Timecop

Timecop (1994)

Image From IMDB

Van Damme travels back in time to 1994 when, the film was made in 1994, you can’t make this shit up… yet… Timecop’s a lot of fun, with some great ideas and cool fight scenes. While I think the concept was potentially wasted, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Timecop is set in a future where time travel has been invented, and due to the endless ways in which this can be exploited a division is set up in order to protect the timeline and make sure there’s no long term ramifications. That doesn’t stop an ambitious presidential candidate trying exactly that.

When the film opens with someone gunning down members of the confederate army with a modern day machine gun, and follows later with a laser gun in Wall Street during the 1920’s, you get an idea of what could be done with such a fun concept of time travelling timecops, but, that’s sadly all you get on that front. No dinosaurs, westerns, or world war two. That’s your load.

What you get instead is a presidential conspiracy involving an ambitious senator funding his campaign with gold and stocks stolen from the past, and Van Damme standing in his way, both in the present, and the past and their two stories merge in one of those time travel type loops.

Honestly, the story told is pretty damn good. Not only is it one of Van Damme’s better performances, but the way the story unfolds makes sense (in as much of a way any time travel movie can make sense) and has a nice pace to it. It’s sexy and violent. Has a dark humour. And, builds its world well. It’s a solid enjoyable movie.

But, again, I just can’t help but think how much more could have been done with the central concept. Maybe the movie would have become bloated with additional time travel scenes, but I kind of wanted them. The film set up rules about not being able to travel to the future, but maybe it should have equally set up rules about how far back you could go in order to rule out the possibilities.

That said, as mentioned, I did enjoy Timecop. The film had everything you want from a sci-fi action flick, and I liked all the characters. Taken on its own, without thinking what more could have been done with the concept, it’s a fun watch. But, i’ll always be wondering what a Timecop graphic novel series could have looked like with more ideas explored.