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Zone's Eye View of "Clockstoppers" |
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Synopsis of movie: Until now, Zak Gibbs' greatest challenge has been finding a way to buy a car. But when he discovers an odd wristwatch amidst his father's various inventions and slips it on, something very strange happens. The world around him seemingly comes to a stop; everything and everybody becomes frozen in time. Zak quickly learns how to manipulate the device, and he and his quick-witted, beautiful new friend, Francesca, have some real fun. What they soon realize, though, is they are not alone in hypertime. Now for The Zone's Eye View By Laura Alber Clockstoppers is a cute and original movie geared towards a younger audience. Director Jonathan Frakes is obviously as tired of the same old time travel plot line as we are. He takes Clockstoppers in a new direction by not using time travel as we’ve come to know it in the movies; rather he takes the theory and gives it a new twist. Instead of the overdone time machines, and people from the future, etc., Clockstoppers are able to travel at an extremely accelerated rate of movement. You see what looks like people suspended in time, and others moving at a regular speed, but what is actually happening, is the people who appear to be standing still are actually moving at a normal speed, and these chosen few are zooming around them sometimes doing things to them that the normal people won’t realize until minutes later. For example, the lead in the film Zak (Jesse Bradford) speeds around his new girlfriend Francesca (Paula Garces) who has a sink sprayer aimed right at him. He is able to push a button on his watch, zoom over to the girl and stand behind her. When time is put back to normal, she is spraying at an empty space because Zak is now behind her. She has no idea how he got there, as time is no different for her, she has been moving at her normal speed. It’s actually an interesting spin on the whole time travel theory. The writing isn’t too bad either. You won’t feel like you’re watching a Children’s Network after school special anyway. The actors are believable for their age and Clockstoppers is a film for the whole family. There are no scenes or lines that need to be censored for children; it stays faithful to its younger audience without insulting the intelligence of the older viewer. The best part of Clockstoppers in this reviewer’s personal opinion is that of “Dr. Earl Dopler” played by “Third Rock from the Sun’s” French Stewart. His actions and lines are as humorous as we’ve come to expect from the quirky “Harry Soloman”. The father, Robin Thomas is kidnapped by the evil mogul Henry Gates (Michael Biehn) who needs his help in fixing a bug in the system. It seems that while traveling in hyperspeed, the aging process is also accelerated. Zak and his new girlfriend Francesca must find and save Zak’s father before the government’s deadline and before his father ages too much. All in all, a pretty family friendly film. Not exactly Oscar caliber, but definitely entertaining. The cast, writing, set design, and direction are all well done. The Zone rates “Clockstoppers” a 5 out of 10 for good “safe” family fun.
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