Clockstoppers (DVD)

I was always such a huge fan of that old TV show “Out of this world” merely because Evie had the power to stop time, any time any place. Stopping time. How cool would that be? If I were a witch that is the one power I would want. (Ok now I’m being stupid, hehe). I had seen the posters for “clockstoppers” in my local Odeon many times. It’s been there for an unimaginable time leaving me wondering how long it will ...
...the big screen. I always walked past knowing that the movie would be about stopping time (oh how clever I am) so I knew I had to see it but I couldn’t wait that long so I ordered the DVD off an American website. Though was it worth it?

From the trailer the movie looks really exciting and at some points that is the case. I like the trailer as it has a really fun edge to it; you must have seen those trailers by now though. Anyway ... more

I was always such a huge fan of that old TV show “Out of this world” merely because Evie had the power to stop time, any time any place. Stopping time. How cool would that be? If I were a witch that is the one power I would want. (Ok now I’m being stupid, hehe). I had seen the posters for “clockstoppers” in my local Odeon many times. It’s been there for an unimaginable time leaving me wondering how long it will take for the movie to actually be released here on the big screen. I always walked past knowing that the movie would be about stopping time (oh how clever I am) so I knew I had to see it but I couldn’t wait that long so I ordered the DVD off an American website. Though was it worth it?

From the trailer the movie looks really exciting and at some points that is the case. I like the trailer as it has a really fun edge to it; you must have seen those trailers by now though. Anyway I actually saw the trailer after I saw the movie which made me realise the movie looks like more fun in the actual trailer than the movie itself but that doesn’t stop it from being ok.

The movie starts with a mysterious guy in an airport trying desperately to get out of the country. He even pays a family a large sum of money just to get one ticket. As soon as he’s about to board the flight he suddenly seems to get sucked away in a matter of seconds into a van right outside the airport. Inside are three suspicious looking people and one of them says to the man whilst holding a yellow watch, “I think its time you came back to work”.

The next scene shows Zack Gibbs riding his bike apparently to class straight after checking out a car he’s ready to buy. Well actually it turns out his dad is the professor and he’s gone to announce to him that he’s seen the ideal car to buy. His dad tells him he’ll go with him to see the car after he comes back from work. Zack gets mad as all his dad does is work. Anyway after seeing his dad he goes to his friends Meeko’s workplace and that is where he meets Francesca. The beautiful foreign exchange student who seems to blow him off after he offers to show her around.

Anyway as soon as Zack gets home he finds out his father has to go out of town to a science conference. They have an argument but Zacks father promises to take him when he gets back, which isn’t good enough for Zack as this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.

Zack’s father leaves and Zack finds a watch in his dads room, it seems like something good he could sell on ebay so he swipes it. Anyway he goes to school and Francesca gives him another chance. Francesca says she has plans on cleaning at home and Zack gets coaxed into it. Whilst there, Francesca offers to get him a drink. Whilst in the garden Zack just clicks on the button on his new watch and something weird happens but he doesn’t know what. To impress Francesca he continues with the chores outside and manages to clear up everything, he then notices a dead skunk or something which Francesca was talking about, a little creature which was making a mess in the garden so he takes it into the kitchen to show her but she wont move from the fridge then suddenly that weird thing happens again and the skunk thing starts running everywhere and Francesca is disgusted he would even think about bringing an alive animal into the kitchen. She even calls him a liar for saying he’s done all his chores as she’s only been in the kitchen for less than a minute, he realises it was the clock and stops time just before Francesca is about to splash water from a hose onto him, she is baffled by how he moved so quickly, he then walks in the garden and Francesca puts her hand on his shoulder and when he stops time she is there with him, they wonder around the garden looking at how time has stopped.

I might as well explain here technically time has not stopped, there in hyper time which means there moving like a million times faster than everyone else which is why it seems like they are stopping time but in reality they aren’t.

Anyway they decide to have some fun with it until Zack goes home to find those same suspicious people at the start looking through his house probably to find that watch. He’s gone into hyper time so everything else is slow but those secret agents seem to be in hyper time too which baffles Zack so he knows something is up. All he knows is these people want that watch back and will do anything for it. Anyway I won’t really go into much more detail.

Another Jesse Bradford film then! Well compared to his performance in the awful Swimfan I thought he did a great job here as this movie was a lot more light-hearted and aimed at the younger market. The way he played the part was good but since it was a kids movie it didn’t really need much to it now did it. I think he was a good choice for the role though. I think he is quite a good actor and he’ll probably become a lot more famous in the future.

Paula Garcés who plays the object of Zack’s affection, Francesca did a good job at playing a teenager considering she’s like 28. Trust me you could never tell. She plays the foreign girl and I thought her performance was really good. Her role wasn’t that important but good enough.

