Truly Dreadful Film

From my favorite movies..

Better Late Then Never

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

4039. The human race nears extinction while attempting to elude bestial subhuman robotic creatures hell bent on mankind's destruction. An entire city travels through time and goes back to the past in the 1980's in order to not only change the future forever, but also save the fate of the entire human race as well. Director Brian Hennant, who also co-wrote the silly script by John Baxter, relates the entertainingly dippy story at a steady pace, treats the inane premise with hilariously misguided seriousness, and stages the pitched laser gun battles with reasonable aplomb. The capable cast struggle gamely with the asinine material: Tom Burlinson cuts an impressively rugged figure as hard-nosed take-charge hero Ballard, the insanely cute Nikki Coghill makes a sweet and favorable impression as spunky geologist Annie Lassiter (as a significant bonus, Coghill goes braless quite often, wears a skimpy tank top and panties in one scene, and even briefly bares her tasty small breasts for a gratuitous skinny-dipping sequence), Peter Merrill snarls it up with lip-licking gusto as evil head cyborg Zuryk, and Thye Liew Wan contributes an engaging turn as wise old Asian dude Sun-Wah. Moreover, there are sturdy (if rather minor) supporting contributions from Carrie Fisher as the sharp-tongued Petra and Dean Stockwell as the huffy Boss. The tacky (not so) special effects, laughable dialogue, and choice crummy 80's soft-rock ending credits theme song all greatly enhance this flick's considerable campy'n'chintzy charm. A real kitschy hoot.

John Baxter is an absolutely brilliant short story writer and apparently a life-long student of films, so I was very interested to see what his only screenplay was like. I simply could not believe that he came up with such a piece of total crap. There is nothing to recommend in this film.

Tom Burlinson and Carrie Fisher are sent back in time from the 41st century to late 20th century Australia to thwart their cyborg enemies the Jen Diki-who are costumed like Vikings and have major nasal congestion problems into the bargain.Fisher is sidelined early through injury and Burlinson's main ally becomes a fetching young geologist with whom he develops a relationship Bags of noisy action but the budget restrictions are all too evident and its Stateside stars Fisher and Stockwell have essentially dispensable roles with too little to doOnly really suitable for die hard science fiction nuts

Anyone who watches Time Guardian expecting it to be like Star Wars because of Carrie Fisher's presence will be disappointed. Not a totally awful film, but the plot is hard to follow and is full of holes, and some of the costumes seem ridiculous. Burlinson and Fisher travel back in time to make sure the City (which can travel through time and space) can land in the late 20th century in the outback of Australia. There, they battle both the Jen Diki (their enemies from the future) and some corrupt outback cops. The movie isn't completely bad, as there are some good battle segments, great footage of the Australian Outback, and fans of Carrie Fisher get to see her in a few good scenes. Overall, however, this is one of those films that spent too much on special effects and not enough on developing the story. It's not a hopeless film, but you quickly forget it after it's over.