Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 17, 1994 TAG: 9410240012
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If it doesn't make complete sense, well, neither do most comic books. That's not the point. The film is well-crafted escapism with a sense of humor.
The story begins in present-day Washington where a mid-level bureaucrat tells a congressional oversight committee that one of NASA's scientists has just figured out how to travel into the past and back. Naturally, the first thing the bureaucrat wants to do is create a new federal agency to regulate and police time travel. Someone, it seems, is already going back and diddling with history. Could they possibly be connected to the ambitious and unscrupulous Sen. McComb (Ron Silver) who's lurking nearby?
The head of the new agency will be Matuzak (Bruce McGill). One of his first recruits is Max Walker (Jean-Claude Van Damme), a D.C. cop. Before Max accepts the job, he and his wife Melissa (Mia Sara) are being followed by a quartet of thugs with really ugly haircuts.
It wouldn't be fair to reveal what happens next, but the scene soon shifts to 2004. Max has become a Time Cop. He works to keep the present from infecting the past, and McComb is making a serious run for the Presidency. The candidate for the white supremacist party has qualified for matching campaign funds, but McComb is financing himself. He plans to spend whatever it takes to win the White House. And, by the way, he'll dismantle the Time Cops as soon as he can.
The story by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden (also writers of the comic book) never really gets into the contradictions that the idea of time travel raises. They don't address the nuts-and-bolts side of it either, leaving that to some inventive special effects by Greg McMurry.
Some of the most visually impressive scenes involve one actor playing two roles, acting with and reacting to himself. In one understated how-did-they-do-that? moment, Ron Silver actually walks around himself.
But those shots aren't what Van Damme fans buy tickets for. They want good action sequences, and "Time Cop" delivers. The three big set-pieces take place in a warehouse, a cluttered apartment and a Victorian house. The fights are quickly paced with lots of kicks, splits and slickly choreographed moves. Director Peter Hyams hasn't been known for physical action but he seems completely comfortable with it.
Overall, the acting is much better than you normally see in this kind of genre work. Van Damme is and has been the best actor in the field, but the real key to the film - the key that's so often overlooked - is the villain. Ron Silver is terrific, though in some ways, the role is an extension of one that he created in "Live Wire," a video original that was made a couple of years ago.
"TIme Cop" may or may not be the "break out" film that Van Damme has been trying to find for years, but it certainly is entertaining - classy cinematic popcorn.
"Time Cop"
***
A Universal release playing at the Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Mall 6. 95 min. Rated R for violence, strong language, nudity, sexual content.
by CNB