Clockstoppers Review
Carmine Osterland
Clockstoppers is a 2002 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Jonathan Frakes and produced by Gale Anne Hurd and Julia Pistor. The film centers on future tech "Hypertime" devices which speed up the users' molecules, creating the illusion that time has stopped from the perspective of the users. The story follows teenager Zak Gibbs, who accidentally acquires one of these devices and finds himself on the run from agents of the corporation which created them, all of whom wield Hypertime devices themselves. The film stars Jesse Bradford, Paula Garcs, French Stewart, Michael Biehn, Robin Thomas, and Julia Sweeney.
The film was produced by Nickelodeon Movies and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Despite the film receiving mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, it was a box-office success, grossing over $38.8 million against $26 million budget.
The NSA-funded Quantum Tech (QT) Corporation has slated a project to develop Hypertime, a technology which allows the user's molecules to speed up to the point where the world appears in standstill. NSA head Moore ends the project due to the risk of the technology being acquired by hostile powers. QT's CEO Henry Gates plans on using Hypertime to dominate the world, but these plans are now falling apart: The NSA has given him only a weekend before they collect his equipment, his lead scientist Earl Dopler cannot fix a glitch which causes subjects in Hypertime to age rapidly, and after his henchmen prevent Dopler's incognito departure at the airport, Dopler informs Gates that he sent information on Hypertime and a prototype Hypertime wristwatch to his former teacher Dr. George Gibbs in hopes he could find a fix for the glitch.
Gibbs' daughter Kelly accidentally knocks the watch into a box of his son Zak's things. George is away at a convention on applied science, having turned down Zak's appeals to go car shopping with him. Zak repeatedly bombs out with Francesca, the hot new girl at school, first with a condescending offer to show her around and then, after she allows him to help her rake leaves, by bringing a live opossum into her house. However, she is impressed when he shows her the power of the watch, which they use to pull pranks around town, and later help Zak's friend Meeker wins a battle of the DJs contest. At the end of the date, Francesca gives Zak a goodnight kiss.
Gates sends henchmen, armed with Hypertime watches and solid nitrogen guns for putting other Hypertime users back into normal time, to George's house to recover the prototype. While fleeing from them, Zak discovers Dopler tied up in their van and frees him. A chase ensues, with Zak crashing the van into a river, thus disabling the watch. Zak awakens in a hospital and is charged with stealing the van. He gets the watch working just long enough to steal a policeman's uniform, allowing him to evade both the police and Gates's henchmen. QT Corporation contacts national security agencies and portrays Zak, George and Dopler as fugitives. Zak goes on the run with Francesca, locating the hotel that George is staying at. QT reaches George first and captures him to replace Dopler.
Dopler captures Zak and Francesca with a garbage truck. Francesca knocks Dopler out, and she and Zak interrogate Dopler. Dopler reluctantly agrees to help save George. Using components that the three of them steal from the science convention, Dopler mends the broken watch and builds their own set of nitrogen guns.
Zak and Francesca break in. After activating Hypertime, Zak swaps a nonfunctional watch onto his wrist as a backup plan. QT captures Zak and Francesca, confiscates the nonfunctional watch, and throws them in a cell with George. The NSA deadline expires, so Gates puts the whole facility into Hypertime to stop the approaching NSA agents. Using his concealed watch while in Hypertime causes Zak's particles to accelerate to the point of instability, allowing him to pass through the walls of their cell and divert Gates and his henchmen long enough for George to rig a bomb which destroys the machine generating Hypertime. Gates tries to kill Francesca, Zak and George, but Dopler arrives and shoots Gates with nitrogen. The NSA agents take the watches to keep them safe, and arrest Gates and his henchmen. The charges against Zak are dropped.
Dopler uses the machine he was building to reverse the aging effects of Hypertime, but it inadvertently changes him back into a teenager, meaning he will have to live with the Gibbs family for a few years. George lets Zak get the car he wanted. As Zak speeds off in his car with Kelly, Francesca, and Dopler, it is revealed that Zak has not returned the watch and continues to have fun in Hypertime.
