Nobody can watch this without wanting to see Van Damme or somebody wipe the shitty grin off that asshole’s face. Silver, of course, was a master at playing slimy pricks, so he’s a good villain. It is discussed that because the TEC is founded on the idea of protecting the timeline it’s not even acceptable to kill Hitler (that’s the subject of the DTV sequel starring Jason Scott Lee), and Max’s discipline is proven by his refusal to try to stop the murder of his wife.īut hey – chasing the corrupt candidate takes him to that night, which was already altered to try to stop him from chasing the corrupt candidate! So he gets to make things right this time. Max also has a nice friendship with his boss Matuzak (Bruce McGill, also LINCOLN) but it’s a little nerve wracking because you keep thinking he shouldn’t trust anybody. When a 1994 guy talking to 1994 McComb sees Future McComb he asks, “Where do you come from? Are you supposed to be his father?” Not ethical, Senator! This scene is a good example of the movie’s sense of humor. They go to 1994 and find future-timeline Senator McComb giving investment tips to his 1994 self. He’s also showing the ropes to fresh-faced outsider Sarah Fielding (Gloria Reuben, LINCOLN). So Max is on a mission to uncover the truth. He’s altering the past to make himself rich so he can basically buy the presidency. God damn it, I should’ve known Ron Silver ( BLUE STEEL) wasn’t playing a good guy. We get to see how Max apprehends timecrooks and brings them to secret tribunals, but things get ugly when Atwood chooses the instant death penalty to protect his family from a larger conspiracy led by a senator with oversight of the agency. Max is on a seemingly routine case going back to 1929, where he discovers his former partner Lyle Atwood (Jason Schombing, 3 NINJAS KICK BACK) cheating the stock market. Then in the next scene he thinks of the one-liner he should’ve said. Max sort of predicts JASON X by shattering a guy’s arm that gets frozen by chemicals. Stunt coordinator is Glenn Randall ( RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, E.T., FIRESTARTER, RAW DEAL, COLLISION COURSE, ON DEADLY GROUND, SPECIES, THE SUBSTITUTE, THE MASK OF ZORRO).Īnother thing I somehow forgot was the one part I used to really like. Unfortunately I discovered by making this screengrab that he uses a stunt double for the splits if he’s wearing pants. Here’s another scene where he uses the splits as a defensive maneuver. Somehow I forgot the famous jumping-up-doing-the-splits-in-the-kitchen shot, and that it was to save himself from electrocution in a puddle of water. This also represents the peak of Van Damme’s pride in his ass. He’s also “cool” in goofy ways like he can sense that a guy on rollerblades in the mall is a purse snatcher (yeah, I’ve seen that episode of CHiPs too) and knows how to put his boot right in front of the guy’s face without touching him. It was the first time I actually thought that might come back some day. He’s so cool in this he had me thinking even his mullet looks good. Instead he and his wife Melissa (Mia Sara, LEGEND) get blown up before he’s recruited and then it cuts to a future where he’s already a well-established Timecop. This could easily follow a MEN IN BLACK trajectory and have Max start the job at the Time Enforcement Commission so we can learn all about it through his eyes. Knowing the future presents ample opportunities for get-rich-quick schemes (for example, in the opening a guy uses a futuristic machine gun to steal gold from the Confederate Army), but the government worries this could butterfly-effect shit up, so they try to control it. Jean-Claude Van Damme (BREAKIN’) plays Max Walker, a regular cop who’s about to be recruited to a new secret government agency that travels back in time to stop other time travelers from changing history. I decided to disqualify it when I read on the production notes extra that it was originally written as a script and then made into a Dark Horse Comics series, but I’m glad I watched it first, because it’s better than I remembered. Recently when I ranked all the ’90s comic book movies for Polygon I rewatched TIMECOP for the first time since that decade.
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