Norman's Awesome Experience

'A Switch in Time' -- re-titled 'Norman's Awesome Experience' in some countries to cash in on the success of 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' -- this earlier Canadian comedy is a very different sort of movie, premise of traveling back in time aside. Norman, unlike Bill and Ted, is well educated and clever; in fact, he is a scientist accidentally sent back in time with a fashion model and her boyfriend who con him into showing them his laboratory. As the trio find themselves in Ancient Rome, the model and her boyfriend take to assuming power in their tiny village while Norman sets about inventing things that do not yet exist; one of the film's funniest lines has him tell the model "I'll invent soap!" if she quits complaining about the noise that he is making. Norman's inventions (which also include the world's first printing press!) unfortunately take a back seat to battle sequences and side scenes in which the Ancient Roman characters debate what to do about the 'revolution' that the model and her boyfriend have sparked. In fact, Norman gets less screen time than his fellow two time travelers. 'A Switch in Time''s descent into near obscurity over the years is not too surprising at the end of the day. The opening handful of scenes (filmed inside real laboratories) are great, but the filmmakers do not always seem to know what to do once their characters arrive in the past.