Customer Reviews

Timerider

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I give the movie 4 stars; the soundtrack 5 stars; and the DVD 2 stars. I wish I had read the Amazon reviews before I picked this DVD up last night--but then, why would I have expected that anything had changed? I've been a fan of TIMERIDER since its theatrical release, so I was very happy to have it on DVD finally, and pleased with the transfer, but the TV/airline-version ending completely BITES. "Okay, here comes the tail rotor...and I can hear Reese screaming...and all those squishy sound effects...but...but...YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!" (Good thing I was home alone.)

The original sequence was a brilliant and memorable piece of film-making that worked by suggestion: it showed everything it needed to without showing...well, everything. But most importantly, it was where the bad guy got his well-deserved comeuppance. How satisfying would the ending of "Die Hard" have been if John McClane had just left Hans Gruber cowering on the floor? Or if, after Luke Skywalker torpedoed the Death Star, the lights just flickered out?

Distributor Anchor Bay claims that the DVD was made from the "only usable negative available." Uh...sure. I find it impossible to believe that Michael "Mr. Video" Nesmith couldn't find a single viable source in his files for THREE WHOLE SECONDS of film. Laserdisc? How about digitally cleaning up a VHS tape? Unfreakinbelievable.*

Am I upset? You're darn tootin' I am. Sometimes "little" things matter A LOT.

UPDATE 7/16/09: I just purchased a copy of TIMERIDER on laserdisc, and guess what: the missing footage (no pun intended) is there. Granted, it's a washed-out pan-and-scan transfer, but the footage exists in digital form. Guess I'll have to restore it myself. (You can see it on that popular video website.)

*In retrospect, I realize that it likely wasn't up to Nesmith or director William Dear, but to the legal owners of the movie, who probably didn't care what version they released and/or didn't want to spend money to restore the original footage. I mean, who cares what the audience wants, right? From what I've read lately, that's pretty much the Anchor Bay attitude.

Interesting movie, but I was disappointed that a scene at the end got cut short. This is your basic fish out of water story with a motocross racer, Lyle Swan (played by Fred Ward) gets unknowingly caught in a time travel experiment and launched about 100 years in the past. The general reaction, due to his attire and motorized horse is that he is some kind of devil, but one person he comes across, Porter Reese, a criminal outlaw played by Peter Coyote, sees the potential in owning this amazing contraption for himself. All of this takes place in the southern California desert, and Lyle is unaware of what has happened to him. He thinks he just got lost during a race, and tries to find his way back home. I thought it was interesting that he never really gets clued into the fact that he is 100 years out of time. As I said in the beginning, and I think another reviewer mentions this, that a few critical seconds were cut out of a scene at the end. These few seconds of missing footage include a helicopter, its rear rotor blade, and the main antagonist. I think this part was edited out for a television release and never put back in for the DVD release, which is a real shame. You wouldn't think 3 to 5 seconds of footage could impact a movie as much as it does, but it does here. This is the reason why I am giving the release 3 stars instead of four. Other than that, this was a fun sci-fi/western/action movie.

Very disappointed! This video has been edited to qualify for a PG rating. I noticed at least 2 incidents of bad dubbing for language, plus a key sequence at the end was completely omitted. After watching this version, did you wonder why Peter Coyote's character quit shooting at the helicopter??? Well, that's because in the ORIGINAL version, he came to a bloody end. This version has that sequence edited out completely, leaving you wondering what happened to his character. I REALLY hate edited movies - Ted Turner, are you listening?

Don't waste your money on this DVD. The original movie was excellent, but this DVD version has had a crucial scene at the end altered. The scene of the villian's demise is inexplicably replaced by a scene of the villian ducking. If you listen closely, you can still hear the sound of the rotors shredding him, but the visual of his bloody boots is gone. There is therefore no payoff, it's like watching Star Wars and not having the Death Star explode at the end (my apologies if you're one of the 5 people who haven't seen Star Wars and I've just ruined the ending for you).

