Out of Africa (1985) [PG] ****

With John Barry's beautiful theme music playing in the background, Karen Blixen begins her story: I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.

This is a wonderful, epic romance, sweeping in scope, and yet focused in its loving treatment of the individual characters: Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), her lover Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford), her husband Baron Bror von Blixen (Klaus Maria Brandauer), and her close friend Berkeley Cole (Michael Kitchen). You will feel the sense of wonder they felt, journeying to Kenya, East Africa from faraway England and Europe to build new lives there in the first decades of the twentieth century. You will get a sense of the sacrifices they made in order to make a living in that harsh land... whether trading ivory, herding cattle, growing coffee, farming or guiding safaris... in a country that continually wanted to go wild, to erase every mark of civilization. And lastly, you will feel the passion, the tenderness, the love they felt as they grew to be part of Africa, to call her their home... her mountains and plains, her people and wildlife.

The screenplay, the direction by Sydney Pollack, the cinematography, the soundtrack, costumes and sets, and the incredible performances by Streep, Redford, Brandauer, Kitchen and the others clearly mark Out of Africa as an Oscar-worthy film, and a highlight in their individual film careers. If Africa fascinates you, if you've ever thought about going on safari, or if you just enjoy classic filmmaking at its best, don't miss Out of Africa.

Labels: biography, drama, flying, period, Robert Redford, romance, rom-drama-faves, tragedy, war, wedding
IMDb 71/100
MetaScore (critics=69, viewers=70)
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James Berardinelli's review of the film
Wikipedia - Karen Blixen

Wikipedia - Denys Finch Hatton

Cocoon (1985) PG-13 ****

A film review by Andre Dursin, April 13, 2010.

Just the other day, I was talking to a friend of mine about how certain films remain in circulation and are still the occasional center of discussion years after their original release. Back to the Future is a case in point -- a movie that came out of nowhere and became the breakthrough hit of the summer of '85, and continues to be an enduring fan favorite.

Trailing behind in box-office dollars, but still one of the highest-grossers of that same year, was Cocoon. Ron Howard's gentle sci-fi fantasy garnered all kinds of critical acclaim and became a financial triumph as well (earning Don Ameche a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in the process), yet some 25-plus years after its original release, Cocoon has become something of a forgotten film. Sure, it's shown on TV from time to time, yet the fact that it took until 2004 for the film to receive a proper DVD release shows you that the movie hasn't remained in the public consciousness, despite the success of Howard as a filmmaker in the years since its debut.

That being said, I found that Cocoon has held up pretty well since its original release. Its heartwarming tale of aliens and Florida retirees managed to cross all demographics, pleasing both adult viewers and younger audiences into genre fantasies of the era. The movie benefits enormously from a cast of Hollywood veterans (Ameche, Hume Cronyn, Wilford Brimley, Jessica Tandy, Jack Gilford among them), playing those residents of a Florida retirement complex who improbably find themselves rejuvenated, thanks to aliens (Brian Dennehy, Tahnee Welch) who arrive to retrieve the cocoons of their brethren deep on Atlantic Ocean floor with the help of fishing boat captain Steve Guttenberg.

Sure, some of the movie's humor is cliché (not unlike an episode of The Golden Girls), but the performances are still winning across the board, while James Horner's score keeps everything glued together. When the cast and Horner returned for the inevitable (and wholly unnecessary) 1988 flop sequel Cocoon: The Return, the magic was gone, though the goodwill of the performances (sans Dennehy, who only appeared in a brief cameo) managed to make the sequel watchable in spite of its hackneyed script.

Blogger's comment: I watched this film in 2026, forty-one years after it was made, and it has not aged terribly well. But the most poignant aspect of the film for me was the fact that all of the older players are now gone, and of the younger players, Steve Guttenberg (b. 1958) is 67, and Tahnee Welch (b. 1961) is 64, and her last acting credit was in 1999.

Label: sci-fi
IMDb 67/100
RottenTomatoes (critics=82, viewers=60)
MetaScore (critics=65, viewers=76)

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Back to the Future (1985) [PG] *****

A film review by James Berardinelli, May 20, 2009.

