7 Perfect Time Travel Movies (And 7 That Sucked)

4. Timecop

Jean-Claude Van Damme flicks have never been the greatest films ever produced, but they are normally quite fun. The idea of sending the mussels from Brussels back in time to stop nasty time travellers sounded like a great bit of popcorn fun. Sadly, this film manages to do something that no other Van Damme flick had done before- completely bore us.

After a pulsating opening sequence which sees a machine gun wielding villain massacre Confederate troops during the civil war, the filmmakers bizarrely ditch this exciting premise for a convoluted mess set primarily in the modern day. The motives of the villains are lame, and while Van Damme delivers his cavalcade of martial arts skills, the need for him to deliver so much exposition is a woeful choice.

While the visual effects are decent for the time it was created, they are both under utilised and used in a boring and mundane fashion. The film also tries to be too clever for its own good and just ends up confusing the audience with a dull exploration of time travel paradoxes.

It's a great shame as the general premise of a time travelling cop was a good one. Had the film concentrated on Van Damme's character going back to the Civil War to take down a renegade villain as the opening scene promised, it's fair to think we would have a far better film than this snoozefest.