Pay no attention to the fact that
Timecop is an insult to intelligent science fiction, and that it gradually succumbs to an acute case of the sillies. It is a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, after all, so check your brain at the door and enjoy this action flick set in the year 2004. Van Damme plays an officer in the Time Enforcement Police, assigned to prevent criminals from traveling to the past with the intent of altering the future. Ron Silver plays the evil politician who plots to retrieve a stockpile of gold from the Civil War to finance his latest campaign. The film is clever to a point, and entertaining if you can ignore the dumb jokes and inconsistencies. Best of all, it's an above-average vehicle for Van Damme (relatively speaking), who gets to kick some villainous butt and share a few scenes with Mia Sara, who plays the Timecop's wife. As Van Damme fans can tell you, this is one of the action star's better movies.
--Jeff Shannon
1 about the movie Time Cop.......
This is one of the best title of DVD movie/film acted by Jean Claude Van Damme. The story is very well narrated and it is one of the best seller book which was sold a few years ago in bookshops. The ideas of this movie/film that create an imagination to go back to a few years back or even previous life to end the bad deed of a senator to win presidential election is a very interesting story to talk about, marvelous idea from the author of the book Time Cop. What I can say is that this movie/film is gorgeous and the rating is a 5 star for the movie/film. A strongly recommended purchase for this movie/film for those whom are interested in this genre of movie/film.
2 A fun way to kickbox across the years
I never get tired of THIS Jean Claude Van Damme flick. He plays an agent for a secret government agency that is charged with maintaining the integrity of the timestream. When he steps into a conspiracy led by a corrupt senator who squinty eyes (Ron Silver plays a great jerk) are on the Whitehouse, things really get exciting.
I love time travel in general (as themes for books and movies, not actually traveling through time), so that always adds 1 star to anything I review.
There are several problems and cliches with the SF Time Travel theme and a few goofy plot contrivances (why does there have to be a brick wall in front of the sled?) but that is OK. In the plus column is the fact that there isn't the typical 'arena of death' contest or the 'I am blind but I can still kick your butt' scene that Van Damme movies usually seem to include.
In my modest opinion, this is Van Damm's best.
3 2 stars for DVD, 4 stars for movie itself
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!
4 WHERE'S THE WIDESCREEN VERSION
THIS WAS A GREAT VAN DAMME MOVIE BUT WITHOUT A WIDESCREEN EDITION AVAVABLE, I WOULDN'T BUY IT.
5 Fantastic Movie For Its Type
I think that for a movie that professes to be nothing more than what it is this movie rates high. It is pure science fiction, action. escapism. Nothing more - nothing less. It is pure entertainment. All right so its hard to understand Jean-Claude all the time but they gave him a superlative supporting cast of actors, especially Ron Silver who is always good, who basically carry the movie. The martial arts were kept controlled to the story line and there actually was a story. This movie was not meant to explore the deeper meaning of life. For that go see "The Big Sleep" with Humphrey Bogart. For pure entertainment
get this one. In my opinion Jean-Claude's best movie, through no fault of his own. A great flick. For those nay-sayers out there GET A GRIP.
6 Movie Doesn't Quite Live Up to It's Promise, but Still Good
Timecop is the story of a police officer (Van Damme) whose wife is killed one night in 1994 by unknown assassins. Ten years later, in 2004, the cop is now a jaded officer with the Time Police. Time Travel has been discovered, and some individuals are going back to try to make a killing in the stock market, or to just steal valuables. The Time Police are a secret government organization, as the news that time travel is now a reality has not been leaked to the public.
TimeCop has great action scenes with Van Damme, great special effects, great sets, costumes, and acting. So why only three stars? The movie opens during the Civil War, with a great scene. Shortly after, there is a scene of Wall Street in 1929. These sets and costumes are great, but the viewer is let down because there are no more trips to the past before 1994. There are lots of scenes set in 2004. These scenes are interesting, because it is now 2004, but we do not have all the futuristic cars, homes, and computers that the filmakers imagined. The climactic scene, while very good, is played out in Van Damme's home in 1994. With this movie, you would expect more time travel.
