User reviews

Time travelling with a gun slinging Klaus Kinski and western memorabilia nut William Devane? I won't have it any other way. "Timestalkers" is a playfully modest little made-for-TV production that's full of warmth and covers an interestingly ambitious concept.

The story follows Professor Scott McKenzie (William Devane), an old western memorabilia collector discovers in a photograph from 1866 a 20th century .357 Magnum revolver in the hands of a cowboy (Klaus Kinski). Scott soon starts questioning the possibility of time-travel and writes a paper on it. Then strangely a lady appears who claims that she believes him and he soon discovers that she's a time-traveller too. She wants him help her find out why this time-traveller has gone back to the old-west and eventually stop him from changing the face of history.

Early on the plot moves back and forth between the past and present. Some of the items that Devane's character looks at or purchases at an auction have a history that involves the magnum-toting gunman. Some foreseeable plot-holes creep in, but it's inventively told and works well with its collective gimmicks. The chintzy special effects create some charm, and so does the cheesy igniting sparks cutaways. The uncanny music is whimsically scored. There's a nice sense of humour in the script. Devane gives a winning performance and Kinski's glazed turn offers that venomously cold tinge. Lauren Hutton is fetchingly palatable. John Ratzenburger and Forest Tucker pop in with fun support parts. It looks cheap, but it's actually better than its limitations allow it to be. A smart, enjoyably harmless sci-fi yarn.

The fast moving and clever time travel plot is greatly enhanced by the presence of the duster clad Klaus Kinski. He has a lot of screen time, along with a fine performance by William Devane. After his wife and boy are killed in a car wreck, Devane purchases an old western trunk, which contains the intriguing 1886 photograph, that sets the story in motion. A chase ensues across 100 years to reverse history, and the tale never falters. One memorable scene involves Kinski entering a fence protected compound. The film holds interest throughout, and the ending is very satisfying. I bought "Timestalkers" because I am a big fan of both Klaus Kinski and William Devane. I was not disappointed. - MERK

There's few time travel pictures that I don't pick apart with fourth dimensional reasoning and this is one of them. There's a very wonderful scene as the time traveling bad guy wants into an Army base, so he travels back to before it was built, crosses where the perimeter fence will be and then returns to the present on the other side of the fence ! William Devane does a great job as the writer who writes the book that causes time travel to be invented. When he discovers an old tin-type with a man holding a very modern-day gun, he steps into an adventure with Lauren Hutton that leads him into fulfilling his greatest wish to be a gunfighter. John Ratzenburger forgets Cliff on "Cheers" to play a very likeable Army Colonel and Forrest Tucker appears too in his very last movie role as an Old West Collector (Shades of "F-Troop," perhaps). This wonderful movie is great for the whole family as Hutton repays Devane's kindness with an act that probably eliminates the entire movie from even occurring.You have to see it to know what I mean.

The idea and plot are perfect. All stands together and is very interesting.

All sums up to the beginning with a tragedy and after the whole story the tragedy is avoided.

I am sure the remake in good hands will make a great movie.

The casting in the film is odd. And act play is mediocre. Yet I gave high number because of the concept potential.

This is a haphazard Sci-Fi western that is hard to build interest in. For a TV movie the special effects are pretty decent. The casting seems to be a grab-bag selection. A history professor(William Devane) and a time traveler(Lauren Hutton)try to foil a mad scientist(Klaus Kinski)from among other things prevent a presidential assignation. At times Hutton is quite fetching, but her appeal easily wears thin. Devane and his ever present hammy smile can also be tolerated. Kinski is excellent as the long white haired loose cannon of a scientist. He is not frightening, but evil indeed. Also in the cast are: John Ratzenberger(from TV's "Cheers"), Forrest Tucker and John Considine. At least, Hutton fans will be pleased.

