Customer Reviews

Clockstoppers [VHS]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

We want more movies like this! Clean fun for older kids. We haven't seen anything this much fun for the whole family since "Back to the Future." It's the same kind of sweet, funny teen sci-fi adventure - Zak (nicely played by Jesse Bradford of Hackers, Bring it On) discovers a watch that stops time. Of course the bad guys want it back.

Director Jonathan Frakes (better known as Commander Riker on Star Trek) displays the touch that made Star Trek such a hit - believable characters and great stories that don't resort to cynicism or slime to deliver their impact. Plenty of action (the stunt biking had my son yelling with satisfaction) and good effects (think Matrix without violence), but without having the effects take over the show.

But the best part of the movie, I think, is the truly great girlfriend. Paula Garces shows the world what 21st century women can be. She's gutsy, funny, Latino, wears fab clothes,...

I was pretty surprised when I watched this film. It was surprisingly entertaining and kept me riveted for the entire film. The acting by Jesse Bradford was very believable and the supporting cast enhanced the overall movie production.

This is a movie for all ages and comes across as good clean fun with nice dramatic touch.

Don't fear renting/buying this film! It's pretty good!

If you like science fiction-family movies,well parents,take your kids to the movie "Clockstoppers" starring Jesse Bradford.If you don't exactly know what the movie is about,it is about teenager Zak Gibbs (Bradford),who finds a watch that can make your molecules move so fast it makes the his town almost stand still.But when the ruthless man who made his dad make the time-stopping watch,tries to get it from him,thats another story.When I saw the film,I loved it.And I hope your kids will,too.

Action, yes. Comedy, yes. Romance, a bit. Graphics, amazing. Acting, very good-to-moderate. Overall, the movie is a great viewing experience. There are very few scenes where you feel like it's a tv special, but that means nothing overall. The movie explores an interesting concept of time manipulation through the use of moving at hyper speeds. There are a couple of mistakes involving the hyper-time effect and how it acts upon objects. Like driving a car. But it's a stretch. The bottom line...I was completely involved throughout the whole movie. I felt comfortable with the characters and the story. And there's even a star trek joke from commander riker (the director). : )

I didn't think I wouldn'tlike this movie but I was pleasantly surprised and it turned out pretty good. It was a fun movie to watch and I would probably watch it again.
It's a fun and clean movie that the whole family will enjoy. Even the teen crowd may like it. Give it a chance and rent it out. If you don't like it then you'll know other than wondering if it's worth it down the road. :)

The movie is about a watch that stops time - or rather, it speeds up the wearer of the watch and anything he is touching when he activates the watch and appears to stop time. That leads to some interesting effects. The watch lands in the hands of Zak, a high-school student played by Jesse Bradford - and the film becomes a teenage comedy. The omnipresent evil government agency wants the watch and the chase is on.

French Stewart is the developer of the watch and has a nice funny role. Zak's African-American high-school buddy is about a half step away from Stepin Fetchit (a very underrated comic, by the way) and Michael Biehn has very little screen time. Paula Garces plays the girl-friend Francesca with some style. The movie has so much going on that it leaves too many loose ends and lapses of logic; there is too much time spent on scenes that do not advance the film and not enough time spent on scenes that do. Adults will have to work hard to stay interested. Jonathan Frakes is a better director than this.

I suggest watching the film with children present because they will applaud the wonderful things they could do with a watch that stops time and they will laugh at every comic moment. I have to tell you that I got as big a kick out of watching my children watch the film as I did watching the film itself. If you are looking for a nice inoffensive movie to watch with your children this is right down your alley.

This mocie is great! I just saw it yesterday and it was everything I wanted. Action, adventure and a wonderful plot. The actors and actresses were great. It involves a watch that mistakenly gets in the possession of a teenager named Zach. Soon though, the workers at a place called Q.T. find out and come after him. Along with the new girl at school, Franchesca, his best friend, and one of his father's old students, he sets out to find his father since he was working on it. This is a great movie and a must see.

I must say, I was overly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. I didn't think it was great or anything, but I had a fun time watching it. It sure beat the socks off the new 2002 movie The Time Machine. And also, my five year sister enjoyed Clockstoppers as well.

The first thing that appears on the screen as Clockstoppers begins is the recognizable Nikelodeon logo. You have been duly warned--this is a movie for kids. And while it's likely to amuse its target audience, most likely tweens, it's a thinly-plotted, adolescent, Back to the Future wannabe with some interesting special effects.

You know the plot already--goofy scientist good guy has created some nifty science gizmo, in this case a wristwatch that can virtually stop time by taking its wearer into "hyper time." Enter the average teen (Jesse Bradford), who can't get along with his preoccupied scientist father and seems ripe for an adventure. Take one boy, add the gizmo, a cute girlfriend, some bad guys who want the gizmo back, stir well and...viola! You've got your typical scientific pre-teen comedy/thriller.

The problem with Clockstoppers is that it's a plot in search of some characters, and the characters never really deliver. We aren't given a chance to care about Zak (Bradford) and his strained relationship with his father. We barely get to know who Francesca (the girlfriend) is, which is a shame because she's played with great spunk by Paula Garces. The movie lacks the sort of character development and conflict that made movies like Back to the Future, War Games and The Manhattan Project stand-outs in their genre.

