Zeitreise in die Katastrophe

We don't expect much from made-for-TV movies with a cast of unknowns. But actually, the Time Shifter is an engaging, well-acted science fiction piece that got me thinking.

Primarily, this is due to Casper Van Dien, who plays the starring role, which involves a lot of running around frantically, determined to explain what's going on to himself and others through various natural disasters.

Who should see this film:

-- Science fiction movie buffs

-- Action movie buffs comfortable with the science fiction genre and with nothing better to do

-- Time-travelers looking to waste a little time in-between stops

I'll give "The Time Shifters", which you can find in video rental, a 7 out of 10.

I caught this mostly by accident last night on TBS and it was much better than I expected. I think there are only a half dozen or so possible plots for a time travel story -- but this movie has enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. The coincidences are just a bit too much, but all is forgiven when I can be surprised in the last 30 minutes.

This movie is, happily, not a waste of time. It is fairly intelligent, and for the most part manages not to get too lost in temporal theory. The premise lies with Tom Merrick (Casper Van Dien), a former award-winning reporter now working for a tabloid, discovering that the same person was present at the RMS Titanic sinking, the Hindenburg crash, and an electrical plant fire where Merrick nearly lost his life. As he investigates, he attracts the attention of some strange agents who might be time travellers.

While the movie is relatively fast paced and manages to steer clear of too many cliches, it is unfortunately marred by a couple of gaping plot holes. However, it is nice to know that Casper Van Dien can actually act, and he manages to do a decent job on this one.

So, the final verdict: not too bad SF, and fairly good entertainment for two hours. 3.5/5

I was not expecting much of this movie, because it was obviously made for TV. The summary in the TV guide made it sound interesting, although it was not exactly clear what the movie was about. I'm glad I didn't give it a miss, because it really was worth watching. I think it took me about 20 minutes to understand exactly what was going on, and that Caspar Van Dien's character was not going to be the one doing the time travelling, but once I realised that, I really began to enjoy the movie. It's not often nowadays that I sit through an entire movie, and am glued to the screen, but I was with this one and it wasn't entirely predictable either. I like a movie that makes you think about the situations it portrays, and time travel is a fascinating topic. The acting probably wasn't perfect, but I've seen much worse, and I put this movie on the same level as "Deep Impact" - it has substance.

Sometimes, you will find a little gem between all the cheap and poor B-movies that was aired all night on TV. "Thrill Seekers" is really one of this seldom gems and shows clearly, that you don't need a few 100-million dollars to made a good movie. The story makes it! And the story of the tourists from the future that traveling along the time-line to visit disasters of the past, is a very good plot. Our hero (living in our time) examines some old photos of disasters and make a very strange discovery... I will do not spoil the movie for you, but the many surprises and a lot of good twists (especially the last, and i mean the really very last :-) make it better than a lot of big Hollywood films that only works with massive action and CG-effects to cover a weak plot. Yes, you will probably find some logical errors in the film, but if you make a movie about time-travels, you can't avoid it, because nobody knows, what is really a logical error when time-travel warp the logic, or that, what we called logic, itself. So, what is going on when you go back in time and change the past... will you change the future, or some alternate futures in a multilevel universe? Who knows! And perhaps some visitors of the future are already among us... maybe it's a good idea to examine the photos of yesterdays disasters again and more exactly... I give it a 7 of 10. It is really worth to see it!