Philadelphia Experiment II

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.

I am one of the biggest fans alive of the original "Philadelphia Experiment" and have watched it tens of times. Unfortunately this sequel really is a let down compared to it. The script really is pretty hopeless and confusing. There is no love element, little contact with the female sex, and little pleasure derived from the juxtaposition of two time periods that we saw in the first film or in Time after Time. The relationship between Herdeg and his son is not properly developed and far too much of the film is shot in grizzly dark night scenes with little view of the countryside. The film is a little too "scientific" without enough of the human and love elements. For a film of this type to be successful and last in the mind of the

spectator, their needs to be a good balance of love/science/humour/time logic/sets. This film is too gloomy for me and thus spoils what could have been a very good idea. Compare this film with another minor Time-travel film called "Tomorrow Man" and you will see that the latter has far more to offer than this one ! Sorry to be so negative on this one, but couldn't we have had just a little more romance and tenderness to counterbalance the grim scientific side of the film ??????

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.

When I saw the movie I enjoyed it. I think it was done well and overall it was a good movie, but I was a little disappointed when they didn't use the same actors for the lead part as was in the first movie. It would have made more sense because it is basically a continuation of the story.