(Originally published in 1994 in The Gleaner of Rutgers University-Camden.)
Timecop
**
Okay. Let’s face it. No one goes to see Jean-Claude Van Damme romancing the ladies, right? We want to see him kicking the crap out of bad guys. Women want to see him flex his pecs, men want to see him just kick. There’s no love, no romance involved.
This time, however, J-C is out to broaden his commerical appeal after the kinda hit Hard Target, directed by frantic Chinese director John Woo. In Timecop, Van Damme plays a time-traveling policeman who goes back in time to stop bad guys from making a buck through the time travel art.
The night he’s recruited, J-C barely escapes an explosion at his house in which his beloved (Mia Sara of Ferris Bueller’s day off) dies. Undaunted, Our Hero joins the ranks of time-travelin’ good guys.
Ten years later, Van Damme is a pro, a legendary agent famed for bringing back the bad dudes. Recently, however, he’s learned that his ex-partner had been bought by a Senator (Ron Silver) who wants to finance his campaign for President by stealing real old money — like from the Civil War, the 1929 Stock Market Crash, et cetera. This is a bad thing. Naturally, though, our hero goes all out to right the wrongs, to prevent the neo-Nazi Silver from buying his presidency.
There are holes in this film you could park Texas in. There are plenty of laughable performances, with noted thespians Van Damme and Sara showing their lack of acting talent. Silver is aces, especially when he’s fighting with a younger version of himself.
As for the romance angle, it never works. Ok, we might believe Van Damme and Sara are a couple, but they do a poor job convincing us they’re the red-hot lovers they’re purported to be.
This is a typical Van Damme piece of work, with an uneeded romance story tossed in. It works as an action pic, though; Van Damme still, for my money, kicks butt better than anyone this side of Steven Seagal.
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