Biggles: Adventures in Time

...what a pity the original movie wasn't worked on with the same skill and dedication.

I am a very big fan of the books. I read 'Biggles of 266' when I was aged 10 and 29 years later I'm still reading the adventures.

What a waste of the Biggles movie license.

The film wasn't all bad, though. Neil Dickson's portrayal of Biggles was spot on. The supporting actors did a pretty good job as well. The production design was excellent (well, the 1917 bits, anyway). That takes care of the good points.

Where the hell did they drag that soundtrack up from? Nasty is what I call it. I actually cringed during the film, due to inapropriate music.

The stunts were mostly unnecessary ego-boosting cliches.

The script was a total nightmare. Either copy Indiana Jones OR Back to the Future, not BOTH! If they'd cut the 80s bit out, cast Hyde-White as an american reporter and kept the secret weapon bits in, I would have no quibble with this film.

I would recommend buying the DVD if only for the unintentionally hilarious documentary. "..we thought a big star would've 'unbalanced' the film..." you don't say!!!

£3.99 at WH Smiths - buy it now! The spirit of Edward D Wood Jr. lives on!

I hate to quibble with a comment but I had to offer some follow up to the comment regarding the disbelief of a German secret weapon during World War I. The concept for a wave type weapon has its origins before World War I with Nicola Tesla, who first postulated the notion of what has become known as scalar waves. Modern physics denies that such waves can exist but Tesla was convinced that they did and according to some he provided it (Tesla Horwitzer). The British actually developed the first theoretic underpinnings for a sound weapon of the type depicted in Biggles and frankly I thought that is where the idea came from. We "moderns" think far to much of our capabilities. What is happening today is that some open minded scientists are revisiting discarded Victorian science. How many people know that the modern principles of William Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic principles are taught today in a truncated form and that the missing parts may in fact provide the theory for effective wave weapons (ever wonder why the US government spends so much time on Star Wars technology?). By the 1930s, the Germans were developing a number of secret weapons including the so called death rays. I think it prudent to give early modern humans credit for being just as creative as our generation and a lot more open minded.

My Grandad used to read the books as a child and my Mum introduced them to me, so its inevitable that i'd watch this film as a child needless to say me and my Mum love it !!

The film strays "slightly" away from the books World War 1 setting, (only in the eighties would they have made it into a time travel story) but the characters are faithful to the originals written in the books.

The films plot is a bit silly, but its lots of fun without been stupid and it makes me feel better every time i watch it.

I just hope my "time twin" is someone as cool as Captain James 'Biggles' Bigglesworth ;)

Jim (Alex Hyde-White) is a catering manager with a busy schedule. Yet, one day, a strange man comes calling at his house, in a thunderstorm. He's secretly an officer, Colonel Raymond (Peter Cushing) from World War I! Whoa! He tries to warn Jim about future strange happenings but the catering man doesn't listen. All too soon, Jim is back in time, flying an aircraft in WW I and hanging out with Bigglesworth, Biggles for short (Neil Dickson). That's because, as the colonel tried to explain, he is Biggles "time twin". Thus, never knowing when, Jim is transported between two time periods. Naturally, this upsets his food business while he gets into many a hair-raising situation as a pilot. Sometimes he's captured and interrogated, while he and Biggles face even firing squads. Is this supposed to be fun? This movie is not really as large as its title indicates but its a pleasant enough experience. Based on a long ago set of popular British novels, its escapades probably worked better in print form. Hyde White is cute as the poor soul with the time travel problem while Dickson is quite dashing. Costumes are fine while special effects are adequate. All in all, there are worse ways to spend an evening but don't harbor high expectations before a showing.

Which does not really work. I remember Biggles being heavily marketed in comics like The Eagle and The Transformers back in 1986. I don't remember watching in the cinema but I caught it on TV or VHS a few years later. I think I might have a sticker album as well.

As a straightforward WW1 action flick (or maybe even taking a cue from Aces High or Dawn Patrol) Biggles might have worked. Authentic locations, good combat scenes, a mysterious but plausible secret weapon, his cast of ever reliable 'chums'. We even have an arch nemesis in the shape of Erich von Stalhein, while the fair Maria (of Allo Allo fame) provides an intriguing love interest / spy angle - something that was rarely considered in the original books (which I have not read).

Unfortunately, all of this was sidelined in a rather silly (to my eyes now!) time travel plot used solely to drag in a clutch of clichéd Americans and comedy Eighties set pieces - all of which have dated badly indeed. If Neil Dickson is an effective Biggles, and Peter Cushing shines as a dignified Colonel Raymond, then Alex Hyde - White reacts to the action and bedlam with all the emotion of racing result.

But I'm not going to be too harsh here. There's lots of fun to be had, just as there was all those years ago. Just switch your brain off, accept the implausibility and chocks away!!