Clockstoppers

This is a fun movie for kids, I went with 7 - 8 year old kids, they loved it : with them around, it interesting, otherwise, don't go with adults, they'll find it kinda stupid.

By the way, it's paradoxal to see a movie based on a plot very close to an old Star Trek episode ("Wink of an eye") directed by Jonathan Frakes...!

Zak Gibbs (Jesse Bradford) is a teenager, son of Dr. Gibbs (Robin Thomas), a brilliant scientist. He wants to buy a car, but the attention of his father is to his own research work. Zak likes Francesca (Paula Graces), a new student from Venezuela. One day, Zak finds by accident a watch developed by Earl Dopler (French Stewart), a former student of Dr. Gibbs, with capability of accelerating time. Henry Gates (Michael Biehn), the villain of the story, stole this research and wants to make lots of money with this device. Zak and Francesca will face lots of adventures due to this finding. The screenplay of this film has lots of flaw, but anyway it entertains. There are lots of inconsistency in the story, but if the viewer do not pay attention to these details, may have some fun. The special effects are very reasonable. Teenagers are certainly the public-target of this movie. My vote is six.

This film is a very loose remake of the 1980 TV movie, "The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everything".

A young boy accidentally finds a watch built by his estranged father that accellerates whoever is wearing it, and whatever (or whoever) they're touching into "hypertime", which makes the rest of the world move at a snail's pace, comparitively.

Michael Biehn plays a decent villian, although he is not allowed much developement, which is a bit sad, after his excellent work in Terminator, Navy Seals, Abyss, and The Rock.

French Stewart (Harry from "3rd Rock from the Sun") provides the comic aspect, and was pretty much my favorite character.

Jesse Bradford & Paula Garces do a good job, too.

Remember, this is a kid's movie, done by Nickelodeon, so it's on a kid's level, which explains some plot holes.

The story of Clockstoppers centers around a very cute teenage boy who is good at a lot of things, extreme bike-riding with lots of incredible tricks, playing a guitar, riding a skateboard, fighting with his sister...

His mom, played by Julia Sweeney of "Saturday Night Live" and "It's Pat" fame is a doting, (and docile) mom but his father, a college professor, is much more involved in his students' lives than in Zak's life. This causes a lot of conflict between them and Zak tries to get his father to understand how he feels. His dad looks guilty but professes that Zak is exaggerating. When he has promised to go with Zak to look at a car that is Zak's heart's desire, his dad suddenly has to go away to help an old student who is having a problem with an invention.

The invention is a wrist watch that can be activated to put the wearer into "hyper-time". After the father leaves, Zak finds the watch and puts it on, thinking it is only a watch. While visiting a girl he has recently met, Zak pushes the button to check the time and voila! Time stops. To the viewer it appears to freeze everyone and everything else, but then you begin to notice that drops of water from the sprinkler are still falling, just falling a millimeter per second; a hummingbird suspended in mid-air is still flapping his wings, but so slowly that you can barely see the movement. However, Zak, and anyone who is touching him when he activates hyper-time is moving at what appears to be a normal speed.

Zak is stunned at first but eventually realizes what has happened and, as a typical teenage boy, proceeds to have some fun with it, along with the girl he wants to impress! Some of the tricks they pull are hysterical and lead you to imagine what you might do if you got ahold of this watch!

Of course, there must be an evil plot behind this somewhere, and we soon learn what that is. This leads to grave danger for Zak, his dad and Zak's new girlfriend and also provides for some fun car chase scenes.

The movie, of course, requires you to suspend disbelief and if you aren't capable of that, skip the movie! Otherwise you are only going to spend the hour criticizing the scientific aspects of "hyper-time" and annoying everyone around you who has some imagination and is having a good time.

The movie is directed by Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander Riker on Star Trek, the Next Generation. He apparently learned a lot during his STNG days and puts it to good use in this science fiction fun-fest. Thanks Number One. You made it so.

This movie was great. There were explosions and crashes but nothing worse than regular television. The only concern was the "young love" romance scenes. Too much importance placed on each other to have "just met." Overall though it was good entertainment and kept my kids attention. It gets *******, 7 stars from me because I like family entertainment that the whole family can go to and the adults or the kids don't get bored.