What’s it about?
Michael Harlan isn’t having a good day, he just wants to work on his car but his girlfriend dumps him and he needs to hand in an awesome science project or face a fail in science. Harlan then does what anyone would do, breaks into an old air force dumping ground on a date with the class nerd and finds an alien engine that is the key to time and space.
Who’s in it?
Science fiction favourite Dean Stockwell’s son John plays the resident motor head, before he was in this he was in John Carpenter’s Christine (ironically enough one of the other characters describes having seen Christine) and he went on to appear in Top Gun and directing films (such as Into the Blue).
Dennis Hopper is probably the biggest actor in the film and he is Bob Roberts the science teacher and spaced out hippy, it’s very cool too because in this film he wears the same costume he wore in Easy Rider.
Danielle von Zerneck is Ellie Sawyer (the female bookish leading lady) who was also in La Bamba.
Fisher Stevens as Harlan’s best friend Vince Latello is the stand out for me, he was also in Hackers, Super Mario Bros (don’t hold that against him) and in Short Circuit.
How does it hold up?
Surprisingly well actually, I was particularly impressed with the stop motion T-Rex that even today on DVD doesn’t look that bad, certainly not Jurassic Park good but it was the 80s. It definitely is a great example of mid 80s science fiction popcorn films and whilst you are acutely aware of watching an 80s film it is still just as much fun. There are some less than flattering gay references which sound so weird to hear now in a film.
Awesomeness?
Plenty of awesomeness, in fact its cup runneth over with awesomeness. One of my favourite lines comes out of this film, when asked by a police officer why he wears his sunglasses at night Vince answers with “because when you are cool, the sun shines on you 24 hours of the day.”
There are mutants from the future, dinosaurs from the past and some brilliant one liners from the Vince character.
Besides, how often do you get to see a T-Rex ripping up a basketball court?
Why watch it?
Well apart from its above average level of awesomeness and my recommendation alone, it is actually a really fun film, a great example of 80s teen science fiction films and has a really likable cast. There are obvious problems with time travel and how it works but as long as you don’t ponder the temporal mechanics then you’ll enjoy it.
Watch out also for its excellent credits at the end, they don’t make them like that anymore!
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