Timecop (1994)

(Google Streaming, October 2022) I have dim memories of watching Timecop in the mid-1990s, but few of them include much past the first third, and nothing at all after the first half of the film. Much to my dismay, this is probably going to be what I’ll say about this viewing as well in a few years: For all of the fun and games of the film’s first third, which delves into the criminal (and counter-criminal) uses of time-travel while showing a gently futuristic world, Timecop becomes increasingly generic the longer it goes on, all the way to a generic climactic showdown inside an isolated house. Jean-Claude van Damme does have one of his better roles here (in one of his best movies) as a, well, timecop who goes around apprehending people who go into the past for crimes. Don’t look too deeply into the film’s ideas—they get progressively more ridiculous the longer you think about them. But, for a while, Timecop maintains the façade of a fast-paced Science Fiction thriller. Ron Silver is deliciously slimy as a corrupt politician, while I did like Gloria Reuben in the too-short time she had on-screen. Director Peter Hyams keeps things moving just fast enough that we don’t ask too many of the questions that would puncture the film—in this case, running fast is better than running on cool. (My favourite/worst example is the rocket sled that sends people to the past, but disappears… when it doesn’t slam in a wall that’s there for no good reason.) Anyway—this is not a film for nitpickers: it’s there for fun, for van Damme doing the split to avoid being electrocuted (if you’re looking for a reason, might as well reach for that one) and for a minor mid-1990s vision of a future.