neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Clockstoppers
	Jonathan Frakes Jesse Bradford, Paula Garces, French Stewart, Michael Biehn, Julia Sweeney 2002		A youth-skewed sci-fi comedy about a clever teenager who gets his hands on a watch-like invention that speeds up the movements of its wearer, seeming to stop time everywhere else. And bad guys want the device. Despite the likeability of its pubescent leads Jesse Bradford and Paula Garces, the kooky comic chops of foil French Stewart (TV's "3rd Rock From the Sun") and the flair of its computer effects and camera angles, "Clockstoppers" loses its way when it defies its own fanciful laws of physics. Plus, the script has continuity problems, circumstances get too slapsticky, and the villains, led by Michael Biehn ("The Terminator"), are either over-hyper or cardboard. It's too bad, since director Jonathan Frakes (best known as Lt. Will Riker of "Star Trek: The Next Generation") ably directed "Star Trek: First Contact," a franchise high point. While certain "Clockstoppers" sequences show that Frakes knows how to convey the awe and wonder of science fiction, he needed better material.