Had Back to the Future come to life as originally envisioned by the purse string-holders at Universal Pictures (which owned the rights to Bob Gale's screenplay), it might have been a very different project, with Eric Stoltz in the lead role. Stoltz, however, bowed out early during filming due to that ever-popular reason: creative differences, opening the door for Michael J. Fox (or, as nearly everyone knew him at the time, Alex P. Keaton). Would Back to the Future have become a modern classic with a different lead actor? That's as much of an unknown as what Casablanca would have been like with Ronald Reagan asking Sam to play As Time Goes By. What is known, however, is that the version of Back to the Future produced by Robert Zemeckis remains one of the mid-'80s most enduring and enjoyable confections: an infectious mix of comedy, fantasy, satire, excitement, and nostalgia.

In 1985, Marty McFly (Fox) is an average high school teenager with a pretty girlfriend, Jennifer (Claudia Wells), and a lousy home life. His father, George (Crispin Glover), is a spineless toady who can't so no to his overbearing boss, Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), and his mother, Lorraine (Lea Thompson), is a nagger. Marty spends as much time away from home as possible, often stopping by the house of Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), the local mad inventor. But Doc Brown's latest invention - in function if not appearance - is anything but laughable. It's a DeLorean converted into a time machine. When Marty inadvertently ends up in the driver's seat, he is sent back 30 years to 1955. His appearance in an era before he was born forces him to seek out a younger version of Doc Brown, but also has unintended consequences. When a teenage Lorraine become infatuated with him, she loses all interest in other boys and this puts the future, and Marty's existence, in jeopardy.

Back to the Future is played neither entirely seriously nor entirely for laughs, and therein lies the nature of its success. It's funny and breezy but doesn't descend to a level where the characters are little more than props for jokes. We believe in Marty, like him, and root for him to succeed. Part of the reason for that is Michael J. Fox, whose unforced screen charisma had already made him a huge television success. (He was the #1 reason Family Ties was a Sunday night staple.) Fox brought a lion's share of that aw, shucks affability to Marty, and Back to the Future launched Fox's big-screen career. In order to appear in Back to the Future (once he had agreed to replace Stoltz), Fox had to go virtually without sleep. During the day on weekdays, he would film Family Ties episodes. At nights and on weekends, he made Back to the Future.

Like Crocodile Dundee one year later, Back to the Future is at its heart a fish out of water story, about a 1980s boy being trapped in a 1950s small town. His mother is smitten with him, the local bully doesn't like him, his dad is a wimp, and he doesn't fully understand the customs and lingo of the period in which he has become stranded. Plus, there are the twin difficulties of repairing a state-of-the-art 1980s time machine using 1950s technology and patching the damage his presence has caused to the time continuum. Zemeckis plays much of this with a light touch, but when there are opportunities for some excitement (as when Marty has a deadline to get to the finish line or risk not getting to 1986 until he's middle-aged), he milks it for all it's worth. Back to the Future leaves viewers a little breathless, but not drained - exhilarated and smiling.

Nostalgia plays a role in Back to the Future's success. For kids in the 1980s, it suggested the 1950s of Leave it to Beaver and other black-and-white sit-coms that were in UHF re-runs around the time Back to the Future opened. For 40-somethings, the movie provided a glimpse of their past through rose-colored glasses (always the best way to remember high school). When the film is watched today, some 25 years after its release, the nostalgia is double-barreled. Now, the 1980s scenes are as evocative as the 1950s material.

Back to the Future represented a career resuscitation for Christopher Lloyd, whose popularity had nosedived after the cancelation of Taxi, where he spent six years playing Reverend Jim. Roles in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Buckaroo Banzai enabled him to avoid obscurity, but it was his wacky turn as Doc Brown that defined his movie career. He plays the Doc like a stereotypical mad scientist - as brilliant as he is forgetful, a combination of Einstein and Doctor Who. Lea Thompson, a popular choice of the era to play high school sweethearts (see also All the Right Moves and Some Kind of Wonderful), shows that Lorraine is less prim-and-proper than her middle-aged self might indicate. (How many of us, I wonder, would be surprised if given an opportunity to interact with our parents when they were teenagers?) Crispin Glover, who has always marched to his own beat (as in his infamous appearance on David Letterman's talk show in 1987), is wonderful as the quavering, self-doubting George. For Glover, this may have been the most mainstream role he ever accepted (and he quickly distanced himself from it after the movie was released). Thomas F. Wilson provides a deliciously cartoonish sense of menace in his portrayal of the film's thuggish villain, Biff.

