By Jay Betsill
“Timecop” starring Jean Claude Van Damme as an officer for Time Enforcement Commission, whose sole purpose of policing time travel is a perfect companion piece to fans of the Arnold Schwarzenegger hits “Terminator” and “Total Recall.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the top secret project with Senator Aaron McComb (Ron Silver) to chair the oversight committee and Eugene Matuzak (Bruce McGill) selected as the TEC’s first commissioner.
Later that day, DC Metro Police officer Max Walker (Van Damme) is offered a position with the TEC but debates whether to accept it. That night, he receives an emergency call and is ambushed while leaving home; he and his wife, Melissa (Mia Sara), are viciously attacked by unknown assailants. Walker witnesses the house explode, killing Melissa inside.
Ten years later, Walker is a veteran of the TEC, which sends him back to October 1929 to prevent his former partner, Lyle Atwood, from using knowledge of the future to financially benefit from the U.S. stock market crash. When confronted by Walker, Atwood admits to working for Senator McComb, who is using his position and access to time travel technology to go back in time and raise funds for his upcoming presidential campaign.
Now under investigation from Internal Affairs for his ties to Atwood, Walker is assigned a new partner, TEC rookie Sarah Fielding, and together they are sent back to 1994 to investigate McComb. Walker’s return to 1994 sets in motion his battle against McComb and gives him an outside chance and changing history and saving his wife.
While “Timecop” originates from the Dark Horse Comics, it is perhaps better known for being the highest grossing movie in Van Damme’s action career that includes such hits as “Bloodsport” “Lionheart” and “Universal Soldier.”
Mia Sara (Sloan Peterson from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) does a good job as Melissa, Walker’s wife who we meet at while she is walking around the mall waiting to break the news to her husband that they are having a baby.
However, Ron Silver’s performance as Senator McComb steals the show as he chews up every scene he is in playing the power-hungry and sinister villain who knows all about the top secret time traveling revelations.
Directed by Peter Hyams, who previously helmed “Outland,” “2010,” “Running Scared” and “Narrow Margin” and would go on to direct Van Damme again in “Sudden Death” the following year, “Timecop” is a fun movie that surprisingly has not been rebooted or turned into a 10-episode Netflix series yet.
Although if it was rebooted, I would definitely watch.
“Timecop” is currently available on tubi (ads) and for rent on Amazon Prime.
TIMECOP (Rated R)
Scale of 1-10: 7
