It’s hard to say whether “Timecop” (1994) is a good or bad movie, but it’s definitely a gutsy one. Coming from a comic book by Mark Verheiden and Mike Richardson – with the former writing the screenplay – this time-travel movie is not afraid of time travel’s potential narrative trip-ups. Or it brazenly doesn’t care. Like I say, it’s hard to tell. At any rate, it does not enter this subject timidly.
Maybe the most important thing is that it’s simply an entertaining Jean-Claude Van Damme martial-arts-with-guns vehicle, one that some fans rank up there with “Bloodsport” and “Kickboxer.” On the cusp of his switch from cool to ironic-cool, the Muscles from Brussels plays the titular Walker.
In 1994, the U.S. government starts to see evidence of villains traveling back in time to easily acquire money, then coming back to spend it. One notable threat turns out to be freshman Senator Aaron McComb (Ron Silver, looking suspicious from the get-go). In 2004, the government’s Time Enforcement Commission has been firmly established but it is also in danger of being cut by leading presidential candidate McComb, now openly evil.
“Timecop” (1994)
Director: Peter Hyams
Writers: Mark Verheiden (screenplay, story, comic book), Mike Richardson (story, comic book)
Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mia Sara, Ron Silver
He smashes underlings’ faces into car doors and says things like “When I’m president, the top 10 percent will get richer and the other 90 percent can move to Mexico for a better life.” That’s right, “Timecop” is one of the most prescient poli-sci-fi films of its era.
Age-wrinkles in time
One of the clearest time-travel movies, it is not. Films like “Back to the Future” and “The Terminator” spell out their rules fairly early in the narrative. “Timecop” takes a “what the hell” approach, and by the end I think there’s about a 1 percent chance this all makes sense.
There’s enough wackadoo-cool stuff here that “Timecop” sometimes get mentioned among director-cinematographer Peter Hyams’ juicy sci-fi catalog that also includes “Capricorn One,” “2010” and “The Relic.” We do get some rules. If two versions of the same person occupy the same space at the same time, it’s … not good.
And you can only travel backward in time – via the rail car at D.C.’s TEC headquarters that speeds up like a DeLorean – but then you can return to headquarters just moments later in 2004. (Why? “The future has not happened yet.” OK, makes sense.) And the baddies have similar device(s) elsewhere, naturally.
In one particularly confusing segment, TEC boss Matuzak (“Oh it’s that guy” Bruce McGill) welcomes Walker back to HQ in 2004. Walker explains to Matuzak that they are best friends, because Matuzak now doesn’t know that, apparently because of some ripple in the timestream.
If he could turn back time
A viewer’s level of sci-fi nerdery will determine whether wrinkles like this make “Timecop” worth a second viewing or worth dismissing as a lark. But the fact that the time travel doesn’t totally make sense (even by the rules of Verheiden, whose stellar 1994 also included “The Mask”) might be what makes the film an endearing cult favorite.
“Timecop” thinks it is cool, and – tantalizingly — it almost is. Walker unleashes a steady stream of one-liners, some of which are pretty good. The setups are often clunky, rather than smooth like in elite forebearers such as “The Terminator.” Rather inexplicably, liquid nitrogen freezes a villain’s arm, Walker kicks the arm into shards and says “Have a nice day,” then later realizes “I should’ve said ‘Freeze.’ ”
Walker’s quippage game isn’t always on point, and that humanizes him, as does his relationship with wife Melissa (Mia Sara, “Ferris Bueller”), whose screentime is scant for my taste. Walker also teams up with an internal affairs agent, Fielding (Gloria Reuben), another female lead to receive his action-hero charms and quips.
Verheiden might do more delicate work here than is readily apparent. We first meet 1994 Walker, then 2004 Walker is our main character without much direct information about him (except that he’s gotta be similar to the 1994 version). This mix becomes increasingly less rickety, achieving a full circle of sorts by the time of a neat final moment.
A few good martial-arts sequences, some intriguingly out-of-time shoot-’em-ups (laser guns in the time of Al Capone) and some 1994-vintage CGI add more accidental charm to “Timecop,” which has a good sense of timing in one respect: At 100 minutes, it gets in and gets out. In the main, wanting and failing to be as awesome as “Terminator” is a crime, but as time goes by, it’s a forgivable one.