Time Lapse

TIME LAPSE (2001)

Directed by: David Worth
Written by: David Keith Miller & Karen Kelly
Starring: William McNamara, Dina Meyer, Henry Rollins & Roy Scheider

Ugh.

Time Lapse had the potential to be a fun and action packed straight-to-DVD actioner but instead is just a slog through, well, a whole lot of nothing. Actually, there was something: a high speed chase involving a helicopter chasing an SUV down the side of a mountain. Oh, and the explosive finale which features a tanker flipping on its side, then exploding taking out the bridge it is on while the heroes out-run the explosion in their car. But wait, these scenes are actually stolen stock footage from other better films: the helicopter bit from the stellar Gene Hackman flick Narrow Margin (a scene that has been cribbed and used in dozens of cheapie stock footage action flicks) and the tanker bit from the awesome The Long Kiss Goodnight. Two films you should definitely watch instead of Time Lapse.




This should have been fun. I mean, we’ve got the uber sexy Dina Meyer (Starship Troopers), the always awesome Roy Scheider (hamming it up) and director David Worth has delivered some cool low budget action flicks in the past: Chain of Command with Michael Dudikoff, True Vengeance with Daniel Bernhardt and not to mention he co-directed the original, and still ace, Kickboxer. Unfortunately, Time Lapse is just a dreary drag about an anti-terrorist agent losing his memory and going on the run to find who he is and stop some nefarious plan to blow something up with a nuclear device. The cast are wasted; scenes drag with loooong pauses between characters talking which robs the film of any pace or tension. The action is low rent, even by low rent standards, resorting to the above mentioned use of stoke footage action scenes which is just, quite frankly, annoying.

Rolled off the Cinetel Films conveyor belt (who specialise in low budget action and horror flicks, especially those using stock footage) Time Lapse isn’t one of their more fun efforts which is surprising considering it's got Dina Meyer, Roy Schieder, the creepy guy from Copycat and even freaking Henry Rollins in it. Though seeing the hero jump from a high rise building while another guy shoots at him, and misses, land on solid concrete, do a forward roll and survive, did raise a smile.