I've had the internet for almost 4 years and I've been searching for this movie on V.H.S. or D.V.D. and here it is, finally !!! Fred Ward is a good actor and I wish he was more known then he is. He plays the part of a dirt bike racer. On his racing circuit, he gets lost somewhere in the desert and accidentally gets transported back in time, to the late 1800's. A research group was conducting a time travel experiment and for reasons of safety and secrecy, they set up the time travel machine out in the middle of the desert, hundreds of miles from the nearest person. Not knowing what it is, Fred Ward goes over to it on his dirt bike and the moment he pulls up to it, the research group activates it and he gets thrown back in time, about 100 years. I won't tell you the rest, but it's pretty cool and there are some funny moments during the movie as well. Thank God it's being transferred to D.V.D. !!!

"Well... We've got our experiment now, don't we?" That's what the scientist at the Time Travel command center say's, after discovering that a Man on a motorcycle was thrown back in time. Fred ward and Bad Guy, Peter Coyote & Posse do a remarkably great job in this movie. The cast selected for this movie was Top Notch. The bonus is beautiful brunet Actress, Belinda Bauer, who plays a Hottie with brians & a gun! Michael Nesmith should be acknowledged for his contributions to the music. The Soundtrack is EXCELLENT! It was taylor-made for the movie and ads to the experience. You'll love the dialog, music and his cool gadgets! Open your mind and sit back... You'll enjoy it! (It also helps if you're not a stuck-up movie critic like Leonard Maltin, who gets paid to trash movies.) This movie is long overdue on DVD. I think they should have released a soundtrack too! !!REMEMBER, THIS MOVIE IS AN INDEPENDANT RELEASE... SUPPORT INDEPENDANT MOVIES!! By the way, fans of this movie should check out Michael Nesmiths website: www.videoranch.com

"Well... We've got our experiment now, don't we?" That's what the scientist at the Time Travel command center say's, after discovering that a Man on a motorcycle was thrown back in time. Fred ward and Bad Guy, Peter Coyote & Posse do a remarkably great job in this movie. The cast selected for this movie was Top Notch. The bonus is beautiful brunet Actress, Belinda Bauer, who plays a Hottie with brians & a gun! Michael Nesmith should be acknowledged for his contributions to the music. The Soundtrack is EXCELLENT! It was taylor-made for the movie and ads to the experience. You'll love the dialog, music and his cool gadgets! Open your mind and sit back... You'll enjoy it! (It also helps if you're not a stuck-up movie critic like Leonard Maltin, who gets paid to trash movies.) This movie is long overdue on DVD. I think they should have released a soundtrack too! !!REMEMBER, THIS MOVIE IS AN INDEPENDANT RELEASE... SUPPORT INDEPENDANT MOVIES!!...

This is one of those movies that ALMOST made it to cult status. But it is also one of those in which anybody that has seen it wants to see it again.

I agree that one thing drug out to much is that Lyle was far too stupid about what happened to him. While I have traveled extensively through Mexico, there is at least SOMETHING modern about even the smallest village, even if it is just Levi jeans and ADIDAS sneakers. When he started to realize something was wrong, why did he not remember what he read on the plaque of the time machine?

But being a fan of alternate reality and time travel, I do enjoy this movie a lot. The idea is believeable, the paradox was well placed and believeable, and it did not get to far into the technical as to bore the viewers. I strongly recommend this movie to anybody that likes alternate history.

My original copy is a VHS copy dubbed from my Beta original right before it died. This DVD release is long overdue.

PS: For about 2 years after this movie was released, it did have a Midnight Movie viewership in the Los Angeles area. This is where I first saw it, in a theatre that also showed Mad Max, Rocky Horror, and Heavy Metal.

I haven't purchased the DVD yet either, but I saw "Timerider" in the theatre when it first came out and I also own a video version. It is one of my personal favorites, but I'm knocking a point off for the ending change that everyone has mentioned. That's a shame. My favorite aspect of the movie is how it never occurs to the residents of 1870's Mexico that Lyle is from the future and that Lyle never clues into the fact that he's been thrown back into the past. (If that makes him appear dense as one reviewer has pointed out, so be it. I'm sure that no one expects motorcycle racers to be rocket scientists.) Look for the Hitchcockian cameo by Michael Nesmith early in the movie. (Also recommended is Nesmith's Elephant Parts DVD--his extremely warped commentary alone is worth the price.)

This version is missing a key sequence at the end of the movie... the movie does not make sense without these few edited seconds. RESTORE THE MISSING SCENES!!!