Customer Reviews

Grand Tour - Disaster in Time [VHS]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Not well known but very good and solid sci-fi film on the time travel . By director David N. Twohy ( The Arrival , Pitch Black ) and starring Jeff Daniels .
Jeff Daniels playing an owner of small motel/hotel in a small town in the mid America . He cann't forgive himself for running away from the site of the accident few years back . The accident which took his wife's life . His father in law , a judge in this town , cann't forgive him eather and trying to take his granddaughter away from him . At the same time a group of very strange tourists came in town and checked in J.Daniels's hotel .They way too strange and even weard . Keep talking about some "spectical", and later we found out that they are the tourists ... in time . They travel to se all the biggest disasters of the 20th century . And the last one should come to this little town ...
Cann't tell you more ... you have to se it yourself . But after slow start this film developes very fast and has more than anough twists and turns to deserve a very solid 5 stars .

--a "communal review" by Charly Wood's English 101 class Owensboro Community College

Often when you think of a science-fiction movie, big hits such as INDEPENDENCE DAY and STAR WARS come to mind. Rarely though, do you see a movie that offers an original story with the absence of large scale special effects. In the movie GRAND TOUR, you are given the rare opportunity to use your imagination. This movie did a good job of not making the idea of time travel any more complicated than it had to be.

The strange tourists in the story are able to travel around using special "passports" to watch certain events as they occur. They now desire to watch catastrophic events unfold as some sort of pathetic entertainment. It seems to give them back the excitement they lack in their world.

There were several situations in the movie where there were ethical choices to be made. This movie gives you the opportunity to dive into yourself and explore your own moral standards.

The acting quality did lack at times--the visitors went a little overboard and the daughter seemed a little too perfect to be believable. The movie, however, has a wonderful plot with some strong character building and a fresh approach to time travel. The main character, Ben Wilson (played by Jeff Daniels), is tormented throughout the movie with an unresolved inner conflict. Despite his own guilt feelings and his father-in-law's constant criticism, he has been able to develop a touching relationship with his young daughter. The movie combined the disasters, both personal and the ones the traverlers saw, very well.

All things considered, we think you should take the "time" to "travel" to the video store and rent GRAND TOUR. It is one "event" that is worth watching.

"Grand Tour-Disaster in Time" came to me as a pleasant surprise. When I first saw it on home video I had read a really positive review and found it to be right on the money. Although the film suffers from a low budget (in fact director Twohy should revisit this with a nice large sizable budget)the characters are well drawn and Jeff Daniels gives a stellar performance. It's the end of the world for the citizens of a small town. When a group of odd travelers take up resident at his inn Ben Wilson (Jeff Daniels) gradually begins piecing together the real reason they are staying with him; a major disaster is about to happen. These spectators are tourists from the future who want to witness the event, human suffering and chaos that will result. Wilson determines that he, his daughter and the residents of the town must somehow survive this unknown tragedy. Wilson intends to change "the past" based on this knowledge something the visitors can't allow.

Image quality is decent for this Anchor Bay release. The film was shot on a shoe string budget overcoming these obstacles with an imaginative screenplay based on C. L. Moore's classic short story "Vintage Season". The film takes some major departures from the original story but unlike some reviews here I felt that these departures allowed the audience to identify more readily with the main characters. Director Twohy ("Below","The Arrival", "Pitch Black")does a great job of taking genre staples and turning the story on its head. "Grand Tour-Diaster in Time" is no exception to this. There aren't any extras to speak of beyond the trailer.

While "Grand Tour" isn't a perfect film it's one of those rare films that manages to overcome its limitations due to the sheer imagination of the cast and crew. "Grand Tour" is definitely worth a visit for science fiction fans.

Grand Tour - Disaster in Time is a decent movie with above average acting and writing. Jeff Daniels is the "name" actor in the cast, and does a respectable job of carrying the story and fleshing out his character. He plays Ben Wilson, a widower with terrible guilt feelings about his wife's accidental death and his less than noble reaction to the accident (he fled the scene).

Our story picks up on his life with his daughter Hillary as they struggle to finish their bed and breakfast inn. They are confronted with a tour bus full of people (time travelers from the future on a Grand Tour of history's great disasters, thus the title of the film) that want to rent his unfinished inn and won't take no for an answer. Turns out his inn is perfectly positioned for the group to witness a devastating meteor strike on the small town where Ben and his daughter live. After the meteor strike, Ben catches on to the group, and he follows them to an abandoned plant where they are preparing to witness a second ancillary disaster in the emergency shelter for the survivors that is set up at a school. When Ben sees what they are training their tourist interest upon, he realizes that daughter Hillary is volunteering in the school, and races to rescue her, arriving just seconds too late as the school explodes from a gas leak, killing her and everyone else.