If there's a problem with Back to the Future, it's the film's ending, which left open the expectation that there would be more chapters to come. In fact, the movie was originally designed as a one-off project, with the final scene being a quirky way to wrap up things rather than a teaser for another installment. However, when Back to the Future topped the 1985 box office and public sentiment was high in wanting to know what the problem was with Marty and Jennifer's kids, Zemeckis went to work on Back to the Future Part II and III, which were filmed back-to-back and took four years to reach the screen. In retrospect, it might have been better if they had died in development. Rarely have sequels underwhelmed to this degree, with Part II seeming forced and awkward and Part III tired and unnecessary. As a movie, Back to the Future is tremendous fun, but the series is memorable only for what started it.

The 1980s were a dark and cynical decade, remembered by most for excesses of consumption and greed. Back to the Future is unapologetically lighthearted and upbeat - a tonic for a weary movie-going society. Even its theme song (Huey Lewis' The Power of Love) brought a smile to the face on its way up the charts to the #1 position. For Zemeckis, this represented an opportunity to join his buddy Steven Spielberg on the A-list - his next film would be Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and Forrest Gump was less than a decade away. Like Spielberg, Zemeckis has a keen understanding of how to blend diverse elements of comedy, action, adventure, and drama into concoctions that win over audiences. Marty's story could easily have been suspenseful, purely comedic, or a three-hankie melodrama, but Zemeckis found the balance and employed it. Back to the Future is a success because of a compelling premise, terrific casting, and exemplary execution. It's the kind of alchemy that, on those rare occasions when it materializes, cannot be replicated - as the filmmakers discovered when they re-assembled for Back to the Future Part II. The magic lasted for one film, and that's the one to re-visit.

Labels: adventure, comedy, Fifties, sci-fi, space-time, teenager
Internet Movie Database 85/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=87, viewers=76)
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MetaScore (critics=87, viewers=90)

 

Starman (1984) [PG] ****

Starman is a love story wrapped in a science-fiction fantasy. An alien visitor's spacecraft is shot down over Wisconsin. Needing a physical body, as well as human help, to survive on Earth, the alien creates a clone of deceased Scott Hayden (Jeff Bridges). Scott's young widow Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen) watches, both terrified and fascinated. Then, to reach his rendezvous point in Arizona before he dies, Starman forces Jenny to drive him cross-country. At first she tries to escape from him, but he has powers she doesn't understand, as well as Scott's physical features and mannerisms, which draw her to him. During their three-day journey Jenny's initial fear turns to affection, and she falls deeply and passionately in love with Starman.

This is a film about growth and transformation. Starman experiences a universe of new sensations and emotions as he grows accustomed to his earthly body. Jenny experiences her reborn husband Scott as a wise and compassionate, almost Christ-like being. The third act of the film is especially powerful. Jenny gives Starman her trust and her love, and in return he gives her a miraculous gift. The final scene, when they embrace one another, must surely be one of the most poignant, heart-wrenching goodbye scenes ever filmed.

Starman is a many-layered story. It is a tender love story between two very different people. It's also a commentary on the problems that men and women often experience in communicating with one another, because they seem to speak different languages and come from different worlds. And in a global sense, the film holds a mirror up to us all, showing us how our fearful, intolerant and violent nature has the potential to destroy us and our beautiful blue planet, while the tenderness, love and affection we display toward one another are the qualities that could ultimately save us.

Labels: adventure, drama, romance, sci-fi
IMDb 70/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=69, viewers=72)
MetaScore (critics=70, viewers=80)

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Roger Ebert's review 3 out of 4 stars

YouTube video How to Say Goodbye

 

The Last Starfighter (1984) [PG] ****

A film review by Roger Ebert, January 1, 1984.

The way to get rich, they say, is to invent something that's cheap and habit-forming, and get a patent on it. I guess video games would qualify. Kids pump quarters into them by the hour, turning into video junkies as they watch gorillas climbing little electronic ladders. Are the games educational? Sure, if you want to grow up to be a professional video game player.