Keep in mind that this is a TV movie, with a rather limited budget. It is not meant to be a thriller or a marvel of science fiction. Nothing in it is original, and as most other time travel films, it asks you not to think too much about the logic of time travel. It's basically a nice little family film that you can watch with your kids on a lazy afternoon and have some fun. There are no scenes in it that contain real violence or that come off as particularly threatening. Our heroes breeze through the obstacles the plot throws at them with considerable ease. Granted, the absence of real tension and the fact that the antagonist is not truly menacing is a problem, but I am willing to disregard that problem because I find the overall experience of watching this quite pleasant. The cast is pretty good and it's a pleasure to watch them on screen. The female lead steals the show, though. There's lots of nostalgia here for those who remember the 80s.

Kinski hams his way through this time travel adventure as the Cardboard Cutout Bad Guy, yelling half his lines, and he made me want to smack him every time he does. Lauren Hutton seems so confused by the content of her lines you suspect she was born speaking another language--Urdu, maybe-- and had to memorize them phonetically. Clichés abound, the science isn't believable, they never made me care about the time travel "adventure," and the result is William Devane was trying to sisyphus this thing up a hill made steep as an Alp by its shortcomings. As bad as it is, the Casio keyboard music and cheesy credit sequence manages to make it worse. And then someone starts singing twangy country songs: kill me now. A star for Devane, nothing for everyone else.

25 January 2010. Though dated and low-budget with sometimes awful sixties electronic music that periodically resonates nicely and some questionable effort at time-travel special effects that are both different but sometimes tacky, this particular time travel movie has some pretty decent and intelligent storyline tidbits that most of this genre omit. In the beginning there is some nice time displacement English dialogue though it fades eventually during the movie (unlike the more previous comedy version - DEMOLITION MAN, 1993) and there is the relatively rare use of detective work that is fairly prominent in this movie a bit like though not as intense as the contemporary public television HISTORY DETECTIVES. As another post revealed there is a nice use of time travel within time travel to great effect by Klaus Kinski as well as the ending being a rather up to one's interpretation of how the movie really circles around or does it. Overall this is a relatively predictable but decently presented time travel scenario without particularly the overblown action. This is a more educated, though not totally believable low-budgeted time travel entertainment. 7/10.

Cowboys, time travel and Klaus Kinski, it doesn't get much better than this. This film is one of those little gems that should be watched every Xmas along with The Great Escape and Its a Wonderful Life. Like all good films it starts with tragedy, then a small mystery. The back story is well presented and not complicated; like many I could mention. Also, the story doesn't jump back and too; as is all too common these days. Happy endings don't come any happier, that's all I'm going to say, but is not predictable. Klaus Kinski is a joy to watch with his rolling eyes and tough talking and big cowboy coat. The time traveling is cool and does not involve a Tardis; another bonus.

Loved it in that 'Spaceballs' sort of way. Super cheesy, but entertaining. Lots of really cliché lines. You will laugh, squirm at the awkwardness, and if your a child of the 80's have a bit of nostalgia. Don't take it too seriously. Actually, it would probably make a really great drinking game now that I think about it.... 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Ten lines of text, there you go IMDb (who made up that quota "10 lines of text" -- also I'm keeping my heading as Cheeseballness!one two three, your requirements to post reviews suck, four five, six, congratulations after this I will never use IMDb again. Am I to ten lines yet?

"Timestalkers" is without doubt the very best of all time travel films, it`s well acted, and directed, and it is not spoilt by OTT special effects.

Bill Devane is great in the lead role, and it`s nice to see Klaus Kinski in a more commercial type role.

The basic plot centres around an old trunk and it`s contents picked up at a car boot sale (garage sale in the US), a photo revels in the distance a man with a very modern gun, and so our journey starts, and it`s edge of the seat stuff all the way....

See it if you can. Score: 10/10

This cleverly-done lil' Time Travel adventure is well-worth watching. Well-acted by all, and the action is fast, the plot really moves, and the use of Time Travel is extremely enjoyable ...

Unfortunately, these days it shows up on tv in a grotesquely-edited form.

ALL of Forrest Tucker's scene is edited completely out, with only a bizarrely-unconnected mention of his character remaining..which makes no sense at all, given that you never SEE this character due to the hack job edit.

Given this was the actor's last performance, it would have been respectful not to cut him out to make room for more deodorant commercials.

