Les Visiteurs du futur

Directed by Barry Samson. Starring Daniel Baldwin, Stacy Haiduk, T.K. Carter, LeVar Burton, Malcolm McDowell, Richard Herd, Page Mosley, David Netter, Trevor Goddard, Tom Poster. (R)

Time travelers with superpowers are hunted by the host of "Reading Rainbow" in this D-grade sci-fi thriller. Baldwin (who couldn't look more like his "30 Rock"-era brother, Alec, even with an assist from deepfake tech) mumbles and mutters his way through the film without a lick of charisma or earnestness; as for Burton, he trades in Geordi's visor for a cowboy hat and looks exactly as threatening with it on as you'd expect. The story tries for twists and turns by presenting the action in a non-linear fashion, but it just makes a muddle of all the goings-on; not even McDowell's hammy villain (which he can do in his sleep) can liven things up. What little action can be found is generic and poorly directed/edited. There are the kernels for a decent genre potboiler here, but don't waste your time scouring this wasteland of entertainment to find them.

17/100

This film was obviously doing an X-men thing without having to buy the rights to the famous superhero team. They just threw the time traveling stuff as a bonus. What we get could have worked, but they apparently did not work with the script much as it sort of never really goes anywhere or explains anything. Maybe this thing was supposed to be a pilot for a television show, but it literally tells the viewers as little as possible on its way to its tepid conclusion.

The story, we see some stuff and then a man and a woman walking about and not looking too good. Three years later, Urkel named Roland here draws bad pictures that another man somehow is able to figure out who they are. He contacts a man who exhibits telekinetic powers. Then he finds a woman with the ability to see ever so briefly into the future and then a guy with pyro-kinetic powers. And thus the Y-men are born to combat all those who would deny the next step in human evolution, or something, it really makes no sense as there are two organizations and by the end of the movie I still didn't know what either ones purpose was...

We get a pretty strange cast as Levar Burton is the bad guy, doesn't really work. Malcolm McDowell as a sort of bad guy and Daniel Baldwin as a rather unlikable hero...well that is not fair, not too many likable characters in this film at all and that is probably more due to the crummy script which seemed like they wanted to do something cool, but could not figure how to bring it all home.

So, totally not a good movie as it seems like it wanted to be more, but failed to do so. Not sure if they planned for this to be a series as so many things are left vague, but then again the film ends with everything sort of being done. I just think they were trying to do an X-men film as they have so many elements one finds in their comics, but they were doing it on the cheap.

In this unwatchable "story" of four time travelers who come to our time from what appears to be a post apocalyptic future, Daniel Baldwin, in a performance where he is mostly catatonic, attempts to rally his three compatriots to stop the evil doings of Malcolm McDowell. It seems there was more to the story at some point in the making of it, but what would amount to the "good parts" seem to have ended up on the cutting room floor.

The main problem with this movie is that most of the actors are out of their league with this kind of genre.

I had not really seen Levar Burton in much else, but he really does NOT have much of a handle on playing the heavy/the villain. Cuz he really stinks up the joint here.

The chick (stacy haiduk) is not too good either.

And the guy who played a role in Seinfeld had best stick to comedy.

Baldwin is not that great, either, although he does a better job than anyone else but Carter, who acts serviceably.

The two "agents" are pretty bad, too!

So basically this movie does not have much in the way of acting.

However it has nice production values and a nice stylish look to it.

And the script is not that bad; not great, but not bad.

Not a bad movie to watch if you have some time to waste, but nothing sepecial.

Characters you just don't care about. With a story so dull, you would have a cure for insomnia. It's not bad in a good way, its's very bad in a bad way.