Customer Reviews

The Day Time Ended

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The quality of this DVD is worse than my orignal 10 year old VHS tape. Movement of characters across the screen is jerky, sound is PCM 48Khz 16bit sick stereo (dialogue on left channel, music on right). Picture format is 4:3 Fullframe.
You might almost think you were watching a Pirate / Bootleg copy it is SO BAD!

I've always loved this movie and have it on a DVD by Brentwood but i wanted a better copy so i bought this- the print looks about the same (and like my brentwood DVD not in widescreen)and the soundtrack seems to be in stereo but the DVD transfer BLOWS! it has odd vert lines on any movement VERY ANNOYING! wait for a better DVD ver or get a vhs copy. This is going back.

I have always liked this film but have avoided purchasing this stand alone DVD due to reviews here about the quality.I just purchased a 2 DVD/4 movie box called TIME TRAVELERS put out by Brentwood which has THE DAY TIME ENDED on it...and the transfer/audio/color and picture all look great to me,at least as good as my VHS copy...maybe even better.If you're a fan of the film seek out this boxset if the single DVD release isn't up to par.

Even though it is clearly made on a very low budget, I honorably disagree with the previous reviewer that THE DAY TIME ENDED is out-and-out junk. Far worse sci-fi films than this have been made on budgets fifty to a hundred times what it cost to make this film.

The story involves a family (led by Jim Davis, Chris Mitchum, and Dorothy Malone) who have moved out to a solar-powered home in the Mojave Desert to escape the terrors of big-city crime in Los Angeles. When they get to their isolated home, however, they discover that it has been trashed. Initially, it is thought that motorcycle vandals were the cause. In fact, however, it is the result of a trinary supernova explosion that occurred two hundred years ago and whose effects are only being felt on Earth now. Alien beings and their accompanying UFO spacecraft have pulled the family and their house into a mysterious time/space warp, full of weird and sometimes terrifying phonomena. The coda finds the family venturing across the desert plains to a beautiful futuristic crystal city, with Davis intoning, "Maybe this was all meant to be."

John 'Bud' Cardos, who directed the fine 1977 low-budget horror film KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS, has set himself a very ambitious task to make a good sci-fi film on a very slim budget. This film's inspirations are clearly Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND; and while the special effects are, unsurprisingly, not up to the standards of those two masterful movies, I think they hold up pretty well. The stop-motion dinosaurs and monsters are fairly well done, as are the UFOs and the trinary nova explosions. Most fascinating for me was the eerie green pyramid that the family's youngest daughter (Natasha Ryan) sees, which may have been inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Sentinel" (which provided part of the inspiration for 2001).

THE DAY TIME ENDED may not qualify as a sci-fi masterpiece, but it certainly deserves to be rediscovered at the very least as a minor sci-fi gem. One can do far worse than this low-budget film that occasionally looks like a glossy big-budget venture.

`Their lives became a living hell...when past, present and future collided!' That's the tagline used on the DVD case for The Day Time Ended aka Earth's Final Fury aka Vortex aka Time Warp (1980). I knew how they felt for 90 minutes, watching this film (the DVD case states approximately 90 minutes, but it was more like 70 to 75 minutes)...okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but you'd think a film credited with four writers could at least have made sense...rarely have I seen a film so lacking in direction or plot...directed by John `Bud' Cardos (Kingdom of the Spiders, Outlaw of Gor), the film stars Jim Davis (you may remember him as Jock Ewing on TV's Dallas), Dorothy Malone (Peyton Place), Natasha Ryan (Kingdom of the Spiders, The Amityville Horror), Marcy Lafferty, who was once married to William Shatner, both of whom appeared in 1977's Kingdom of the Spiders, along with the above mentioned Ryan, Scott C. Kolden (Sigmund and the Sea Monsters), and Christopher Mitchum (American Commandos, Magic Kid), son of actor Robert Mitchum (I'll saw one thing about Chris is that looking at his credits of low budget, schlocky B films, it doesn't look like he relied on nepotism to get good roles).

