Time Changer

A lot of the reviews here condemn Time Changer for being "Fundamentalist propaganda" or some such words. Yes, it is absolutely true that this movie has a point of view that it pushes. So do lots of movies. When you agree with the point of view, it's "an intelligent movie with profound insights on our times". When you disagree it's "propaganda". Do I need to rattle off a list of movies that clearly are intended to be condemnations of the Iraq war? Of racism? Of big business? Or for that matter, of Fundamentalist Chrsitianity? But anyway ...

The gist of the plot is that two college professors from 1890 have a disagreement about the nature of morality. Dr Andersone says that a moral code that is not ultimately based on the authority of God is inherently without foundation and doomed to failure. Dr Carlisle agrees that people should have faith in God but believes morality can be founded on non-religious, pragmatic grounds. Furthermore, Anderson argues that it is more important that people be saved and spend eternity with God than that they live good lives; Carlisle agrees but insists that right living is still a good thing of itself. (Just reading that should make it apparent that this movie is much deeper and more philosophical than 99% of the movies made today.) Anderson then reveals that he came to his conclusions because he has invented a time machine and seen the future, and he knows how things turn out. He ultimately convinces Carlisle to travel to the future (our present) himself to see. The rest of the movie is about Carlisle's encounter with 21st century culture and morals.

Biggest weak point to me: There's a sub-plot where Carlisle meets two men who become suspicious of his "cover story" and take steps to investigate him. I found this sub-plot very hard to believe. If I met someone at a party who casually said that he worked at a college in my city that I never heard of, I can't imagine that I'd immediately conclude that he was a fraud. Much more likely I'd say, "Huh, I never heard of that college. Maybe it's some tiny little school behind the mall." They investigate and find that this college used to be in this city but moved decades ago and that there was a professor there in the 1800's named Carlisle. They ponder how this man could be alive today if he was teaching college in 1890. They apparently never consider obvious, mundane explanations like, "maybe he has the same name as his grandfather who also taught at this school". Etc. Frankly, I think this whole plot-line was stuck in just to add some conflict and suspense.

Overall, I think this movie presented a serious philosophical question in an entertaining way. It mostly avoided adding nonsense action and chase scenes to make the story more "exciting" and kept the conflict serious and intellectual. It did add some amusing scenes to lighten the mood here and there. I thought the acting and cinematography were good, and the couple of special effects scenes were quite professional.

If you're looking for an exciting action movie, this isn't it. If you're looking for an hour or two of light, mindless entertainment, this isn't it. But if you're looking for a serious, thoughtful movie, you might consider Time Changer.

Unlike most Hollywood films, which often have a budget of well over 100 million dollars, this film was financed by people who are passionate about their faith. I am sure that the catering account for most feature film sets would tower over the entire cost of this picture. This film was a labor of love in all respects and its purpose was to help the viewer identify with the reason for our existence. This film portrays the flawed human character with great accuracy and then speaks to us in a language that Hollywood can't quite understand. That language is forgiveness. If you truly care about your family and what they watch, this is the movie for you.

The gist of the story is that situational morality becomes the standard when there is no authority behind the morality.

The lead actor occasionally overacts, but the acting throughout is otherwise solid.. Hard to go wrong with actors we've loved in our childhoods. It's well produced. The soundtrack is excellent, subtle where it needs to be.

There ARE mini-"sermons" throughout the film, but they are relatively short and they are relevant.

Time travel is an interesting concept and has been done many times with varying degrees of success. It's not "Quantum Leap," but it was an overall enjoyable film.

I originally bought this film because I collect time-travel movies and read about it on the internet ( it's unknown in Europe ). On a purely time travel basis, I was very satisfied with the movie. There were limited special effects, which is a good thing and it was funny to see our hero's reaction confronted with modern day life ( like in Time After Time ). The picture quality and dialogue were wonderful and it was easy to understand what was going on. Naturally, if you are not of the Christian religion, you may find the film less interesting as there are certain passages where there is a lot of Christian preaching. But as a Christian myself, though not a very good one, this does not bother me at all. I nevertheless felt that the story could have been a bit longer and a bit more exciting. On the moral side, I was very happy to hear the man lashing out at today's moral standards because, even if there was immorality in 1890 ( there has always been immorality in the world ), it is even worse today. Certain bad things of 100 years ago have been corrected but other, even worse things, have taken their place. If you take for one example, violence in the cinema, it is today far worse than fifty years ago. Music has become more violent. The world of Commerce has become more violent. Road rage, rape, abortion, insider dealing on the stock exchange, the size of bombs and weapons ....the list is endless and there's no point in insisting. Of course it's very difficult to live like Jesus Christ ! There's too much material temptation in our path which leeds to greed etc ..... but one must start by at least admitting the lack of morality before trying to correct it. It's normal that a hundred year jump in time should cause our hero to be greated with total shock and to change his views on certain things when he returned to his time frame. If we could do the same we should probably change our views. Anyway, putting all this moralistic stuff aside, the film was a pleasure to watch because it didn't contain violence and because our hero's thoughts were pure and naive. I can understand it not being everyone's cup of tea but I for one should like to see more of these films on the screen - some preaching, of course, but also a lot of humour and some originality !!

It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen but the message of what a 19th century theologian professor would see if he travels to the future is very thought provoking. If your judging this movie by the message then that just lets people know your beliefs if your judging the movie on how well it was done then that's a different story. If you don't believe that there are an overwhelming increase of foul language and sexuality in the media over the years then oh well. My dad who might not have been a Christian even saw the changes in the media. The message is important. Christians too often accept things that they shouldn't.