventually hopped back into my time machine and returned to the present, that sad future would be rewritten while I resume my existence, sitting here on the sofa and adding new posts to All Sci-Fi! Very Happy

Time travel is, by it's very nature, completely counter-intuitive.

In the real world, we can travel to any point on the planet because we know they all exist. And even if WE haven't been to a specific place before, countless other people have. We can read about these other places, we can see pictures and videos of them, and we can find them on maps.

Consider this: the past is like all these other places on Earth. We know the past exist because people (even ourselves) have experienced it. Pictures have been taken, books have been written, and people have memories of it.

But the future is very different.

There's no evidence that it even exists. The future is the product of the present, it's the "effect" of its "causes", it's the result of events which happened in the past and the present!

How can the future exist when we still haven't finished creating it with present events that are still in progress?

After all, it isn't as if the entire history of the universe is preordained and we're all like the characters in a movie — forced to act out our scenes and deliver our lines, the way they're presented on the print of movie as it runs through the projector! Shocked

If you don't believe in predestination, and you do believe in free will, how can you believe in a future that hasn't been created yet by the decisions we make, the actions we take, and the random events which occur to shape the future?

Ladies and gentle, I submit that this concept alone makes Timecop an exceptional science fiction story.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Fri May 10, 2019 8:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Both Pye-Rate and Butch were at the mall in Vancouver, BC, CANADA when they were filming. When the movie came out Butch saw it with his girlfriend and she recognized him in the background.
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The Spike
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2019 9:01 pm    Post subject: Time travelling butt kicker. Reply with quote

Time travel is now a reality and with that comes opportunities for criminals to exploit to the maximum. The government sets up a special police force (T.E.C.) to ensure the new technology isn't abused. Enter Max Walker, a Timecop who upon learning of a corrupt politician's plot to become president, sets about doing all he can to stop him.

Timecop did exactly what I wanted it to do, namely give me Jean-Claude Van Damme administering brutal violence in a sci-fi haze. It's a nice central premise with it's time travel plot, the sound and effects are fine within the genre, and Ron Silver on villain duties does a nice take in sleazy, corrupt politician verve. It's all set up for explosions, kills and a chance for Van Damme to show off his excellent line in splits, kicks and body punching tricks. Some weak acting exists of course, and only a fool could not know how it's all going to turn out in the end. But really, in the context of the genres it belongs too, and the leading man's career overview, Timecop delivers all it promised to do in the first place.

I'm off to see if I can change the past right now. 6.5/10

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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 18, 2019 11:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ABC produced the "Timecop" TV series that debuted on September 22,1997.

13-episodes were filmed but only 9 aired. The show was cancelled due to its low ratings.

It appeared they were able to recycle the time sled, sets, clothes & props from the film version.

"A Rip In Time" was the first episode broadcast. It took place in 1888 London & dealt with Jack the Ripper.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 16, 2021 11:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Well, by gum, YouTube has all nine episodes and they look great! I think I'll treat myself to a Timecop binge-watching birthday! (Which is today. Very Happy)

Chill all my beer, hold all my calls, and don't be surprised if I show up yesterday and claim I'm just 72! Cool

Hey, what about a time travel story in which an elderly traveler becomes the age he was on the day he goes back to! He still has all his memories, but his body gets younger while he is in a past time period within his own current lifespan..

The time machine also sends him to any location he chooses to be at.

He has important tasks to perform to correct several bad changes in the timeline, but he has to accomplish these task as various younger versions of himself, all the way down to (for example) a ten-year-old boy!

He can only stay at a given date for (say . . . ) 24 hours, so he can't just abandon his mission and begin a new life from an earlier age than he was when he first started — something anyone would be tempted to do.

Each time his 24-hour limit runs out he snaps back to the present and become an old man again before embarking on his next journey to a past date to fix another time-line flaw.

Wow, I'd love to write a series of stories with this premise. What do you guys think?


_____________ Timecop S01E01 - A Rip In Time


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_______________ Timecop S01E02 - The Heist


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________________ Timecop S01E03 - Stalker


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_____________Timecop S01E04 - Public Enemy


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___________ Tiimecop S01E05 - Rocket Science


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___________ Timecop S01E06 - Alternate World


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______________ Timecop S01E07 - Lost Voyage


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__________________ Timecop S01E08 - D.O.A.


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___ Timecop S01E09 - The Future Jack, The Future


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Well, after enjoying Timecop immensly on this pleasantly rainy and unseasonably cool North Carolina day in August, I tried to follow my plan to switch over to the SyFY channel series based on this movie.

Unfortunately it only took me a few minutes to realize that the intelligently-made and skillfully-paced movie I'd just enjoyed was created for a very different audience than the TV series. Sad

This series was made for the "short-attention span generation" of TV addicts in the 2ist Century — not the serious and intellectual folks who don't need entertainment which resembles MTV from it's early days. Rolling Eyes

Obviously that's why we don't have any younger members on All Sci-Fi. I'm sorry to say it, but the days of intellectual nerds who sit at home and ponder lofty concepts about science and mankind's future have passed into oblivion! Sad

We now live an age which shuns our distinguished and intelligent leaders, while they praise bombastic blowhards who reject science and ridicule the nation's most revered medical experts. Sad

And the foolish followers of such blatant morons tune in daily to bogus "news" channels like FOX, which routinely regurgitate the lies of those shameless idiots.

Timecop contains numerous fictional references to crooked politicians who strongly resemble the treasonous people this country has endured in recent years.

Frankly, I'm really tired of enduring the veiled references by folks who foolishly support these political efforts to destroy America.

I'd actually rather have such people simply leave All Sci-Fi, instead of having them continue to support folks who seem determined to destroy the greatness which made this nation a world leader.

I'm worried about the future of this country.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2024 4:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Well, after enjoying Timecop immensly on this pleasantly warm North Carolina day in March, I tried to follow my plan to switch over to the SyFY channel series based on this movie. Sad

Unfortunately it only took me a few minutes to realize that the intelligently-made and skillfully-paced movie I'd just enjoyed was created for a very different audience than the TV series. Sad

This series was made for the "short-attention span generation" of TV addicts in the 2ist Century — not the serious and intellectual folks who don't need entertainment which resembles MTV from it's early days. Rolling Eyes

Obviously that's why we don't have very many younger members on All Sci-Fi. I'm sorry to say it, but the days of intellectual nerds who sit at home and ponder lofty concepts about science and mankind's future are now few and far between. Sad

We now live in an age which shuns the small number of distinguished and intelligent leaders we still have, while they blindly support a bombastic blowhard who who rejects science and ridicules the nation's most revered scientists. Sad

And the foolish followers of such blatant morons tune in daily to bogus "news" channels like FOX, which routinely regurgitate the lies of those shameless idiots.

Timecop contains numerous fictional references to crooked politicians who strongly resemble the treasonous people this country has endured in recent years.

Frankly, I'm really tired of enduring the foolishly people who support these political efforts to destroy America. I hope America doesn't make the same mistake in 2024 that we did in 2020,

I'm worried about the future of this country. Sad

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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