In the concluding act of the movie, Ben acquires one of the traveler's time passports, allowing him to go back in time and prevent most of the deaths in the town from the meteor strike and prevent the gas explosion at the school, saving his daughter's life.

One of the nicer plot twists in this movie is the fact that the future time travelers found a bit more than they bargained for when they encountered this particular "bygoner" named Ben Wilson, who wasn't content to let them get away with their detached voyeurism but challenged them to regain their humanity and feel for the victims that they encountered on their tour. Like all good science fiction, this story touched upon the larger themes of what it means to go through this life and to truly be human in spite of the shortcomings of those around us.

All told, this is a very satisfying story. The effects are a little cheesy, and the supporting cast is weak, but the strength of the screenplay and the acting of Jeff Daniels help to make this a worthwhile movie. I recommend it, and give it 4 stars!

I want to award four stars because it was a good, solid story and refreshing to see a time-travel movie I had missed. But it is dated, effects are comparable to a late 80's low to mid-level production value and there is a hole or two. Ain't perfect, but by no means a bad movie. My girlfriend made it through no problem. When I first put it in, I immediately said this is going to be dated sci-fi= your not going to like. But she enjoyed it. Not really "Grand", but watchable. As a sci-fan, I was beholden to check this out and was not disappointed, but actually pretty impressed.

The story: A group of time traveling tourists come back to see a disaster unfold in a small town where Jeff Daniels' character has a small Inn (with a perfect view). The story is not as cut-and-dry as you might think though, he does of course figure it out and try to stop it from happening, but there are some interesting twists that make this a cut above the average. rent.

It has a great story, with a LOT of background building. I show this movie to all my friends who even have a passing interest in sci-fi and time travel. It seems to start slow, but winds up with a great climax with at least one twist. It's even great to watch a second time, just to pick up the little things you missed the first time. It's not an action movie, nor is it a heavy-duty sci-fi. The technology is not really discussed, it's more of a Twilight Zone episode expanded to a movie (one of the good ones). All I can tell you is to try it! Telling you more is really giving it away. I even think the title should be changed to just "Grand Tour" - the mystery would be even better that way. Usually I show it to friends and only tell them the title is "Grand Tour". They'll figure the rest out on their own. In short, "It's grand, simply grand..."

A modest and intelligent time-travel-anomaly sci-fi that's probably better off with its low budget.
Well-written, good acting, excellent direction, this low-budget, made-for-TV movie was good enough for a theatrical release. In light of budget restrictions, the screenplay wisely focuses on character development, and keeps the special effects to a minimum, and the movie is all the better for it.
If you're interested in a good story that doesn't insult your intelligence and can handle a couple of hours without too much gee-whizzy effects, you could do a lot worse.

Grand Tour is a movie that should become a classic in time, just like the movie: The Day the Earth Stood Still. Grand Tour weaves through some interesting scenes. As a Science Fiction Genre, it leads one to believe that the Time portal is a possibility. The story line is not one of those that leaves no doubt it is a fiction. The movie keeps you engrossed throughout the entire story.

I'm a sucker for any time travel story and this is a good one. The premise is that a group of jaded people from the future go back in time to observe various disasters from the past such as the Chicago fire, the eruption of Krakatoa, etc. The hero is the operator of a small hotel where such a disaster is about to occur and his latest tenants are a group from the future. If you like time travel stories as I do, you'll love this one. Well written and well acted. Fascinating premise; absorbing execution. Maybe this is not the best such story you'll ever read, but well worth your time and the price.

I was looking for a movie to rent years ago at a popular video chain in CA. and there was this special movie rack of "sleepers". Basically movies that just didn't catch on with the masses. So I look through them and end up taking only one of them home. This movie has haunted me ever since. I found a copy years ago and before I even got to view it again I had given it to a relative who was visiting from out of state. Needless to say I never saw or heard about their take on it again. But now I have my very own copy and you can forget about borrowing this one! This movie will sneak up on you if you just give it a chance. . . fifteen minutes or so. The use of the word "grand" will either amuse you are drive you nuts however. Get used to it, it helps to set you up for the deeper meaning of the movie. Enjoy the suggestion and the innuendo.