Slipstream |
  • USA / South Africa / Zambia / Germany • 2005 • 89m •    • Directed by: David van Eyssen. • Starring: Sean Astin, Ivana Milicevic, Vinnie Jones, Kevin Otto, Victoria Bartlett, Thorsten Wedekind, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Grant Swanby, Verity Price, Chantal Lambert, Patrick Lyster, Andrew Whaley, Sean Higgs. • Music by: Rob Lord.      Mild mannered scientist Stuart Conway has just made the discovery of the century. Deep within the confines of a secret military base, Conway has created the Slipstream device - a miniature time travel machine that allows him the ability to travel ten-minutes into the past at the push of a button. When Conway decides to use his new discovery to make a few illicit withdrawals from his local bank, the arrival of a violent group of bank robbers throws a serious wrench in his plan.
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Review:
I'll never be able to look at Sam Gamgee again without thinking of this film, that for me at least, echoes some of the funnier moments of movies like "Repo Man", "Minority Report", and even "Dog Day Afternoon". This is not Dostoevsky. It's meant to be fun, so I suggest people stop making like a high school English teacher straining his bifocals for plot weaknesses and just kick back and enjoy the ride. Oh, and it has a killer soundtrack too, I hope it comes out on CD. MP3 samples of the tunes are on the film's website, which if you check it out, is entertaining in and of itself, and confirms that the point missed by some of the critical reviewers is that this is entertainment, not social commentary, scientific treatise, or a wrinkled browed attempt to push out the bounds of cinematic art.
This is no Michael Crichton film either, thankfully, and maybe that's why some of our gear head cohorts found it less than satisfying. The time machine after all looks just like a fancy cellphone. This is a morality play and what people end up learning is that time machine or no, you maybe ought not to mess with Father Time. The deliverable here too is that in any case we mortals possess the power of free will with which to make our own choices in the present with which to break the chains of habit and expectation that otherwise make the future a straight line extrapolation of the past.
I'm willing to let pass some plot incongruities in the name of entertainment. Vinnie Jones is having so much fun playing the fierce hold-up commando Winston Briggs that I can put aside wondering why a gang of British felons is knocking off banks in California. Astin has the nebbish act down cold, and Milicevic does a competent job as the beautiful kick-ass action heroine du jour, so no complaints on that score. The fast altering shifting time lines puts one in the mind of a movie made from a Philip K. Dick story. Like the Astin character says, the world's an evermore complex web, and you're the fly.
Overall, a good first showing by David van Eyssen. I'm glad people didn't rip George Lucas apart after "THX-1138". Similarly, here, "Slipstream" is evidence of promise, and is an enjoyable little romp. Remember, the Internet is full of grumpy people with time on their hands. Don't let the peanut gallery put you off from seeing what to me is one of the more entertaining films I've seen in a while.
Review by papilleau from the Internet Movie Database.
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