Tiempo Congelado

Dumb. Dumb characters. Dumb plot (if it has a plot). Don't waste your time. The only good thing is that if it is successfuly enough, perhaps they will re-issue The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything on VHS, this had the same concept of a watch that would stop time, but was a lot more fun.

There are people out there saying negative stuff about this movie, but what people are not realizing is that is is a family movie. It's for kids and family. Jonathan Frakes did a great job directing this movie. Jesse Bradford was good as the main character. Michael Beihn was just awesome as the bad guy in this movie. Nickelodeon is just down and out awesome. I love their movies. This one had lots of really really cool special effects. great acting and lots of fun. Oh yeah, lots of action kids style too. I recommend this movie to anyone who loves a good family movie. Or for anyone who loves an awesome Nickelodeon movie.

The story of Clockstoppers centers around a very cute teenage boy who is good at a lot of things, extreme bike-riding with lots of incredible tricks, playing a guitar, riding a skateboard, fighting with his sister...

His mom, played by Julia Sweeney of "Saturday Night Live" and "It's Pat" fame is a doting, (and docile) mom but his father, a college professor, is much more involved in his students' lives than in Zak's life. This causes a lot of conflict between them and Zak tries to get his father to understand how he feels. His dad looks guilty but professes that Zak is exaggerating. When he has promised to go with Zak to look at a car that is Zak's heart's desire, his dad suddenly has to go away to help an old student who is having a problem with an invention.

The invention is a wrist watch that can be activated to put the wearer into "hyper-time". After the father leaves, Zak finds the watch and puts it on, thinking it is only a watch. While visiting a girl he has recently met, Zak pushes the button to check the time and voila! Time stops. To the viewer it appears to freeze everyone and everything else, but then you begin to notice that drops of water from the sprinkler are still falling, just falling a millimeter per second; a hummingbird suspended in mid-air is still flapping his wings, but so slowly that you can barely see the movement. However, Zak, and anyone who is touching him when he activates hyper-time is moving at what appears to be a normal speed.

Zak is stunned at first but eventually realizes what has happened and, as a typical teenage boy, proceeds to have some fun with it, along with the girl he wants to impress! Some of the tricks they pull are hysterical and lead you to imagine what you might do if you got ahold of this watch!

Of course, there must be an evil plot behind this somewhere, and we soon learn what that is. This leads to grave danger for Zak, his dad and Zak's new girlfriend and also provides for some fun car chase scenes.

The movie, of course, requires you to suspend disbelief and if you aren't capable of that, skip the movie! Otherwise you are only going to spend the hour criticizing the scientific aspects of "hyper-time" and annoying everyone around you who has some imagination and is having a good time.

The movie is directed by Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander Riker on Star Trek, the Next Generation. He apparently learned a lot during his STNG days and puts it to good use in this science fiction fun-fest. Thanks Number One. You made it so.

I've always been fascinated with the idea of stopping time, so when I saw the trailer, I was really interested in seeing the movie. Anyhow, the movie was actually really cool and had some REALLY cool ideas. I really liked the idea that they weren't actually stopping time, they were just slowing it down REALLY slow.

The main reason I wanted to see the movie was for the special effects and I wasn't let down, the special effects were spectacular and lots of fun.

As far as acting goes, I thought all the actors did a find job. I liked Jesse Bradford, French Stewart, Michael Biehn and last but certainly not least, Paula Garces. I was really impressed with Paula's beauty, she is a quite a beautiful woman and predict a great future for her. I can't wait to see her next project.

As far as story-line goes, I thought it was pretty darn good and rather smart. There were a few things that I could have done without, but I can deal. One part that really struck me as odd was when he (Jess Bradford) was in the bathroom at the hospital and he was trying to get the watch (time-stopper) to work. While he was in the bathroom the bad guys slow down time and come walking into the hospital and suddenly you see Jesse disguised as a cop and then as soon as the baddies walk by Jesse takes off running. I assume he got the watch to work momentarily, but that doesn't really make sense because later in the movie he gives it to French Stewart so he can repair it and get it working again. I just think that one scene could have been explained better and it would have been quite easy to do.

One little movie trivia tid-bit that I noticed in the film was when Francesca and Zak are having fun with the watch and she says "Make it so Number One". That is a reference to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Captain Picard always said that to Commander Riker (aka Number One). This is interesting, because "Clockstoppers" is directed by Jonathan Frakes, who plays Commander Riker in Star Trek.

I hope you enjoyed the movie as much as I did. It's not a superb sci-fi movie, but it's fun and it's got lots of cool things to look at and some fun ideas. Thanks for reading,

-Chris

Zak Gibbs (Jesse Bradford) is a teenager, son of Dr. Gibbs (Robin Thomas), a brilliant scientist. He wants to buy a car, but the attention of his father is to his own research work. Zak likes Francesca (Paula Graces), a new student from Venezuela. One day, Zak finds by accident a watch developed by Earl Dopler (French Stewart), a former student of Dr. Gibbs, with capability of accelerating time. Henry Gates (Michael Biehn), the villain of the story, stole this research and wants to make lots of money with this device. Zak and Francesca will face lots of adventures due to this finding. The screenplay of this film has lots of flaw, but anyway it entertains. There are lots of inconsistency in the story, but if the viewer do not pay attention to these details, may have some fun. The special effects are very reasonable. Teenagers are certainly the public-target of this movie. My vote is six.