Le jour de la fin des temps

Yes, The Day Time Ended does indeed lent itself to many possibilities. Unfortunately, they tried to fit all of them into this one film, and yet despite the many different ideas, creatures, and going on present, there really isn't much of a story to speak of. It's as though the folks behind The Day Time Ended were making these things up as they went along. Some of the acting is fine, while some of it was poorly executed. The special effects weren't really all that effective. The story just didn't have any cohesion and as such never gain ed any momentum to draw the viewer in. Despite the efforts of some of the players here it just didn't amount to enough to recommend.

"The Day Time Ended" is marked by excellent special effects, an interesting musical score, and some competent acting performances by Jim Davis as the patriarch and by child actress Natasha Ryan (Actually, Natasha wasn't just decent, she was excellent. The film would have benefited greatly if her young mug had been on screen more). Natasha gives a performance that brings to mind Angela Cartwright's persona on "Make Room For Daddy". The Angela Cartwright connection doesn't end there, as there is a strong "Lost in Space" influence to this flick. Dorothy Malone gives a June Lockhart-like spin to the matriarch character, and the family-clan-wandering-around in a lunar-like setting, with all manner of strangeness taking place around them, was right out of "Lost in Space". If you imagine their Aztec-influenced solar-powered house (w/matching barn) being a disk-shaped flying saucer instead, then you will get the "Lost in Space" image. Missing is the comic relief that Mr. Smith & The Robot brought to "Lost in Space".

Where this film went wrong -- it has some hokey dialogue, directing gaffs, and some poor editing. Marcy Lafferty (William Shatner's ex-wife) is given a particularly peculiar few lines of dialogue to recite near the end of the film. It is a moment that does real harm to the entire film, as it highlights the confused and muddled nature of the entire flick. Also, there are numerous scenes that seem like campy moments from a "Brady Bunch" episode, but they are not meant to be funny. For instance, Jenny getting out of bed to use the bathroom, Beth needing to sip on her wine while listening to Jenny deliver a line of dialogue, and the grandparents heading out into the desert night wearing bathrobes, are moments which would have fit in fine if this had been a campy comedy film.

By the way, the scene in which Jenny makes a trip to the bathroom epitomizes truly BAD filmmaking. First of all, the scene is completely unnecessary to the plot. Second of all, to be blunt -- it is a stupidly filmed scene, as the child manages to use the facilities in less than 10 seconds.

I notice that "Vortex" is an alternate title for "The Day Time Ended". "Vortex" is a more apt title for the flick -- "Lost in the Vortex" (or "Lost in Time") would have been an even better title, as it would have paid homage to "Lost in Space" while also paying homage to the "lost" nature of the screenplay (especially in the final act). The film brought to mind some better-made 1970s made-for-television sci-fi productions like "Logan's Run", "Isis", "Shazam", and "The Fantastic Journey" (the short-lived television series that Roddy McDowall appeared in).

I agree with IMDB reviewer CaptEcco who wrote of "The Day Time Ended" ending -- "It's like having a water balloon blow up in your hand before you've had the chance to throw it." This was almost a good sci-fi flick, instead, a few missteps turned it into a fair sci-fi flick.

--------------------------

DVD Note: I viewed "The Day Time Ended" from a 4-film DVD collection titled "Time Travelers". I've already watched three of the four films (the sound and picture quality hasn't been good). "The Day Time Ended" is an OUTSTANDING film compared to the first two that I've watched: "Journey to the Center of Time" and "In the Year 2889". Those two were wretched on so many levels. The one film of the four that I've yet to see is the Peter Fonda directed "Idaho Transfer". I'm hoping it will be the best of the four.

The Day Time Ended is a late 70's sci-fi b-movie that tells the story of a family who find themselves dealing withseveral close encounters and who are (Complete with their house) ripped through space and time repeatedly.

Consisting of the usual quality cgi and some stop motion creatures the idea behind the movie is sound but the execution is pretty disastrous.

The plot is a mess and is more than slightly difficult to follow, for this reason caring about characters felt like a chore and the whole movie missed its mark badly.

I see what they were going for I truly do, but somewhere along the way somebody suffered with writers block and out popped this half baked effort.

The Good:

A couple of interesting ideas

The Bad:

Plot makes very little sense

Nothing flows

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Aliens can vaporize metal in a second but take several minutes to get through a wooden door

Normally I laugh uproariously when a movie of this fashion comes out. I normally am not thrilled by dodgy cinematography, flubbed lines, and the like. However, this film, despite its flaws, was great!! I really don't know how I can explain it. There were a number of loose ends, with parts of the movie not making sense, yet with all of this, it still seemed to work! The little girl, Natasha Ryan, really carried the movie and another aspect I liked was the "Close Encounters" type of feel to the movie. Also, the aspect I enjoyed the most was when the family is re-united and they are upon the hill looking upon the fabulous City of Light at the end. There was such a spiritual feel to this scene. Very well done. There were flaws in this film, yet the special effects and the interesting plot seemed to give it a redeeming quality. 7/10 stars.

According to the opening credits for "The Day Time Ended", four writers are credited with developing the story and writing the screenplay. And none of them apparently were able to make the movie's story make much sense. I'm not sure even if you can call what's in the movie a story - much of the movie seems to be just a series of random supernatural events, and even the resolution at the end doesn't answer what the intents of the creators of the events are. Though the problems of the movie go beyond the bad script. Director John 'Bud' Cardos makes much of this theatrical movie have the feel of a made-for-TV movie of this period. Is there anything positive to say about this movie? Well, some of the special effects aren't bad for a movie that had a pittance of a budget. But I'd rather have a good script with bad special effects than a movie with good special effects and a bad script.