The film's director, Jonathan Frakes, later recalled, "That script had been at Paramount a long time, and because of the success of First Contact and Insurrection, Paramount blew the dust off and got a rewrite and we did it at a nice price."[2]
The shot of the accelerated Zak being frozen was done as a green screen composite of three shots: one with Zak actor Jesse Bradford leaping, one with Michael Biehn aiming the nitrogen gun, and one with the scenery and the computer-generated nitrogen stream.[3]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 29% based on 85 reviews, with an average rating of 4.81/10. The website's critics consensus called it "A pleasant diversion for the young teens, but a waste of time for anyone older."[5] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[6] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[7]
Jonathan "Commander Riker" Frakes leaves the Star Trek stable for the first time to direct this unambitious Nickelodeon fantasy, in which a couple of fresh-faced teens stumble upon a hi-tech wristwatch with the power to bring time to a standstill.
It's a neat gimmick - who wouldn't want to freeze time, if only to rob a bank or make magazine deadlines less painful - but neither boffin's son Zak (Jesse Bradford) nor exchange student Francesca (Paula Garcs) use it creatively. So what should have been a gleeful exercise in wish fulfillment becomes a predictable, effects-laden caper, as our dull heroes try to stop Michael "How did I get from The Terminator to this?" Biehn getting his hands on the timepiece.
Frakes handles the action competently, but without enough flair to suggest he should ignore those Star Trek conventions just yet. In fact, it's hard to forget that The Bourne Identity's Doug Liman was originally scheduled to direct. With his energy and imagination, that would have been interesting.
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Clockstoppers (2002) - every early 2002s movie trope, the teen characters are played by late 20s actors and everyone creeps and is racist to the girl character. 3/10 impressive graphics for the time I guess.
I actually watched this one two weeks ago but forgot to review it. I've already forgotten a lot of it. I remember a lot of the promotional media featured the Token Black Guy but he actually played a negligible role in the film. It was so tropy for it's time it kinda hurt. The whole cast was roughly 27, and I think they somehow thought that made it okay to make lots of sexual comments about the love interest character (a high school girl) including racially charged ones. It utilizes a bullet time style of filmmaking but never in that visually of interesting scenes, and it's pretty badly done, in some scenes it's so obvious the frozen people are just standing still in real time with how they sway and blink. Can't believe this wasnt a hit movie. It's basically the 2002 version of like, minutemen? Or trying to be a Disney channel esque version of the matrix? I expected it to be so bad it's good but really it was just mediocre.
Clockstoppers is a science-fiction film released by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. The film stars Jesse Bradford, Paula Garcs, French Stewart, and Michael Biehn. It was directed by Jonathan Frakes and was released in theaters on March 29, 2002.
The NSA-funded QT (Quantum Tech) Corporation has slated a project to develop Hypertime, a technology which allows the user's molecules to speed up to the point where the world appears to be standing still. After realizing that such technology, contained within a wristwatch frame, could also be used against the USA, the NSA orders the project stopped. However, the research is farther along than the NSA expected and QT's leader Henry Gates plans on using the technology to usurp the leader of the NSA and dominate the world. He uses the prototype to stretch the weekend in order to give the brilliant lead scientist Earl Dopler time to fix the remaining glitch in the technology after his henchmen Richard and Jay prevent Earl's incognito departure at the airport. However, the disadvantage of Earl being in Hypertime for too long was him aging rapidly in real time, as his molecular age continued at the same rate despite time slowing down.
However, initially unknown to Gates, Dopler had sent a prototype to a former colleague of his named Dr. George Gibbs. His son Zak discovers the watch accidentally and initially uses it for fun, much to the amusement of Francesca. Once Gates finds out about the leaked prototype, he attempts to retrieve it. He sends his henchmen after Zak who break into his house and search for evidence. Upon learning about the ulterior motive of QT Corporation, Zak sets out to warn his father of the danger he could be in.
A chase sequence ensues, with Zak crashing the car into the river and thus damaging the watch. He awakes in hospital with a broken watch and only by a stroke of luck manages to avoid Jay and Richard again. He then goes in search of somewhere safe to hide in the meantime, after having been accused of stealing a van by the police. In a bid to retrieve the watch, QT Corporation enlists the help of national security agencies and portray Zak and his father as fugitives wanted by the law. Zak goes on the run with his girlfriend, locating the hotel that Dr. Gibbs was staying at in a bid to warn him. Dopler is also looking for Dr. Gibbs to ask for help and also to warn him. However, Gates, Jay, and Richard reach Zak's father before him and kidnap Dr. Gibbs from his hotel room.
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