Contains sexually explicit scenes, violence, and bad language.
7 Great!!!!!
Just like another Van Damne film,great!!!!!.He goes back in time to try to save himself and his wife before McComb and his gang to her.An enjoyable Van Damne clip that everyone should enjoy
8 Vanne Dammes Best
IF you cant stand J.C.V.D then I cant recomend this or any of his films! But for those who are and have not seen this one, then this i would have to say is one of, if not, the best film he has made! Vanne Damme plays a time traveling cop, which has some great features to it. Its not just any old action movie! the plot is great. It sends vanne damme chasing a guy through time who wants to change the presnet to make himself presidant! And vanne Dammes on the case. This is a great movie, at least rent it if youve never seen it, its well worth at least one watch before you dismiss this as just yoru ordinary Vanne Damme movie!
I STRONGLY recomend you never see Time Cop 2 tho! No seaqull works without the original cast, and the seaqull is a waste of time! Stick with this and pretend part 2 never happend!
9 Enjoyable despite inconsistencies (but full-screen?)
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?
10 one is for no widescreen version
Once again, we're stuck with a full screen version of a movie that deserved better then what it got. As with "The Shadow", this is a decent little movie. It's not going to win any awards but it will certainly keep you entertained. Nice premise and decent Van Damme presence (I don't want to call it "acting"), but once again the studio decides to go on the cheap and not even give us a decent letterboxed version.
11 I am very disappointed
I just wanted to say that I expected much more from this movie. I think that the best of Van Damme is when he fights and in this movie he does it a very few times and not as good as he can.
Personally I think that the best movie of Van Damme is "Lionheart".
12 Ultimate Van Dammage
I'm so sick and tired of movie critics putting "The Muscles From Brussels" down,can this man get any props for his acting.It isn't common for an actor to grose over 200 million for one film.Van Damme proved his movies are worth that as Timecop hit theaters.I remember the buzz it recieved back in 1994.Realisticly 2004 will not be that way portrayed in the Peter Hyams film but realisticly it was a Van Damme good movie.It was Van Dammes highest box-office hit and put Van Damme in the action hero hall of fame.This film is an A+ for great martial-arts tecniques credited due to Van Damme who rarely uses a stunt double and a great storyline,with time travel,remember Back To The Future,well if you liked that movie I advise you to watch Timecop which is just as good with Van Damme in complete control...It's Van Damme at his peak"...
13 What a kick
Van Damme is kickin' again in TIMECOP, the sci-fi kung fu action/adventure where he must stop a greedy politician from altering past events for his benefit, and also intercept his wife's killers. It a nice change to see Van Damme with a longer hair cut. And he even ACTS in this movie too. TIMECOP is a must for any fan of Van Damme, kung fu films, sci-fi films, or movies with actual acting.
14 Van Damme's Best
The funny thing about this movie (that often ends up in the cut-out bins at any video store) is that it was actually Van Damme's highest-grossing film, and one of his only films that actually drew some rave reviews.
Not about his acting, mind you; that was never a JCVD selling point. But Peter Hyams ("Outland", "2010") steered Van Damme into a solid action sci-fi thriller, gave the plot enough technical jargon to suspend disbelief, some quality T&A (Mia Sara, looking hotter than hell), and (as with the case with Van Damme's best films) gave the best lines to the supporting actors.
Ron Silver has a great time as the antagonist--and plays off Jean Claude pretty well. Avoiding all the plot loopholes and illogical physics, paying attention to the money that was spent on this film, and basically comparing it to all the other actioners at the time enables me to give it a 4 star rating.
15 Time travel with the muscles from Brussels
Pretty decent flick, I actually give it 3.5 stars. A nice, quick sci-fi b-movie with some good action, decent f/x and some subpar acting(of course). Great villian in Ron Silver and Van Damme tries but the film could have been upped a notch with a better lead. Some lapses in logic but are forgivable due to the fact that no one knows what kind of results would be reaped when playing with time. All and all a fun adventure if looking for a quick flick.