The film opens with a shot of outer space, and voice over I couldn't hear because of the accompanying music (poor sound editing), and also the sound quality on this DVD was very shoddy. This goes on for like three minutes, and the gist of it is there's a cosmic phenomena, three super novas colliding at once, and now, some many years later, the effects are reaching the planet Earth...the bulk of the film takes place in some southwestern desert, where patriarch Grant (Davis) has built a solar powered home (looking much like Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's funky little domicile on Tantooine in the film Star Wars, only not as good), away from all the hustle and bustle. Next we witness Grant and his son-in-law Richard (Mitchum) picking up the rest of the family at the airport, including Grant's wife Ana (Malone), Grant's daughter and Richard's wife Beth (Lafferty), the granddaughter Jenny (Ryan), and Grant's son Steve (Kolden). The group returns to the ranch, and soon strange things begin happening in the form of strange green lights inside the house, light switches not working, furniture in disarray, etc. Also, they begin witnessing lights in the night sky, and even the occasion UFO zipping by...during the night even stranger phenomena begin occurring in the form of really bad CGI and even worse stop motion effects of hostile, misshapen creatures fighting each other in the corral, outside the house. Apparently the effects of the trinary supernova have torn a new one in the time/space continuum, effectively creating a localized vortex on Grant's property (at least that's what I could get, as the film wasn't as forthcoming as it should have been). What's an isolationist family to do? I suppose when the fickle forces of nature give you cosmic lemons, you make cosmic lemonade...

I suppose my biggest complaint with this film was its' confusing, muddled, and utterly pointless plot. It actually took an hour before the audience was let in on what was going on (this was done by the unceremonious dumping of a small but steaming pile of exposition on the audience, as Davis' character, the rural rancher, becomes Mr. Physics during an epiphanic moment when he realizes `we're in a time warp, a vortex, if you will'...later we're treated to a much larger pile as the daughter, who got sucked into the vortex, and later returns relating about as much lameness as I could stand)...prior to that, we were treated to a series of odd (mostly stupid), unrelated events that never really lead anywhere, or had much purpose. I did get the impression there may have been a good, original concept here, but it was obliterated within the execution. The special effects are about as good as one might expect within a low budget feature as this, the main bulk of it being stop motion effects with creatures looking much like those (only not as good) from scene in Star Wars, on the Millennium Falcon, where the characters were playing a chess-like game, and minor effects featuring obvious CGI/blue screen work. The direction was pretty awful, especially noticeable during the scenes where the characters were supposed to react to special effects to be added later. I could almost imagine how it went... `Okay, now act shocked and scared, as that empty space will be occupied by a horrible monster once we insert it during post production'...'okay, I was going for shocked and scared, not perplexed and moronic'. The acting was pretty shoddy, but then I would be more inclined to blame this on the script and the director, as the talent was probably as confused as I was with regards to what was supposed to be going on in the film. Also, I thought the ending to be sort of a cop out.

The quality of the full screen, pan and scan print on this DVD isn't great, but I've seen worse. The real problem lies within the craptacular transfer. The picture has a stuttering, jittery quality that occurs anytime there's movement on the screen. I've never witnessed this particular problem before, but it's incredibly annoying, and lasts through nearly the entire film. The audio's poor, and my player indicates it's PCM 48Khz. There are a couple of extras featuring a montage of trailers for this film, and three more including Laserblast (1978), Creepozoids (1987), and End of the World (1977), along with some Full Moon Entertainment promotional materials. Is this film a cult classic? I'd say more of an oddity...if you're looking for a real cult classic, check out Don Johnson in A Boy and His Dog (1975). Another thing, the DVD case listed this as being rated R, but that's obviously a mistake...PG would be more applicable.

