Absolutely Brilliant!

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I was curious how that format - so impressive at th IMAX theaters - would translate to the regular television screen, so I rented the VHS of this. My answer: it doesn't. One needs a big screen, I guess.....a very big screen, especially when the visuals aren't that good to start with as was the case here.This is simply a little documentary about New York City, comparing how some intersections and buildings looked back in he early part of the 20th century as compared to when this movie was made in 1996. Interwoven in the presentation is a little Russian immigrant kids story. It's quite boring for the most part. If you grew up in NYC, especially in spots where this was filmed, this would be a lot more interesting.

I was left on the cutting room floor when they edited this film. In October, 1995, I brought my parents and aunt to visit New York City for a week. Either Wednesday or Thursday of that week, we went to the Natural History Museum on the Upper West Side. Mid-afternoon, we finished up there and walked down to see Lincoln Center. When we got there, they were filming a sequence where the Minton character was to walk along the retaining wall of the fountain. While they were setting up the shot, someone came up to my father and asked if I would like to be an extra. I said yes and was brought over and placed with a group of three other men. Our duty as extras was to walk around behind the fountain while Minton walked on the wall that faced Broadway. It took four or five takes before we were done. During the set up for one of the takes, the group of us were standing next the young actor playing Minton. One of the group asked him where he was born and he answered "St. Petersburg." The person asking responded "Oh, in Florida?" and the little guy barked back "No, Russia!"I eventually rented the movie and that entire sequence had been abandoned.

This is undoubtedly the single greatest IMAX film I have ever seen. Its visual effects may seem a little outdated - although this certainly adds to the charm - but it conveys its sweet little plot with a sense of grandeur. Whereas most IMAX films try to make you feel like you're in a theme park, watching some special effects extravaganza, "Across The Sea Of Time" could stand independently as an example of exceptional storytelling, and a great FILM.I'm shocked and disappointed that it clearly wasn't popular enough to sustain an audience, as it is now virtually impossible to find a cinema anywhere that is showing it. So sad.If IMAX want to save themselves, they need to commit to getting great filmmakers and allowing them to tell their stories on the big screen, as was clearly their policy when they created this.Do NOT, under any circumstances, miss this film.

A grand scale IMAX 3D mini-epic blending state of the art monochrome 3D still photography from 1916, with stunning full-colour 3D motion and surround sound from 1995.The story is obviously contrived to make optimum use of the archival material: a young Russian boy, Tomas Minton, travels "blind" (i.e. in a room with no view) by ship to New York, and jumps ship to search for a relative who emigrated early in the century. That man had found paid work as a specialist 3D photographer and had sent home a viewer and a set of his slides which showed many aspects of 1916 New York life. Tomas routinely refers to this collection of pictures as he wanders the city trying to find recognisable landmarks in the modern skyline.(N.B. The World Trade Centre doesn't get any special attention, if it appears at all.)The 1916 images are extraordinarily detailed, fully justifying the IMAX big screen and we see a lot more than just the facade of skyscrapers, or the tinsel of Broadway. I am never likely to see New York in person, so I was impressed by all of the visuals.Director Stephen Low takes advantage of opportunities to push people's 3D response buttons, but it's not done excessively. The overall impact is of a very big city, with a personal history of endurance in the face of hardship, and with many elements of true beauty in its landscape and architecture.There's a rather natty but very unlikely happy ending, instead of the most likely event of Tomas being grabbed by Immigration and thrown on the first plane back to Russia (proving that this really is a work of fiction).Brisbane's IMAX theatre closes down this month, after consistently losing money since it opened. I feel especially privileged to have been able to experience this film in the world's biggest and best of movie theatre environments.