Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann

Timerider is a fun movie to watch. It's a good movie to watch with kids on a rainy day. Some of the content is a little adult, but not over the line. It's not a billon dollar pick, but it has some nice special effects. You will see some familiar faces when they were young, and the acting they really tired. I liked the movie, and hope it sparks the fire that leads someone to become a "timerider". I would not say run out and buy it, but if someone has a old VHS of it, watch it! I think even hardcore si-fi fans like me will get a kick out of it. Maybe its just me, but I thought the soundtrack was pretty good. It fit the mood of the movie. Only downside is there is a lot of rerun footage.

Some good ideas just get lost in the time/space continuum.

Look at "Timerider". Great idea (moto-cross racer Ward inadvertently rides through a time travel experiment that lands him back in the Old West, circa 1870), but once Ward comes upon an Old West town, that's where things kind of slow down to a crawl.

At least the cowboys are smart enough to realize something's wrong. A gang of cowboys shoot at a revving motorcycle, they think Ward in all his moto-cross gear is some kind of demon and no one knows what an Exxon station is. You'd think Ward would get the message, but no. He even gets to know a woman (Bauer) whom he doesn't understand his connected with until the very last scene.

Thank goodness for pros like Coyote, Masur, Lauter and Walter; they help keep things lively and interesting for a while. Even good old L.Q. Jones shows up as a Texas Ranger to add some spice to the proceedings.

I won't say too much more about the movie. Indeed, there are some scenes here that are best left experienced by the individual. But for the most part, being a veteran of the "Back to the Future" series, I was left wanting.

Who knows, Hollywood says they're running out of ideas for sequels....

Two stars. Nice try, but this "Timerider" stays lost in time.

The following comment includes a piece of the plot. If you plan to see the movie (and I recommend you do), do not read the rest of this.

Both Gene and Roger felt that the title character seemed stupid in that he didn't understand what had happened (i.e. that he went back in time) until the very end. I, on the other hand found it most believable. If you were lost in the desert, and you came across a _rural_ town, wouldn't it take quite a lot before you'd reach the conclusion "Oh, I must have gone back in time!"

Fred Ward deserves more attention as an actor...he did a great and believable job in this movie! (I especially like that part where he's asked where he got that map...he say's "got it at an EXXON Station") Peter Coyote was awesome!. What a bad BAD guy he was! and Belinda....WOHOO!....now that's a hot woman!, she can Rape me at gun-point anytime she wants! (ehh...don't tell my wife I said that!)

I love time travel films, but there are two that disappoint me, this one and "Return to the Future". This one was absolutely corny and I think primarily designed for American Motor Cycle enthousiasts ( the film is not even known in Europe and hasn't appeared on VHS or DVD ). All time travel film is of course fantasy, but the story of this one is too corny. Throughout almost all the film the bike rider doesn't even realise he has crossed time and the villagers, apart from being fascinated by his machine, don't understand where he has come from. Both these ingredients being missing, one is more or less guaranteed that the film will be a failure. In fact if you look well much of the time you just see a motorbike zooming around all over the desert. So what's interesting about that. Nothing. There is little dialogue of any consequence between the protagonists and the anacchronism of the main character is not put to good use (as it is for example in Time After Time ). There are no comic situations arising from the time difference and hardly even a romance to titillate your taste buds. This is one of the few films where I bought the dvd without having seen the film and then regretted my purchase once I had seen the film ! In addition to that picture quality on the dvd is not up to much, and there are no other language tracks, subtitles or extras. So all in all a bit of a dead loss (like Joe Loss's Brother ) !!!