Timescape

I will keep this short. Grand Tour is a very enjoyable science fiction film. It relies on thinking as opposed to special effects. It is a good story with vivid characters. This film is a great, solid sci-fi story and is worth the watch.

This excellent science fiction is well worth watching. The acting is very good, especially Jeff Daniels, and the story line keeps you interested right from the start. It is a film the family could watch, but it is not Walt Disney style. While this film is not a blockbuster, it rises way above the junky B grade movies. If you do not usually like science fiction flicks, don't be put off since this film does not have any weird effects or monsters.

Timescape (as it was called here in the UK) was one of the late night films here on BBC T.V. It was well worth staying up to watch this one. This is one of those films that just gets better as it goes along.

If you are a big science fiction fan, especially for those interested in time travel. Timescape talks about how anyone travelling from the future cannot come back and change the past, as this would change the future itself. The movie is a little slow in the beginning, and could have been much better technically. But it is not bad for a television series (though it was shown as a film here!). It answers many questions and also questions many of the theories that currently exist in the scientific world.

If you liked the 'twelve monkeys' or '12:01' you MUST watch this! (and vice-versa)

Now let me justify that bold summary. Sure, PITCH BLACK and CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK have a zillion bucks of special effects up there on the screen. And I did actually enjoy PITCH BLACK for what it was. But it was pretty hard for me to get involved with the characters and care much about what happened to them between all the explosions and monsters and whatever. Let's face it, balancing truck loads of creatures, spaceships and other eye candy with a script (yes, these things do have a script) - and I mean the story in that script - is a tough job. Even Spielberg lost control of his story in a couple of films.

I'm really not putting down what director David Twohy has done since. I just think, in many cases, that a film can benefit from having technical limitations. It forces the director - and everyone else in the cast and crew - to focus on what really makes a great film: the story. THE GRAND TOUR has that big time.

It has characters that you can care about, because they're written well in the story. Ariana Richards is just right in this pre-JURASSIC PARK role, for example. Plus we get nice performances from character actors like George Murdock. There are some fairly decent twists to the story, because, well, there is a story. Which means the actors get some decent lines and don't spend the time screaming or saying things like "gotta kill a few people", or something just as insightful. The effects shots are kept to a minimum, most likely due to budget. So they matter less here, and we get nearly all of the camera time on the characters. And that makes the film work.

So what's my point? First, if you like sci-fi, especially low-key character driven sci-fi drama, then GRAND TOUR is a film worth seeing. Second, I think David Twohy the director is better when he lets David Twohy the writer really go to town. The only thing I like better of his, would be THE FUGITIVE (he wrote it but did not direct). Now GRAND TOUR is not perfect, and it's no FUGITIVE, but it's pretty entertaining and for Twohy in the director's chair, it's my favorite.

I do understand the need to "give 'em what they want" with the CGI and all, but one can balance story and visuals. I hope to see a Twohy film written this well get a real budget. Who knows, maybe folks would even go see it.

I saw this film on TV and it reminded me of a Sci-Fi story I had read many years ago in a Sci-Fi magazine called, at that time, "Astounding Science Fiction". The title of the story was "Vintage Season" and I believe the author was Lawrence O'Donnell. Incidentally, I still have the magazine. This information may be of use to followers of this genre and if anyone knows how I may be able to obtain a copy of a later published book by this author containing this story I would appreciate it.

As far as the film is concerned I must add that, in my opinion, it was cleverly directed and the acting by Jeff Daniels was up to his usual good standard. There is no need for me to outline the plot as this has already been done except to say that, although I personally have always been interested in time travel stories and/or films, there is no need to be acquainted with this genre to follow the plot and enjoy the film. I saw the film under the title "Timescape" which is elusive enough to attract attention. In my opinion the film has a softer and more acceptable ending than the story but otherwise adheres to the original quite well. I would give it full marks as a film which does not contain any far-fetched sequences so often included in other films of this genre.