16 Interesting action movie.
I do not care much for Van Damme movies, but I do like this one. Althought not as scientifically correct as should have been this movie as a whole is very captivating with a lot of good action and plot twists. Overall: GOOD.
17 More holes than swiss cheese
This is perhaps one of the worst science-fiction movies I•À?ve seen in a long, long time.
Jean-Claude Van Damme plays an officer in the Time Enforcement Police, and agency established to keep people from going back in time and manipulating the past. Even though this movie was made in 1994, the producers had an amazing amount of faith that in a mere 10 years time (i.e., prior to 2004, when this movie is set), we•À?d have perfected the ability to travel through time. The job of the Time Enforcement Police is, in essence, to keep people from traveling back in time and betting their life savings on the 1963 World Series while already knowing the outcome, thereby affecting the future (or rather, the present) as we know it in ways we can•À?t predict. Ron Silver plays the bad guy, a corrupt politician who sees the ability to go into the past as a way of financing a lucrative and powerful future for himself.
There•À?s plenty about this movie that I found to be totally [bad]. For one, the movie feels the need to establish the point that you can•À?t go forward in time, only backward, since the future hasn•À?t been written yet. It•À?s sort of a silly plot device when you consider that the characters, once they•À?ve gone back in time, have to return forward again to what was once the present but is now the future since they•À?re in the past. And though the present had once been written, when you consider that even the smallest change taking place in the past, the future (i.e., the present that once was) is no longer written in stone. An episode of The Simpsons had great fun with that plot device, as Homer went back in time, took one step onto one tiny plant, and changed the future to the point it even rained doughnuts. So in essence, this movie is completely silly because they take such care in establishing physical laws that they have no intent of adhering to. But it sounded nice when they said it.
Another plot element that plays a critical part in this movie, and is completely silly •À? the same matter can•À?t occupy the same space at the same time. Just a fancy way of saying if you go back in time to a period where you existed normally, you can•À?t make physical contact with yourself or bad things will happen. Now this is silly for two reasons •À? number one, no two pieces of matter can occupy the same space at the same time; it•À?s a physical impossibility. They can occupy the space immediately adjacent, but not the same space. If you don•À?t think this is true, try standing exactly where someone is already standing while they are still standing there •À? one will have to give up the space for the other.
The other reason this is a silly rule is that it believes that a living thing is the same matter even after 10 years has passed. I was under the impression that after a 10 year period, nearly every cell in my body would have died off and re-generated; I might be the same person, but I•À?m no longer physically the same matter. I•À?m more of a cell-by-cell clone of the person I once was; so are you telling me that a cloned sheep can•À?t make physical contact with the sheep it was cloned from, or bad things will happen?
There•À?s also lots of little things, like how the agents of the Time Enforcement Police leave their current time sitting in a car, and arrive where they•À?re going standing up, no car. And it just sort of happens, poof, that they change their stance. Never felt right. Also, there•À?s one point in the movie where because of events of the past being changed, Van Damme returns to find his boss thinks he•À?s an imposter because he doesn•À?t recognize him as a TEP agent. Seems to me that if you work in an agency that deals with the possibility that time can be manipulated, you would automatically be more accepting that someone saying they•À?re an agent of yours just returning from a mission might actually be what they say, whether you remember it to be true or not •À? you can•À?t be sure if the timeline has altered or not. And then the question is, how do you actually track changes in the timeline from within a timeline that•À?s being changed, i.e., how do you know that the past was manipulated if your present is affected by the change? The TEP somehow tracks the changes to the timeline so they can know when and where to send their agents, but as already expressed, there are times Van Damme returns to find a different present, and the residents of the present unaware of the change.
There is one saving grace to this movie, and that•À?s the moral dilemma that Van Damme has to face when he has to go back in time to the day before his wife is killed •À? does he warn his former self of his wife•À?s impending death so she can be saved?