Those arcade video games had to come from somewhere, and The Last Starfighter has an interesting theory to explain why they seemed to pop up all over the world, almost overnight. They came from outer space. Just as I've always suspected. That's right, they were put on Earth by representatives of the Star League, who use them as testing devices. If you break a record on a video game, they come and get you and turn you into an intergalactic fighter pilot. Meanwhile, your place on Earth is taken by a robot.

The Last Starfighter starts in a trailer camp in California. We know it's in California because all the residents are fugitives from mainstream life-styles. A kid named Alex (Lance Guest) lives in the camp and sets a record on a Starfighter game, and a Star League recruiter named Centauri (Robert Preston) whisks him into outer space to join the battle against the evil race of Ko-Dan. At first the kid is a little reluctant. He'd rather stay on Earth and neck with his girlfriend Maggie (Mary Catherine Stewart). But he's persuaded that he's all that stands between the Ko-Dan and intergalactic civilization as we know it. So he agrees to become a Starfighter, and is tutored by a wise old lizard navigator-warrior named Grig, who is played by Dan O'Herlihy in makeup inspired by the heartbreak of psoriasis.

The Last Starfighter is not a terrifically original movie. The video game concept seems inspired by Walt Disney's TRON, and the battles in space are such close copies of the Star Wars movies that George Lucas might have a lawsuit. For example, when Grig gives the kid lessons in how to fire from the cockpit of his rocket, the cockpit's swivel chair looks directly inspired by the original Star Wars. If the movie isn't original in its special effects, it tries to make up for that in the trailer camp scenes. A large gallery of eccentric supporting actors is trotted onscreen, all with a few colorful lines to say, and there's a subplot about the love affair between the kid's girlfriend and the robot who has replaced the kid (every time the girl tries to lick his ear, he gets a short circuit).

This is all pretty lame material. The Last Starfighter is a well-made movie. The special effects are competent. The acting is good, and I enjoyed Robert Preston's fast-talking Music Man reprise (we've got trouble, right here in the galaxy) and the gentle wit of Dan O'Herlihy's extraterrestrial. But the final spark was missing, the final burst of inspiration that might have pulled all these concepts and inspirations and retreads together into a good movie.

Labels: action, adventure, family, sci-fi, teenager
Internet Movie Database 67/100
RottenTomatoes (critics=76, viewers=70)
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2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) [PG] ****

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net.

The 16-year wait between the 1968 opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the 1984 release of 2010 doesn't represent the longest interval between a movie and its direct sequel (that distinction probably belongs to Gone With the Wind / Scarlett, although some would disqualify the pairing because the second installment was a TV mini-series). However, for fans of Stanley Kubrick's inimitable science fiction classic, it was more than long enough. Even before one frame of 2010 was committed to celluloid, filmmaker Peter Hyams had accepted a huge challenge (the kind that many in Hollywood would find daunting): continue the story begun by Kubrick in a way that answered some of the questions without in any way cheapening the original.

As 2001 was Kubrick's child, so 2010 belongs to Hyams, who took on four key duties: screenwriter (basing his script on Arthur C. Clarke's novel), director, producer, and cinematographer. (For those keeping count, that's one more hat than Kubrick wore.) Comparisons, however unfair, are inevitable. It's impossible to craft a follow-up to one of the cinema's most thought-provoking and impressive motion pictures without generating a litany of comments and criticisms. Based on published interviews with Hyams at the time of 2010's release, he was well aware of the potential quagmire he had entered into, but his appreciation for the original was such that his greatest desire was for the sequel to do Kubrick's film justice.

One question that arises is whether or not it is better to have seen 2001 before viewing 2010. For most two-part stories, this isn't an issue, but this is not an ordinary situation. Those who have not seen 2001 will come to 2010 will some background deficiencies, but they will also not have any preconceived notions about style and tone. My guess is that these uninitiated viewers may appreciate 2010 more than stalwart 2001 aficionados because they will accept the second feature on its own terms. Kubrick's shadow looms large over 2010 and the movie often seems to be struggling to escape from underneath it. The hypnotic quality that characterized 2001 is not present here; 2010 is a relatively straightforward space adventure story that extends the storyline but nothing more.

