When enterprising teenager Zak Gibbs (Jesse Bradford) stumbles onto a secret government doohickey that can virtually stop time, he wields his newfound power by wooing a foreign exchange student and helping his buddy win a deejay contest.
For the rest of us: Time. Slows. Down. To. A. Crawl.
“Star Trek: The Next Generation” actor and director Jonathan Frakes expands his sci-fi directing canon, delivering awe-inspiring concepts and visuals under a clunky narrative and sub-par TV characters in the appropriately named “Clockstoppers.”
With “Clockstoppers,” Frakes hobbles along with a high-concept film that doesn’t live up to its potential. Too many bike stunts, syrupy family dramas and evil government agents gum up the works, and 90 minutes isn’t enough to sort it all out. Bradford (“Bring It On”) stars as whiny Zak, who spends his afterschool hours selling junk on eBay and saving up for his dream car. His dad, scientist Dr. George Gibbs (Robin Thomas), comes up short as a father, never seeming to have time to spend with his shoe-scuffing son. When Zak runs across a “hypertime” watch, he’s able to speed up his molecular structure, and travel around manipulating his environment virtually undetected.
This poses a problem for rogue black ops agents (Michael Biehn and company), who are holding Dr. Gibbs’ brilliant student (French Stewart) hostage while he works out the glitches in hypertime technology.
This isn’t enough to obscure love interest Francesca’s (Paula Garces’) wobbly Spanish accent and the bending of sci-fi rules set up by screenwriters Rob Hedden, J. David Stem and David N. Weiss. The protagonists are so slow that they allow themselves to get kidnapped by the sloth-like mechanical arm of a dump truck.
And what’s it all for? Sci-fi high jinx and a government conspiracy serve merely as window dressing for a ham-fisted message about the importance of good parenting and owning a car in high school.
“Clockstoppers”
(star) 1/2
Directed by Jonathan Frakes.; written by Rob Hedden, J. David Stem and David N. Weiss; photographed by Tim Suhrstedt; edited by Jeff Canavan; production designed by Marek Dobrowolski; produced by Gale Anne Hurd and Julia Pistor. A Paramount Pictures release; opens Friday. Running time: 1:40. MPAA rating: PG (comic violence).
Zak Gibbs …………. Jesse Bradford
Dr. Earl Dopler ……. French Stewart
Francesca …………. Paula Garces
Henry Gates ……….. Michael Biehn
Dr. George Gibbs …… Robin Thomas