Cookieman108

I love this movie, man. Family owns an awesome house in the desert that the old man built. KUDOs to the old dude for building such a far out house! They think bikers messed with it.. But no, weird stuff is happening man. A mirror fixes itself, water turns on and off via thought. The little girl has a new imaginary friend out behind the barn, a green glowing Mayan temple looking thing! Thank God for such things! The family has an outstanding outdoor barbecue! I got hungry just watching them pass that mouth watering food around! Yes, loved it. The son in law goes to town to do some business, pops open a beer and sips it kinda weird, gonna have to try that myself. A storm hits. He heads back home. Meanwhile all kinds of weird stuff is going on... end of the world kinda stuff. Suddenly their front yard turns into a parking lot for lost otherworldly vehicles, I spotted many interesting craft, freeze frame and see what you can spot! Cool hovercrafts and massive aircraft, hey, I think the Bermuda Triangle just got dumped on their lawn! A huge creature attacks, time is passing at a different speed out in the barn than it is back in the house... Very cool, I've experienced this phenomena myself, always cool when that happens! I thank God for moments like that! When all looks lost, the little girl and her mother get sucked into the Vortex! JENNY! JENNY! Stay outta tha V O R TEX! OH NO, she was gone with her mother Beth following close behind, now what.. What we have here is a Time Space Warp.. Suddenly the entire family is transported to Heaven! Yes I'm quite sure that's where they end up. The new Jerusalem can be seen in the distance. Holy Angels in flying saucers zoom around. Hey look! There's their daughter! She's been transformed by the Love of God! There's Jenny, and there's her father! Hey! Everybody is safe and sound as they walk toward Heaven! All is well, all is as it is meant to be! Thanks God! I thank you God for such a wonderful movie. I love this movie, man. Thanks God! (Spoken while pointing both index fingers toward the Heavens!)

I remember seeing this as a co-feature in 1980 or '81.
It was kitschy good fun, and worth owning if only to hear Jim Davis
drawl out "We must be in some kinda time-space wooorp!"

The disappointment came when major segments of the first half or so of this film was practically unwatchable due to the herky-jerky motions that evidenced not a poor DVD transfer, but a Horrible one!
It brought to mind images of RCA connectors strung from an old VHS ("Beta"??) player to the inputs of a 386 PC.

Whoever OK'd the release of this shoddy mess should be placed in some kinda time-space wooorp!

I remember this movie from my childhood. I remember the mild panic it evoked in me.
For it's time It was perhaps not as slick as it could've been. But It had a great concept. The story itself could be due for a remake. not unlike so many other RE-makes out there. But with a faster pace and updated effects this is a good story.
All in all I found it to be entertaining. If a little cheesy by today's standards.
But I am a lover of b and c rate Sci-fi.
I believe most film critiques are afraid to admit they like something their peers or readers may perceive to be unworthy of praise , so they say the meanest things about the subject film. Not me. I do my best to suspend dissbelief for two hours and enjoy the story. Not try to pick it to pieces.
For example I found the old 80's film Megaforce to be a live action version of another faveorite "G.I. Joe." I enjoy this little nugget of cheese on a regular basis. I Have a special binnder full of dvd's called my "CHEESE TRAY".
Also another lamb basted film I found truely entertaining was Eddie Murphy's
The Adventures of Pluto Nash. It hit all the right buttons with me. It is widely concidered a box office flop. And has received the worst reviews. Thats nice...
If it makes the critic feel good about themselves. I loved it.

I found this movie on Amazon after searching for it in several places. bought this DVD mainly to rekindle my childhood fascination which I caught a glimpse of its trailer as a kid but didnt have the money to watch back then. Until now. Didnt really think the movie really lived up to the thrill / fascination & curiosity I had for it as a kid. Some parts were still cool as I anticipated, sufficient suspense albeit extremely dated special effects (eg.like house invasion scene) but classic.
Major disappointment was the way the story chose to end.

I first saw this movie on TV in the 80s and for some reason it stuck in my mind. Now having seen it again i'm not too sure why, although if you take into account the low budget and date that it was made i suppose it isn't too bad. Its basically a strange mix of UFOs, Aliens and 'Monsters' which terrorise a family on a ranch.. The ending is a little bizarre but overall quite an enjoyable movie.