French Stuart played the part of Dopler, the guy in the first scene. Now he does have a big role in the movie and I have to say I loved his performance. I wont really go into much detail about his character as I’ll end up telling you the whole story but he does have a good role. I just remember this guy as the weird one from 3rd rock from the sun so I wasn’t really expecting much a change from that in his character but I will admit his character is a lot more serious but still has that comedy edge to him, without the stupid part.

I think this movie was quite good but what disappointed me most was the fact that there wasn’t enough fun on the fact that they had the ability to stop time (or go into hyper time to be correct). There was one scene where Zack and Francesca have some fun with their new watch but it’s not long enough. There should be more fun with it. I know they did have a bit of fun with it but the rest of the movie was more based on the fact that they were running away from the people who wanted the watch back. The scenes when they are on the run can drag on and aren’t really made in a fun way. I found this aspect of the movie dull and boring. I personally expected them to have a whole lot of fun with a watch and get up to all sorts but that’s only half the story. The majority of the movie shows the two trying to escape from the people they are being chased by.

The move is really light hearted, something I really liked about it. It’s not something you will take seriously but can just watch for a laugh. It doesn’t have laugh out loud moments unfortunately but had some quirky, giggle moments which your kids will probably find hilarious. The writer of the movie did admit the movie was more aimed at the younger market but they cast older actors so the older market would watch it to and feel they can relate to the characters. The so called teenage characters are like 23, and 28 in reality but they don’t really look it. I think this was a good move as I did feel like I could relate to the movie more knowing that the people in the movie were older, if they hired people like Frankie Muniz and Amanda Byrnes then I would definitely not watch this movie, but that aspect attracted me to see the movie in the first place as I expected it to be more of a teen movie rather than a kids movie.

Now I had no idea Jonathan Frakes from Star Trek directed movies so this was a bit of a shock to me but I must say he did a great job. Here I am thinking he’s a beginner when in fact he’s far from that. He directed the movie really well and you can tell he knew exactly what he was doing. I especially liked some of the camera movements in the movie, I usually detest this sort of thing (just read my Swimfan op for an idea of how much) but it actually fitted in and was used appropriately and didn’t look forced. Also it was easier to work when they were in hyper time if the speedy camera movements were used.

I think a lot of people would agree with me when I say the script is definitely lifeless, but then again it’s only a kids movie so it doesn’t need to be amazing, the lack of a decent script does help this film leap into boredom, which I highly doubt was what they were aiming for. I’m sure if they had been a better script the movie would have been a lot more enjoyable, I think this is where some of the producers went wrong.

My favourite scene from the movie was when Francesca moves the water which is in the air when they have gone into hyper time. It was such a lovely scene and also looked really good the way she moves the water with her hands. It didn’t look cheap at all and added a really nice touch to the film, a very girly moment if you ask me. Lol.

I thought the effects in the movie were quite good. Scenes such as the one mentioned above, and when Zack rides his bike over water in hyper time looked really good and convincing. Effects in children’s movies aren’t really taken as seriously as effects in movies made for the older market but I was very impressed with the effects in this movie. There were rarely some moments in which the effects weren’t that good and looked fake but the other more important scenes truly made up for that. It was also good to look out for the so called mimes in the movie that had to stand still, lol. I should point out though the whole movie isn’t based on a whole load of effects though, the story aspect is probably more important.

When I saw clips from the movie and posters and stuff I had no idea the movie was produced by Nickelodeon. This shocked me as Nickelodeon movies are pretty childish. This put me off as just before the movie starts it’s got the huge Nickelodeon logo right there. I didn’t really know if I was going to like it or not but then again it’s not really childish in that sense, its childlike in the sense where they all have loads of fun and stuff but other than that you probably wouldn’t guess it’s a Nickelodeon movie. Overall though I did enjoy it, it isn’t the type of film I would like to keep on DVD though but I did enjoy it. I’m not sure if I would watch it again but I know I’ll whip it out if any kids come a visiting. There were some scenes that did amuse me but others that did bore me to some extent. I would recommend this movie to the younger teen market rather than older teens and adults as it can be quite immature at times, but overall it’s ok, worth watching if you have the time (Geddit have the time!?).

CAST~~

Jesse Bradford – Zack Gibbs
French Stuart – Dopler
Paula Garcés – Francesca
Michael Biehn– Gates
Robin Thomas – Dr. Gibbs
Garikayi Mutambirwa – Meeker
Julia Sweeny – Jenny Gibbs
Lindze Letherman– Kelly Gibbs

DIRECTOR~~

Jonathon Frakes

CERTIFICATE~~

PG

RUNTIME~~

94 min

SITES~~

OFFICIAL SITE - http://www.nick.com/all_nick/movies/clockstoppers/

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