Will your pre-teen kids like Clockstoppers? Probably. Despite its PG rating (I noticed one fairly innocuous curse in the movie), Clockstoppers keeps it clean and innocent. But if you're going with your kids to the theater, prepare to fidget a bit.

The editorial review on Amazon for Clockstoppers (2002) starts out with the question `Who hasn't fantasized about being able to stop time and move things around?" Sure, I've fantasized about having the ability to stop time, but as far as moving things around? I've imagined of doing a whole lot more than just moving things around...but my own, perverse fantasies are probably not appropriate for posting on this particular product page (this film was produced by Nickelodeon, that network for kids...does anyone remember that show You Can't Do That on Television? Just wondering...). Directed by Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: Nemesis), the film stars Jesse Bradford (Swimfan) and the very edible Paula Garcés (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle). Also appearing is Michael Biehn (The Terminator, The Abyss), winner of the Whoopi Goldberg look-a-like contest Garikayi Mutambirwa (Jeepers Creepers II), Robin Thomas (he was the nerdy principal in the 1987 film Summer School), Julia Sweeney (It's Pat), and the French `I need a better manager' Stewart (Home Alone 4, Inspector Gadget 2).

The film begins with a cool looking sequence that ends in such a way that makes no sense, that is until you get further into the story, and by then you'll have probably forgotten all about it, unless you are writing a review, and trying to remember how the film started, like me...does that make sense? Probably not, but if you see this film, you'll know what I'm talking about...anyway, soon we meet Zak Gibbs (Bradford), a guy I initially confused with that character Xander, played by Nicholas Brendon, from the television series `Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. He seems like kind of a tool as he rides around on his bike as if he owns the street, and also later for continual pestering his father about wanting to buy, with money he scammed off Ebay buyers by misrepresenting junk, a boss Ford Mustang which he could never afford the insurance on...we learn Zak's father, who's some kind of science genius and teaches at a local university, gets a device from a former student named Earl (Stewart), and is looking for help. Turns out the device, disguised as a watch, is some kind of accelerated molecular do-hicky that allows the wearer to move at such a speed (called hyper time) that it makes the rest of the world appear as if it were standing still...okay...the problem is, extended usage results in rapid aging of the wearer...also, Earl works for QT Laboratories, which is run by a man named Gates (Biehn), and the project, which was funded for by the gooberment, has now been terminated and Uncle Sam wants everything that has resulted from the research, but Gates is evil, and the potential for such a device so great he's unwilling to give it up. Zak finds the device, begins using it, but soon finds himself the target of Gates and his goons as they try to retrieve what has been lost, and end up kidnapping Zak's father to take up where Earl left off...now Zak must figure out a way to break into a top secret facility and rescue his father...

If anything, this sure was a slick looking film...it had some really nice special effects, during the time standing still parts. As far as the story, well it just felt like there wasn't a whole lot there, and I wasn't even expecting much. The film is filled with plot holes, like when Zak was trying to break into the high security facility and finds unbelievably easy access via some incredibly large air vents, but I wasn't really willing to subject the film to harsh scrutiny as it appeared it was mainly a just for fun movie, one you kind of coast through and just enjoy. I did find the character (or actor) of Zak to be a little annoying, perhaps it had something to do with the ease at which he hooked up with that babe played by Paula Garcés. One aspect I will comment on that I found a little too outlandish was the use of liquid nitrogen (I think) as a weapon to slow down those who are in hyper time. I gotta think getting sprayed with this would do more than just slow you down, causing extremely severe tissue damage, but I'm no doctor (although I often play one on TV). I guess if I had to pick the weakest element of the film (the special effects are probably the strongest) it would be the story. Frakes moved the story along well, and presented things well (I guess directing those various Star Trek eppys paid off), and the actors all seem capable, but they weren't really given much. Take Biehn's character as the evil Gates...he was hardly even there...when he was, he was decent, but he didn't have the involvement or menacing presence I normally look for in an on screen villain. I believe Biehn's certainly capable, but his material was lacking. Stewart provides a few laughs, and his character really gets the beating throughout the film, but he also seems to have so little to work with...personally I would have gotten rid of Zak, his family, and friends (keeping Garcés cause she's hotsy), and had Stewart be the main character...perhaps not as it was written, but I thought there was a good deal of extraneous stuff that could have been lost or worked out...but then who would the younger viewers identify with? So it depends on who the film was marketed to...probably not so much myself...all in all, the movie's fun, but forgettable...oh yeah, I did like most of the music which featured artists like Smash Mouth, Fenix TX, Third Eye Blind, Blink 182, New Found Glory among others....I thought the remakes of songs Abracadabra (2002 Ralph Sall Remix) with Sugar Ray and Time After Time with Uncle Kracker were pretty good...

The widescreen anamorphic (1.85:1) picture here is sharp, and the audio, available in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround comes through clear. Special features include a making of featurette, two music videos, promotional spots and a trailer.

Cookieman108