I love a good time-travel movie, don•À?t get me wrong. The original Terminator is one of my favorites, perhaps because it doesn•À?t attempt to explain a lot of the rules the way this movie does, or perhaps because unlike this movie, the manipulation of time isn•À?t the critical plot element of the movie (although admittedly it•À?s required to make the movie work). There are definitely better movies out there that use time travel as a plot device. ...
18 Excellent script, quality actors and Van Damme as a bonus!!
I used to be a big Van Damme fan. Nowadays, he is producing some junk and this is a big turn off. However, all he is needed is to add some good actors and a good story and viewers would get great entertainment!
Timecop is one of my favorite Van Damme movies. I think that the whole time travel Sci-Fi plot was very good and without any obvious flaws. I would grade this story 10 times better that the recently released Time Machine with Guy Pierce. The special effects were pretty good. Ron Silver, Bruce McGill, Gloria Reuben are all acting very well. Finally, Van Damme plays very well. Overall, an excellent mix of Sci-Fi / Adventure / Action and a real treat for fans of any of these genres.
I wish I could see Van Damme is high quality movies with good stories and good cast again and not the junk he is producing now. My other Van Damme suggestions would be Lionheart and Hard Target.
19 Awful pan and scan version!
For a film that was shot in full anamorphic Panavision 2.35:1 by a very good director/cinematographer I find it very weird that Universal would only release this in cropped format. Many other people have expressed their disappointment in other reviews about this but I must let you know that the R2 version IS in widescreen. If you must by this film then get the UK Region 2 version. The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack remains the same but the movie is shown in it's correct OAR. And that is what matters most.
20 BEST DAMME MOVIE OF ALL DAMME MOVIES !!!!!!
I love it,it`s very very good I like the whole movie because it`s like telling the future of 21st century where going back in time is possible,also i like the plot and charaters of the movie.That`s why i`m getting it on DVD,Also the music is very good it`s good!!!!!!!!!!!!
21 Better than average Van Dmme movie
"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.
22 Infinite 'Time'
Max Walker's wife was killed by a senator and some thugs. That's what happened after a rendevous Max had with his wife at a mall. "There's never enough time to satisfy a woman." Passionate! A couple of psychos followed them home and took out his wife. He loved her with all of his heart and in the future, he had the opportunity of a lifetime to save her. Walker also has to stop a madman from becoming President of the United States after he forced some of his punks to go back in time and find the valuable stocks. With that money, he would be able to campaign. I was overjoyed with the uniqueness of this plot and it was far better than "Back to the Future". Time travel should be about corruption and saving wives. YES! The action sequences are remarkable with decent special effects and a scene where Van Damme kept his leg up and a thief almost skated right into his foot. "Read between the lines, mortal!" Jean-Claude Van Damme needs to make "Timecop 2" and "Street Fighter 2". His eternal presence is nothing short of astonishing.
23 Interesting movie
Most of Van Dammes movies have some aspect that gets on my nerves as being hokey, but this one is an exception. It looks more realistic in the fights that everyone gets the crap beat out of them, yet add some good special FX. It's worth a look to decide for yourself.
24 TIMECOP- Excellent Sci-fi Action Adventure Movie
Good movie with great ideas. I wouldn't say this was the best time-travel movie ever made, but it does seem cool for an action movie. Van Damme (actor I'm not a big fan of) seems to be a pretty cool guy in this movie. Most of the movies he makes I really don't like. But this one I think is great and can watch all over again. In the year 1994, time travel is all of a sudden made possible and the President decides to give it out to the government. Officer Max Walker is chosen to be one of the travelers of the force. But bad guys from the future soon learn about it and go back in time to kill him and ruin his life by having his wife murdered after causing his house to explode. 10 years later, Agent Max Walker has been carrying out missions for the force and made a good time-traveler. But he wishes he could go back and prevent the terrible tragedy from happening to his wife. But it is a rule for people to change their own lives and alter the course of history. An evil senator running for president in 2004 is causing schemes by having his henchman go back in time and embezzle money so he can have his polls go up real easily. Max Walker learns about this when the presidential candidate has changed history by having the force shut down and is winning in the election. Walker knows he has to travel back to stop this and sees it as his chance to get his wife back so he can have the happy life he was supposed to have. Excellent Movie!
