Philadelphia Experiment II

PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT 2 (PG-13) - Vidmark Video (Original 1994 VHS distributor): After a brief flirtation with the Big Screen in (in 1989's ALWAYS and 1991's FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER) Brad Johnson begins what could be his journey back to the B-pic obscurity from which he sprang with this decent, albeit cheap, sequel to the first PHILLY EXPERIMENT. Johnson, replacing Michael Pare from the 1984 flick, finds himself `shifted' into an alternate 1993 - one in which Germany won World War II - when a power-mad scientist (Gerrit Graham) tinkers with the timeline by sending a stealth bomber back to the Germans circa 1943.

Although it assumes you've seen its predecessor, and plays sketchy several plot details, this is still a skillfully constructed, resourceful sci-fi adventure. I give it an 8.

Philadelphia Experiment II (1993)

** (out of 4)

Sequel to the 1984 cult classic has David (Brad Johnson) living with his son in current day 1993. What he doesn't know is that the government is trying a new experiment and when they start it they end up sending David to a new time. The new setting is still 1993 but it's fifty years after Germany defeated the world and times are certainly a lot different. David ends up joining forces with some rebels and they try to correct history. There's a fairly good movie located somewhere inside PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT II but sadly the budget just isn't there and the execution is also all over the place and in the end we're left with a film that doesn't work and one that will mostly likely frustrate you because they weren't able to make it work. The first forty-five minutes or so are actually fairly entertaining as everything in the story is getting set up. We learn about what David has been up to since the previous movie and they set up his lifestyle and situation very well. Once the actual accident happens we're introduced to an excellent idea: what would the U.S. be like if they lost WWII? There are so many great ideas that could have come from this but sadly the second portion of the film pretty much falls apart as the brain is turned off and we're just given a bunch of silly action scenes that all come across incredibly cheap. The problem with the low budget is that it really hurts these action scenes because none of them feel as if they're really happening. The big, "epic" battle just looks tame and it's really hard to believe that you're in this war-torn environment when everything just looks like a bad "B" movie. I think there's a great story to be found in this film but the execution just isn't here so one really hopes that another film, with a bigger budget and with more wiggle room with the screenplay, will come along. Performances are what you'd expect from a film like this with Johnson doing a decent job. I can't imagine fans of the first film would enjoy this since there's no one from that previous film connected to this one.

Plot Synopsis: In 1993 a more advanced version of the Philadelphia Experiment is created to teleport a stealth fighter between destinations. But during tests David Herdeg, the sole survivor of the original experiment, is thrown into an alternate timeline where the Nazis have won World War II by bombing Washington with nuclear weapons. David discovers that the stealth fighter was teleported to 1943 & captured by Nazi scientists. As he fights his way through to the experiment, he must find a way to travel back to 1943 to prevent the jet from taking off on it's mission.

This entry in the sci-fi genre has all the trademarks of a cheap direct-to-video attempt to cash in on the original "The Philadelphia Experiment". But instead of doing a rehash of the original, the film creates a whole new plot. The story is quite sophisticated for a time paradox situation & is well shot for a DTV film, injecting some atmosphere into the mix. But the film does not quite pull it off too successfully, with the villain being a bit on the campy side. Brad Johnson makes a far better hero than Michael Pare did in the original.

OK, so this isn't a great movie. And it isn't really a sequel to the original Philadelphia Experiment movie. But once you get past the first 10 minutes or so, it's a decent "what if" alternate-universe story, with a fun performance by Gerrit Graham in a TRIPLE role, and some occasional wry humor. At least as good as the average episode of shows like Star Trek and Quantum Leap.

Some elements of the movie (the use of tattooed bar codes to track people, for example) are clever and thoughtful, while others verge on silly. But overall, it's pretty good. I'd rate it 6 out of 10. Give it a try; you probably won't be disappointed.

The movie is not terrible but it is boring and has nothing special. Time paradoxes have been done before and the Nazis winning the war one has been done way too many times. Something else could have been done but sequels suck anyway. This just has nothing going for it.