2010 picks up nine years after 2001. In the interim, not much has changed. The Discovery is still out near Jupiter - a cold, silent tomb for the disconnected HAL 9000 as it circles the planet in a slowly decaying orbit. The moon monolith has been brought from the lunar surface to Earth, but scientists are no closer to unlocking its secrets than they were a decade earlier. Meanwhile, both the Soviet Union and the United States are planning manned missions to Jupiter with the intention of exploring the monolith out there. The Russians' space ship will be ready earlier, so it makes sense for a few Americans to be on board so that Discovery's records and memory banks can be accessed. But tensions are high between the two superpowers as a crisis off the coast of South America escalates to where it could be the precursor to World War III.

Through a feat of diplomatic wizardry, politicians from both sides agree to allow three American scientists on board the Soviet space craft Leonov. Joining the Russian crew are Dr. Heywood Floyd (Roy Scheider), the former head of the space agency who blames himself for the Discovery debacle; Walter Curnow (John Lithgow), the engineer who designed Discovery; and Dr. Chandra (Bob Balaban), the creator of HAL. The commander of the Leonov, Tanya Kirbuk (Helen Mirren), is a stern, no-nonsense woman who is initially hostile to Floyd and his associates. However, in a time-honored tradition, as the Americans and Soviets work together to solve the mysteries of the outer Solar System, they form friendships and bonds of trust - even as the political situation between the two nations worsens.

During the course of the film, the solution to the riddle of the monolith is unveiled (although the aliens who created it remain an invisible presence). We learn its purpose and understand how this ties into the prehistoric version on Earth and the one on the moon. HAL is re-activated and rehabilitated, and we are given a somewhat unconvincing explanation about what precipitated his breakdown. (Conflicting orders caused him to turn paranoid and determine that the mission could be carried out without any human involvement.) Everyone is suspicious of HAL once Chandra turns him on again, but the computer proves to be helpful and self-sacrificing. Since HAL's demise in 2001 represented that film's emotional pinnacle, it's nice to see the artificial intelligence get a second chance. Astronaut Dave Bowman (once again played by Keir Dullea), now a ghostly mouthpiece for the aliens, makes a cameo appearance - more, I suspect, out of a need to solidify the connection between 2001 and 2010 than out of any plot necessity. The message he delivers is important, but it could have easily been conveyed in another manner.

2010 ties up a number of loose threads, but it doesn't resolve everything. The nature of the star child is untouched. And it's still not clear how much responsibility Floyd bears for HAL's psychosis. Despite the character's protestations of innocence in 2010, there is evidence in 2001 that he may have known more than he's letting on. 2010 doesn't ask many new questions - it's not that kind of movie - and the film ends with a straightforward, in-your-face moral. Oddly, the message of peace in 2010's closing moments contradicts something from 2001, where the influence of the monolith leads man to his first act of overt violence.

A few of the casting choices are worth exploring. Obviously it's nice to see Keir Dullea and hear Douglas Rain again. These two actors give 2010 the feeling of being in familiar territory. Roy Scheider has replaced William Sylvester in the lead role; Sylvester may have been the right age for the character in 2001, but he was too old (and probably too obscure) to re-create the part 16 years later. Scheider's low-key but authoritative approach works for this script. The character is supposedly the same, but there's little synergy between the two interpretations. John Lithgow, representing another name for the marquee, successfully keeps his manic tendencies in check. Helen Mirren would have been better if she hadn't been required to sport a ridiculous Russian accent (one that makes her sound like Natasha from Rocky & Bullwinkle). And, for those who like trivia, Candice Bergen has small speaking part as SAL 9000 (HAL's sister), although she uses the alias Olga Mallsnerd in the end credits.

Most of the space sequences are effective. While the Kubrick's lethargic pace has been replaced with something more energetic, 2010 doesn't speed along. There's a lot of exposition, which means lengthy passages of dialogue, some of which are clever. (I liked Curnow's observation that, while in space, he misses the color green. With no plant life in space or on the ship, there's no green.) The visual effects are as good as, although not noticeably better than, those used in 2001. Perhaps the most impressive task of the special effects team was to re-create the Discovery much as it appeared in the earlier film.

In terms of sound and music, Hyams' approach is completely different from Kubrick's. No longer is space a soundless vacuum. Now, we can hear engines and other assorted noises. (Although Hyams gets around the thorny issue of whether we hear an explosion by staying within the confines of the Leonov when it happens.) And, with the exception of Richard Strauss' Also Spoke Zarathustra, which plays over the opening and closing credits, Hyams relies upon an original score for 2010 rather than adopting Kubrick's approach of applying classical music. (This is probably a good move; anything else would have seemed like a copy.)