25 Buyers Beware! Not Widescreen!
Like "Tombstone" this film is not improved over the now-extinct laserdisc format, Laserdisc never got media attention like DVD has gotten, but why films like this are not improved on DVD is a mystery to me, to start with "Timecop" is not in widescreen on DVD as it was on Laserdisc (Go figure?)now on to the movie, This has got to be one of Van Damme's best movies, it has a very different & neat concept,time-travel is a reality that is discovered by government officials in the year 1994, to protect time, they create a time-enforcement commission to arrest & capture anyone tampering with time, like most time-travel movies you have to carefully follow what is going on, Van Damme is a potential recruitement member for this commission in 1994, but before he can begin his new job, he is attacked & his wife is viciously murdered, the film then takes the viewer to 2004 where he is now a time-cop carrying out missions to bring those tampering with time back for trial, he discoveres along the way that a presidential candidate(Senator McComb, played convincinly by Ron Silver)may be sending people back to extort money for his campaign, the more Van Damme digs the more he begins to realize that the Senator is also minipulating the government to close down the time-enforcement commission,Van Damme is soon sent on an assignment to the year 1994,the day before his wife's death, & discovers a younger McComb being munipulated by his 2004-self, he tells him that his computer-chip company will be worth millions in 10 years, somthing his younger self wants out of, all hell breaks loose as Van Damme messes up his plan, & then returns to 2004 to discover that the commission is being shut down, Van Damme luckily goes back to 1994 to make things right, this is where the emotion of the movie comes into play, he soon discovers that his wife was pregnant & never got a chance to tell him, he then begins to flirt with the idea of changing her fate, it is a moral question that ask the viewer, if you could change somthing, would you??, as he watches his 1994 self with his wife, we see the emotion in his eyes & automtically know he is going to change the events that took place,the ending is a bit out there,which is where this movie loses its appeal, although Van Damme sets things right(won't spoil it for those who have not seen it), everything he has done, he could not have done in all reality, but it is an entertaining concept, I guess the real disappointment is that we did not get to visit other time periods which would have been cool & probably costly.
26 Thought provoking sci-fi.
More than just the chop-socky contemporary martial arts flick, although plenty of action for the fans of this genre.
The opening sequence is enough to make one hit the pause button, just to "contemplate the what-ifs". A troop of half a dozen Confederate soldiers transporting a cache of gold is defeated by one man wielding two laser sighted machine pistols. What if someone could take our current technology and use it to travel back through time to return to the past? What would be the result? Suppose one could return to the early days of the New York Stock Exchange; what stocks could be bought for a nickel, and what wealth could be "created"?
Van Damme portrays a 21st century police officer for the newest technology. He is one of the men who must make sure that the no-goodniks don't go back in time and armed with knowledge of the
future (actually the present), changing the past and the present. Ron Silver is well cast as the bad-guy, an overly ambitious Senator.
A fine way to pass a couple of hours.
27 Timecop was COOL
Loved the movie. Jean Claude does a full split in one scene. Any man that can do that gets my respect!!
28 surprisingly good
when i first saw this i was expecting another predictable, timetraveler movie, filmed entiarly in the present time. i was wrong. it was spred out, throughout the past, present and future, and left you guessing till the end.
29 Excellent use of time.
I do not normally go in for flying feet and the like. Usually they are accosted with dubbed voices. However in this film everything came together to create a great entertainment ands a thought provoking story. Van Damme had to be more than him self and the interaction between Van Damme, Mia Sara, and Ron Silver, not to mention others is worth the ticket price.
