Timecop (Peter Hyams, 1994)

Walker (Jean Claude Van Damme) is a Timecop, tasked with protecting the time stream from those who would like to affect history (or profit from it).

Now he is faced with the ultimate disrupter: a corrupt US senator who is robbing the past in order to fund his presidential campaign.

Three Peter Hyams reviews in one month?

Blame Outland.

This is widely considered one of JCVD’s best movies. I can see why.

He may be wooden, but there is something more compelling going on with him - compared with other performers of his generation, he is at least trying to sell the character’s despair.

This movie works as a simple action flick, and the key with this kind of picture is to keep the action moving fast enough so the plot holes do not trip you up.

The movie did not have a big budget and it shows in a few places. We get two set pieces in the past, a few future cars and some morphing CGI - it is not enough for the movie’s scope, but it is a feature, not a bug. I like watching low budget genre movies, and part of the fun is seeing what they spent money on. 

The key element in Timecop that keeps it compelling is the villain, played the late Ron Silver.

Silver is becoming one of my favourite character actors - he’s good in everything I’ve seen him in.

He is very good at soft-selling smarm, which is an asset here because the character does not have a lot to do here. He is less interesting as the younger version of himself - the character is more milquetoast and undefined.

Undefined is the word for the movie, at least in certain respects.

For example, rather than show us the invention of time travel, we get a monologue during a committee meeting - we also do not get to see the original time machine, which is essential to the villain’s plot.

There is also something small about the settings - the Parker factory looks like any warehouse, but filled with crates and piping.

The budget might be the cause of some of these choices, but it does not explain others - the main example is the subplot with Walker’s new partner (Gloria Rueben), which feels like it is on fast forward: she is introduced, they do not get on, they start to connect, and it turns out she’s a villain.

Hyams seems to be a fan of this twist because it happens in Outland and Sudden Death as well - a character is introduced, they are barely involved in the movie and then they are the bad guy.

In two out of three cases, it does not work - including this one.

Now, I am not enough of a sci-fi head to care about the logic of time travel BUT the ending of the movie is such a leap I had to laugh: our hero comes home to find Melissa alive and meets his ten-year-old son for the first time. This son has known Walker his entire life but this Walker has no memory of this kid’s entire life. The implications of this psychologically on the family is so bleak, the ‘happy reunion’ comes across like a dark joke.

Hyams is back to being his own DoP and the movie features his signature of extreme darkness - the third act action sequence was frustrating because I could not tell who was who, particularly during the close combat in the house.

All that being said, I had a good time with Timecop. The concept is still fun, it is decently paced and Ron Silver is having a great time as the villain.

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