THE LORDS OF MAGICK (1988) is a Z-grade low budgeter in which two wizards track a malevolent sorcerer into the 20th century for a final battle, getting help from a wannabe mage in the present. Formulaic but more watchable than the similar Saint Sinner. “Take the whore and use her.”
TIMELESS MAN (2011) is a short, so it doesn’t qualify for the book. Fairly good, though, as a time traveler goes back to meet his musical idol only to discover he misjudged his target era so he’s met the equivalent of John Lennon’s dad. Unfortunately it’s the kind of film where I’m waiting for the twist rather than hooked into the story, though I must admit I didn’t see exactly the twist that it ends on.“All those songs, all that brilliance—trapped in my mind for eternity!
ESCAPE THROUGH TIME (1992)has two high-school girls acquiring a ring that sends them bouncing across time one step ahead of mobsters who want to exploit the ring’s power. This was an amateur film (though some of those involved went on to pro work) that I gather got released on video, so I’m not sure it quite qualifies; familiar material and lord the cast looks absurdly young, but it’s still more entertaining than Nemesis 2. “Holy chunks!”
It’s also more entertaining than PROJECT ALMANAC (2015) is a clunky found-footage film in which teens discover the blueprints for a time machine and use it to have fun and get rich before everything falls apart Monkeys Paw style. This is pretty much a mess on every level, taking a half-hour to build the machine (it’s not like this is suspenseful—we know it’s going to work), ignoring character elements (the protagonist’s driving goal is getting into MIT, then they forget about it) and completely screwing up their own internal logic. Not that I’m not used to that, but as the film makes a very big deal out of You Can’t Meet Your Past Self Or Dooooom, they then have several events (like multiple attempts to fix the same incident) that can’t happen if they don’t interact with their past selves. It is interesting that unlike The Lake House, this treats using knowledge gained through time-travel to hit on someone (protagonist screws up his Big Date, then goes back and does it over correctly) as unethical. I’m glad I didn’t hit the theaters for this one. “Why would MIT want me to make out with people?”
Fraser Sherman's Blog 