2010's biggest misstep is the Cold War backdrop (an element that was not contained in Clarke's novel). An attempt by Hyams to make the film relevant to audiences viewing it 1984, the U.S./Soviet tensions circa 2010 now seem ill-conceived and out-of-place, especially considering that the USSR no longer exists. Granted, Hyams can't be blamed for his inability to see into the future, but the movie's reliance upon current events dates 2010 in a way that was never the case for 2001. It's also a pretty tired plot element that has been done better elsewhere. Consider James Cameron's The Abyss, which also employed alien intervention to urge peace between nations - that's a case where the message folds nicely into the overall storyline, rather than seeming tacked-on, as it does in 2010.

Now that enough time has elapsed since the release of 2010 for outraged 2001 fans to calm down, it can be seen that, while there was no decisive creative reason for Hyams' sequel to exist, it's not a bad movie. The features form two largely independent aspects of the same story. Kubrick uses science fiction as a gateway to mystical meditation; Hyams uses it conventionally. Each picture is capable of being viewed separately (enough background is given during the opening sequence of 2010 to eliminate the most obvious sources of confusion), although I'm not certain why anyone today would be interested in watching 2010 without having previously seen its more famous predecessor. (Incidentally, I expect interest in 2010 to increase early next year, after 2001 is re-released in theaters to celebrate real-time having caught up with the title.) For those who prefer a double feature approach, 2010 continues 2001 without ruining it. The greatest danger faced by filmmakers helming a sequel is that a bad installment will in some way sour the experience of watching the previous movie. This does not happen here. Almost paradoxically, 2010 may be unnecessary, but it is nevertheless a worthwhile effort.

Labels: adventure, mystery, sci-fi, thriller
Internet Movie Database
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=58, viewers=66)
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The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) [PG] ***/****

It's October, 1943 and the U.S. Navy is conducting an experiment in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. It is trying to render a destroyer, the USS Eldridge, invisible to radar by generating an electromagnetic energy field around the ship, using an onboard generator. A young physicist named Dr. James Longstreet is running the test from another ship, while two young sailors onboard the Eldridge are monitoring the generator - David Herdeg (Michael Pare) and Jim Parker (Bobby Di Cicco). However, something goes terribly wrong with the experiment, the Eldridge actually vanishes, and David and Jim materialize in 1984 in the Nevada desert, near the Dry Wells military base.

Lost, frightened and feeling the disorienting effects of the experiment, David and Jim are forced to steal a car and abduct its owner, Allison Hayes (Nancy Allen), when they realize that they don’t know how to drive it. After Jim vanishes from a bed in a local hospital, David convinces Allison to drive with him to his home town of Santa Paula, California, in search of answers. In a heart-wrenching pivotal scene Allison and David stand in the service station his father had once owned, looking at forty-year old photos of father and son working on a racing car. Allison, who had doubted David's story, whispers to him in amazement: David, that's you!

What David doesn't know is that Dr. Longstreet (Eric Christmas), now in his 70s, has just conducted a repeat of his earlier experiment, this time on a mock-up town near the Dry Wells military base. Like the USS Eldridge, forty-one years earlier, the town has vanished. Both the Eldridge and the town now exist in hyperspace, in an energy field powered by the generator on the destroyer, and unless the generator can be shut down, the surface of the Earth will soon be sucked into hyperspace, potentially destroying the entire planet.

Reportedly based on a true incident during World War II involving an invisibility-to-radar experiment that caused the US Navy destroyer Eldridge to disappear from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, the screenplay is straightforward with minimal plot twists. There are several plot holes, none of the cast performances are particularly memorable, production values and special effects are mediocre, and the time-travel story requires suspension of disbelief. Michael Pare is reasonably convincing as a time-traveler, and he and Nancy Allen have passable romantic chemistry, so, if you enjoy time-travel films like The Time Machine or Forever Young, you will likely be satisfied with this one, although this is a good example of a film that could benefit from a remake.

Labels: adventure, drama, fantasy, romance, sci-fi, space-time, WWII
IMDb 61/100
MetaScore (critics=44, viewers=80)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=51, viewers=62)