The title is Timecop. And that is what Max Walker is. More than once he must thwart the efforts of Senator Aaron McComb whom has found a new source of soft money. There are the ever-present time enigmas to deal with and in the process you can not tell the good guys from the bad as they all dress in black.
30 A Dazzling Movie!
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.
31 The best plot of any of the Van Damme movies
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."
32 Great Action Movie
I am by no means a Van Damme fan... But as an American, under law, I have to watch his movies. Usually it's renting one at the video store that looks semi-interesting, bring it home and pop it in the VCR, and shutting it off the second some non-actor, pro-wrestler comes on the screen trying to act. Then we all make fun of them... But for some reason I still BUY his movies after I've watched them and hate them. They do grow on you after a few times.
Timecop has to be Van Damme's best film so far (Remember his last vehicle, Universal Soldier 3: The Return? That was comically bad.) But "Van Damme's Best" doesn't really mean all that intelligent, either. The year is 2004 (Just four years from now! ) and time travel is no longer a dream, but - drum roll - a reality! No sense in going back millions of years to see what the world was like, or the time of Christ, or even find Chopin and become his personal student... Nope, all they do is go back to 1994, which was, if you remember, a very dull year. The whole plot of the movie is... Well, here goes nothing: An Evil Senator, by the name of McComb I believe, is running for president in the year 2004, and runs out of money. So, in this situation, the best thing to do it to go back in time to 1994 and find yourself and give yourself pointers, which is exactly what he does. This of course is a strictly illegal practice. Van Damme's and some other dimwit's job is to go back and find anyone who is doing this. Well, McComb uses the prototype. ("Eet Wahs Neever Deesmintled" Van Damme reflects at a certain dramatic high-point.) So, Van Damme and gang go back to 1994 and catch him and change things around. One being that Van Damme's girlfriend/wife (They never specify... Who cares about little details like that anyway?) dies when she is pregnant. So, Van Damme goes back in time and beats the stuffing out of the - what looks like pro-wrestlers who killed her. It's all fine and dandy up to the point where he comes back from the time trip trip, which alters his present (2004) life dramatically, by which I mean he's married and has a kid who doesn't look anything like him. ("He looks more like Jean-Claude Gosh Darn" might quip someone from Mystery Science Theater Three Thousand) That's where the movie ends. He goes into his house with his wife, who he hasn't seen for ten years, and his new kid who's ten years old. This could cause problems during dinner the first few nights:
"Honey, your constipated-frog facial expression is very vivid tonight, anything wrong?" Asks his wife.
"Nothing's wrong. Bob, son..." Van Damme starts out. "My name's Dave, DAD. You act like you've never seen me before..."
And so on. But just forget about those sorts of things. It's actually a pretty fun and entertaining movie.
33 One of the best films
Van Damme is the best! Recommended for the people who like scifi.
34 VanDamme's BEST!
This is easily one of the best Jean Claude Van Damme has done. I have other favorites (Universal Soldier, Cyborg etc), but I could watch this one over & over again!
35 Time enough for love
Once again I find myself swimming against the tide of critical opinion. Can I help it if I like action films? Should I be ashamed? These are rhetorical questions so don't trouble your frontal lobe. I'm sick of hearing films being trashed simply because they happen to star an actor more known for muscle mass than theatrical prowess. If the later was the only measure of quality, Laurence Olivier's movies would have all been financial blockbusters.
And who could better epitomize action heroes than the man dubbed "The Muscles from Brussels"? Yes, I'm referring to Jean-Claude Van Damme. He manages to get the lion's share of the screen in "Timecop". In some cases we're doubly Dammed when he goes back in time and meets himself. After all, this is a science fiction film. Time travel is the central plot device and it is used very well throughout the story.
I suppose the SCI-FI die-hards among us will cringe at yet another use of that hoary old question, "What would happen if you went back in time and killed your grandfather?" Luckily the screenwriters were a little more grounded in reality. Why trouble our grandparents when we could make a quick buck. Isn't that the first thing most folks would turn their time traveling adventure into; a chance to score some serious coin?
