Time Walker

This movie is borderline stupid and fascinating. I admit that the story was fascinating, but it hardly made sense. The acting could have been better. Look for Warrington Gillette(Jason part 2) in a brief role as Stanley, the girl's friend from school. James Karen seemed out of character in this movie, as a matter of fact the whole cast seemed out of place. I accidentally turned this movie on some years ago and attempted to follow it through. There is nothing in this movie that the mystery science theatre 3000 should have done. All that was missing was the talking mechanical dog and the talking gumball machine and the man talking through the whole movie.

Boy, I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid. So naturally, I almost remembered nothing of it. Except for the fact that it somehow left a strange impression on me, and a dormant urge to some day revisit it. That urge awakened recently when I found this obscure gem on an old ex-rental tape, so this was my chance to re-watch it. As to be expected, this is by no means a 'good' movie. Far from, probably. But it still remains a curious and strange gem.

A mummy gets dug up in King Tut's tomb and transferred to an American University. A student finds 5 diamonds hidden in the sarcophagus and steals them. The next day, the mummy is gone too. I'll just stop describing the story now. But if you want to know how a mummy, ancient diamonds, green dust that turns into flesh-devouring fungus, a blue-skinned alien with big black eyes and a college campus tie in all together, then you might want to consider watching TIME WALKER. But be warned, most people might generally classify this as a bad movie, and I don't even have much arguments to compete with that. The acting is just tolerable and the directing isn't top notch either. What had me chuckling most, were many inserted reaction shots of certain actors, just standing there looking for a second, not saying anything, or just giving a short stupid reply. But here's an interesting contradiction: Not much really happens in this movie, but still there's a lot going on (just remember the previous things I mentioned). Everything ties in together nicely, but it's all very predictable. The mummy prowling the campus provides a couple of nice and creepy shots, but his green-colored POV vision was a bit cheesy. Of course he kills a couple of people (not just randomly, I might add), but the kills themselves aren't much to write home about. On the other hand, the murderous mummy encounters a topless female student on one of his escapades and most of his kills are filmed in shocking slow-motion. The movie builds up towards a nice twist-conclusion too, but sadly when you know the tagline to this movie, or just take a glimpse at the front or back cover art, you already know what's going to happen. Also, the story severely lacks a climax at the end.

TIME WALKER tries really hard, remains an offbeat, weird gem, but in the end doesn't succeed in what it sets out to do. There's plenty of interesting elements, but they are rigged together in a below average sci-fi/horror flick with a conclusion that leaves a lot to be desired. Given the nostalgia feelings I treasure for this one, it is with grief I have to flunk this baby. But don't let that discourage you to check it out if you should ever stumble upon it. And then come around some day and blame me for having watched a bad movie.

This is basically a 1950's style B-movie with low rent 80s production values. The story is about an archaeological dig which unearths a mummy which is blasted by radiation , reviving it from its slumber. What follows is a mixture of a mummy curse movie with an alien trying to return home movie. Its not at all scary or gory with very few kills. It doesn't manage to ramp up any tension or excitement at any point. It really should have been a comedy. There is also an odd sub-plot about fungus, again another 1950s staple , which doesn't seem to add anything to the story. The effects are super low budget and comparable to something you would see in a TV show not a movie. This was actually one of the MST3K episodes which tells you all you need to know, however it was not one of the more popular episodes. If you have the time to waste on a bad movie then fine however do not expect to be entertained.

This a horribly fun movie to watch. No one in this movie can act, except Ben Murphy. The writing is atrocious and law enforcement folks are so awful you have to laugh. I swear the voice of the Detective Lieutenant was dubbed. Luckily, I taped it so I could fast forward through all the monsters green moving scenes. There are a lot of them. The college boys look like Neanderthals.

I have to say, although this film was badly executed, it still had a cool storyline and a lot of potential. It's not often you get mummy/alien hybrids, but that is what this film is. It all starts off with some stock footage of planets and then of Egypt. After this the story begins, and a mummy is brought to a university for examination. A mega dose of x-rays brings the mummy to life, and it begins its search for some crystals that were removed from the sarcophagus. But this is no ordinary mummy, oh no, this is actually an alien!

The main problems with Time Walker is the slow pace and lack of gore. The film just seems to trundle along really slowly, as the mummy stalks around looking for his crystals. There's a few cool scenes such as when the mummy attacks a woman and pushes her against a wall, and throws a man in the air. If some gore scenes had been added, it would have been a lot more entertaining. The POV shots of the mummy are quite cool and reminded me of a slasher film called The Lamp. The ending is very cheesy, as the mummy reveals himself to actually be an alien (someone wearing a ridiculous mask) and then disappears to the stars, and the fateful words "To be continued..." appear on the screen.

Overall, I can't rate this film too highly as it really was boring, but I do love the storyline and it's a shame it wasn't properly executed.