BEFORE: What's more classic Mad Science than time travel? Yes, it's a topic I've covered before, from "The Time Traveler's Wife" to "Black Knight" to "Terminator 3" (and "Just Visiting", "Kate & Leopold", "Star Trek", "Deja Vu"...) I can't help it, I love the subject matter. It's truly where science meets fiction to form science-fiction.
Linking from "Honey I Blew Up the Kid", Rick Moranis was in "Spaceballs" with Stephen Tobolowsky (last seen in "Garfield", but hey, also seen in "The Time Traveler's Wife")
THE PLOT: Based on an "actual event" that took place in 1943, a US Navy Destroyer Escort that disappeared from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, and sent two men 40 years into the future to 1984.
AFTER: Not only is this based on junk science, even for a time-travel flick, it's got the look and feel of a TV movie. There's a distinction we make at my job between "special effects" and "post-production effects", and this is mostly the lesser-quality post effects (nothing special about them).
What this is really based on is an urban legend, more commonly called a "hoax", except for those who are gullible enough to believe the story and blindly pass it on. There are no military records of any anti-radar experiments that went sideways like this. Ah, but some might say, "There's your proof!" since if something like this DID happen, the guvmint would destroy all the records and cover it up. You can keep believing that if you want, but in my book, the lack of evidence is not evidence.
(it's notable that they had to put quotes around "actual event". Meaning, it wasn't.)
If time travel were invented in 1943, even accidentally, then we would have that technology now - it just stands to reason. And if you carry the logic further, then it means time travel will never be invented, because a time traveller from the future would have left evidence in the past, or in our present. Ah, but some might say, "He came back to the past and changed the timeline, so how would we know?" I know because JFK was still shot, the holocaust still happened, and so did 9/11. Those would be the top 3 things to come back and change - unless of course, preventing those things made the timeline so much worse. No, no, the simplest explanation is still the best - time travel, while fun in movies, will never be invented.
What the movie gets right is depicting a guy from 1943 who's suddenly walking around in 1984. He still sees Ronald Reagan as an actor, not a President, and he's confused by the fact that Germany and Japan are our allies, and Russia is our enemy. Really, this is how the revived Captain America should be depicted, someone who's just a bit out of step with the times, he wouldn't understand why Americans are drinking German beer and buying Japanese electronics.
One of the comedians I follow, don't remember which, said you can just mess with people's heads by asking complete strangers the date, and when they say "April 16" you grab them by the collar and yell, "but WHAT YEAR?" Cause that's what a time traveler would do.
I'm sure there are many Nitpick Points up for grab tonight - most notably: where, exactly, did the ship go? Into the vortex? Where is that? But since this is all junk science, I hardly see the point. I can't really correct things like this, they just are what they are. Sending someone into a vortex to shut down the generators and reverse the polarity on the time-flux. You know what? Good luck with that...
Starring Michael Paré, Nancy Allen (last seen in "Out of Sight"), Eric Christmas (last seen in "Bugsy"), Bobby Di Cicco, Kene Holliday.
RATING: 4 out of 10 roadblocks
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