Which is were the main villain comes in. Senator Aaron McComb wants to be the president but his less than charming personality would, under normal circumstances, preclude any chance of election. But all he really needs is enormous piles of cash in order to buy sufficient air-time to sway the mindless masses. Luckily, he is on the oversight committee that monitors the Temporal Enforcement Agency, or Timecops as they are known to themselves.
The evil Senator's plans for world domination seem to be going very smoothly until headstrong Max Walker, (Van Damme), brings one of the politician's henchmen to justice. From that point on, good and evil fight a running skirmish through time. The trick is to change the past in such a way as to prevent a counter-strike by the other side. And it is this convoluted logic which makes the film so engrossing.
The effects and set designs are very good but with enough scientific flubs to keep the purist grinding his teeth. Personally, I had a ball. This movie doesn't have the tension of a Terminator flick, or the depth of a Kubrik brain fest. What is does have is action, high kicking action that only pauses long enough to squeeze in a little lost love pathos. So if you like your SCI-FI hard and fast, give Jean-Claude another chance and watch Timecop.
36 What were they thinking!
I just viewed my DVD of Timecop. I love the story, and the action! But I couldn't believe it when I saw that it was only in full screen! If there is any facet of movie buffs that LOVE their Widescreen, original format - its Sci-Fi fans! For Universal to only release this movie in Pan and Scan format shows that they have no grasp of what their audiences want. Now that that's said, the movie itself is FANTASTIC - Great plot, great action, and great special effects. I would have given it 5 stars if it had been in Widescreen or Dual-layer formats, but it is still definitely worth the time and money.
37 Best Van Damme film - excellent story.
"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.
38 One of Van Damme's Best
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.
39 Van Damme's Best
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."
40 Typical VanDamme movie w/ splits.
This is one of his better movies. Good action. Interesting Sci-Fi
41 Abuse of power versus the need to bend rules for right.
Jean Claude Van Damme's chracter of TE agent Max Walker has a terrible quandry, break his time travel agency's rule of no one goes back to the past to alter the future to save his murdered wife from a slimy and unethical Senator from his own time(2004), or stay in the future and allow his time travel agency's head, Senator Aaron McComb, take over the agency and the presidency by altering the future for the greedy benefit. This ethical dilemnia forms the basis of the plot,I think, for the movie. Forget the bad language, just focus on the love story between Walker and his wife, played by Mia Sara.
42 Action packed and just plain fun to watch
By far the best Van Dammne movie. It has an action packed plot and good story. Hey, even my wife enjoys watching this one.
43 Timecop
Universal has been steadily improving it's DVD product line. The only company currently listing detailed information like whether or not the movie was recorded in a single versus a dual layer, Universal seems to have the archetypal DVD customer in mind all the way.
In light of this, it's all the more disappointing that the only feature worth mentioning about Timecop is that it has Dolby Digital sound, and is captioned and subtitled. Unlike almost every other major title on the market, Timecop doesn't even have a widescreen format. Heck, the Laserdisc version has widescreen--what the h*ll happened here?
This is a shame, since Timecop is probably Jean-Claude Van Damme's best film. I know this isn't saying much, but even I have to admit that the Van Damminator has a certain endearing, if not annoying, action hero charm. And unlike Steven Segal, Van Damme allows his character to be hurt in fight scenes.
Without any special goodies to mention, I can only close with a brief review of the story. Written by comic book scribe Mark Verheiden, Timecop is as good a time travel action flick as I've seen. Highlighted by a deliciously slimy acting job by Ron Silver (and a more thoughful and believable Van Damme), Timecop is just the kind of bubblegum your brain will want to chew on "movie night".
Raincoaters will also appreciate the brief but steamy love scene with the stunningly attractive Mia Sara (of "Ferris Bueller" fame).
I can only recommend this if you're a Van Damme fan who has to have it... END