In Timestalkers William Devane plays a professor with degrees in physics and history and a passion for the lore of the old west who gets to see some of his theories actually come true.

It all starts out quite innocently enough as he and fellow western buff John Rafsenberger purchase a bunch of items at an auction and Devane gets a photograph with gunslinger Klaus Kinsski showing what he believes is .357 Magnum in his holster. He writes a paper on it and that brings Lauren Hutton in from the future. She's hunting Kinnski down as he's the number 2 time traveling guy from 500 years in the future, Hutton's father being number one.

Devane's got a lot of issues on his own and he joins Hutton in on the hunt because whatever Kinsski's got planned it's going to change history in a big way. We do learn of a secret trip that President Grover Cleveland made to the west in 1886 and Kinsski's going to do something there possibly. By the way don't dwell on the obvious.

Timestalkers marks the farewell performance of Forrest Tucker who plays a rich western history buff who provides a valuable clue to Kinsski's intentions.

The film is a far fetched idea with some presidential history that never really happened. No more far fetched than a Three Mesquiteers western of a couple generations earlier where President Garfield secretly goes west and agrees to help the Mesquiteers save their ranch, but his real assassination gets in the way.

Timestalkers is a nice family film and for those who don't like seeing the laws of time and space violated, it's OK if Lauren Hutton does it in a good cause.

I have been looking for this movie for almost 20 years, since I first viewed the movie & Finally! Here it is. It made such a huge impact on me that I never forgot it or stopped looking. Great actors, action & story plot. Time & time travel has always been a big part of my life & every movie pertaining to time-travel peaks my interest and gives me new ideas and ways of looking at thing & life around me. Does this really exist? Could this really happen? To go back and find out & be the only one who knows Leonardo De Vinci's true last name or to just know him personally would be awesome. Or to experience the old west to sit with the Indian's in peace. Thank you for a wonderful movie & even better actors to go with it.

I watch westerns on a weekly basis, and one day i was browsing through the internet looking at Sci-Fi westerns when i saw Timestalkers. I did some research to find that it is a rare film. Afterwords i bought it on VHS off eBay. When i watched this film i found it had a good storyline. William Devane plays to role of a man with an obsession for the old west. He finds and old photo from a trunk bought at auction, in the photo he sees a man holding a man holding a 1980 magnum. He encounters a lady from the future and they travel back to the old west. William Devane plays a great role in the film,and it is very well shot. This film is a rarity in the Sci-Fi western section, apart from Back To The Future 3 i have only seen this film as being great.It is worth watching alone or with the family, it will leave a fond memory to last forever burning in our hearts.

I watched this for the first time last week on TV. Really a well done film with a real twist to the plot. Good action and interesting build up to the finale. I found it very entertaining... which is what I like in a film.

You can tell this was made for TV. Yet there are a lot of well-made TV movies. This movie has all the elements of the future present and past. There are a lot of "what ifs" and some old-fashioned gunplay.

Dr. Joseph Cole (Klaus Kinski of Nosferatu fame) a bad guy from the future is determined to change the past for his nefarious purpose, which could, of course, change the present. This is not nice and must be stopped. Georgia Crawford (Lauren Hutton) plays the pivotal character that must see that the perpetrator does not do the dastardly deed. She enlists history professor Scott McKenzie (William Devane) to assist with the technology and events of the time.

Will they save time from changing and is that a good thing?

Or will Dr. Joseph Cole shoot down Scott McKenzie like a dog?

I probably wouldn't have commented on this film. After getting into a discussion about 80's sci-fi movies with a friend, this title popped up. Wow, I thought I was the only one who remembered this flick. Having originally seen this waaaay back in 87' I can say it didn't really get much better with age. That is okay however, as this was blip on the radar. Just one more failed pilot for a series that CBS couldn't avail itself to try producing. It was however a enjoyable effort but one that most viewers could probably see being skewed into a "Voyagers" type programming pigeon-hole had it gone to full series. From what I understand, "Scholastic", the mass media educational powerhouse was to help with the franchise. Alas, it could have not just been entertainment but educational too!