In 1994, a research scientist perfects a means to travel through time, but only into the past since the future has not yet happened. The Government immediately sees the negative implications of this technology falling into the wrong hands and sets up an agency to prevent unauthorized excursions into the past. The ambitious young Senator McComb chairs the Senate Oversight Committee under whose jurisdiction this new agency, the Time Enforcement Commission (TEC), falls.
A young D.C. Police officer, Max Walker, is brutally attacked while leaving his home and left for dead. His wife is killed and his home is destroyed in a huge explosion.......
2004. TEC agent Max Walker discovers that Senator McComb, now presidential candidate McComb, is using time travel to steal from the past to fund his presidential campaign. Lacking proof, Walker persues any lead to stop McComb before he can disrupt the very fabric of time.
This is 'Timecop'. The latest science fiction actioner from director Peter Hyams and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Max Walker and Ron Silver as the ruthless Senator McComb. I saw 'Timecop' theatrically and must admit that it suffered from a case of too-high-expectations. On the big screen it seemed that the action and special effects (and there is a lot of both) overshadowed some of the nuances of performance and story. Any decent time travel story is, by it's nature, going to involve some convolution and any thing that distracts one's attention from the story can only hurt. At least as far as the story goes, the translation of 'Timecop' from theatrical film to home video actually helps this movie considerably. Also, when dealing with science fiction or fantasy stories, I have found that if one simply accepts the writers premise rather than try to pick apart the logic, one can just sit back and enjoy the show. And that's what I did.
I enjoyed it quite a bit, in fact. Hyams, who does double duty here as both Director and Director of Photography, has seldom been better (and often been worse). With the reduction in scale of the special effects, Mark Verheiden's script attains a level of intelligence and wit that all but escaped me in the theater. I still consider Van Damme the weakest part of the cast, though even his performance is a bit easier to take on the smaller screen. Ron Silver simply chews up the screen at every opportunity. His performance as McComb raises "ruthless" to a whole new level. All in all, I consider 'Timecop' to be first rate action fare.
Perhaps one of the major reasons that 'Timecop' seems to play so well on video is the outstanding quality of the presentation. Even with the list of 'super discs' getting longer by the month, I can still appreciate a transfer the likes of this one. The very first thing I noticed as this disc started was the almost unbelievable clarity. The nearly total lack of grain or other artifacts give this transfer a transparency rarely seen, even on the best discs. Aliasing, usually a problem on scope transfers, is virtually non-existent. Colors appear accurate and consistant with perfect saturation (to my eye, at least). Contrast and brightness are excellent as is sharpness and detail. All this, combined with the extreme smoothness of the image, adds up to one of the most unvideo-like video transfers I have ever seen. There is no camera company listed in the credits, but Hyams has used anamorphic photography almost exclusively in the past and the theatrical prints were definitely scope. The ratio on this transfer is spot on 2.35:1.
So, a pretty decent video transfer, you say. Wait till you hear the audio. The digital audio on this disc easily exceeds the theatrical DTS soundtrack I heard at the local cinema. Dynamic range and frequency response are outstanding. Mids and highs are crystal clear and distortion free with a bottom end that will shake the rafters (and anything else in subwoofer range). Dialog is clear and natural and always understandable. Seperations are clean with little or no noticable bleedover. The surround channel is used extensively and to great effect.
'Timecop' runs a very quick 99 minutes and is presented on two CLV sides. The disc contains 33 chapters. No extras are included. List price for the THX certified letterboxed disc is $39.95. There is a non-THX full frame disc available for $34.95 (what a waste of plastic).
So Bob, you say. There has to be something bad about this disc, right? Well, okay. If I have to bitch about something then I'll trash MCA for charging extra for THX and letterboxing. There's no excuse for it and it's greed, pure and simple. There. Now go pay the 40 bucks and enjoy 'Timecop'.
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