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Movies => Bad Movies => Topic started by: Fearless Freep on January 18, 2003, 04:14:57 PM



Title: "The Tomorrow Man"
Post by: Fearless Freep on January 18, 2003, 04:14:57 PM
I forgot in my "Recent Recaps" post about The Tomorrow Man (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0153098)

I liked this movie.   The basic plot is that Larry Mackay's (Corbin Bernsen) son is kidnapped from a hospital.  In persuing the kidnappers he ends up being transported forward in time.  As it turns out, his son's kidnapper is...his son..  Time travelling from thirty years in the future to kidnap himself  before he ends up being abused by his father.  Larry accidentally came forward in time with the cop who was chasing the kidnappers.  Larry's son, Bryon, is a ruthless criminal in the future who just killed the cops partner who had just proposed marraige to her, while stealing the time travel device.   Bryon hates his dad for the physical abuse (which actually happened when Bryon was older than when he was kidnapped  so for much of the movie, Larry is angry that everyone hates him).  The cop, Vick, hates Larry because his son killed her partner/boyfriend.  Larry's wife hates Larry because of how he let his life fall apart after he was fired, including the abuse of Bryon.  Everyone blames Larry for how Bryon turned out and Larry is obstinate and doesn't thing he's done anything wrong....

I wish Beth Kennedy (Vick) had been in more movies because she got the best lines. Since she thinks Larry is a complete jerk, she spends much of the movie harrasing him verbally and it's pretty funny

Police Chief (to Larry): If we told you we'd have to kill you
Vick: I'll tell him!

Over all, the movie is intelligent.  Larry eventually learns why things are the way they are, but only accepts fault to a point, saying that Bryon had his own decisions to make as well.  Bryon hopes to be a better 'father' to his younger self, but doesn't have the background to make that happen and reverts to criminal form in front of his younger self, who ends up betraying him because he realizes his older self has the right desires, but isn't any better in the end.  At one point. Larry's ex-wife sabotages the attempt to get Larry and his younger son back to the past  becasue she realizes that Larry hasn't  really learned anything yet so history will just repeat itself if they go back then, a history no-one really wants.  The scene were Bryon takes Larry back to a middle time and Larry sees himself beating a teenage Bryon is very moving, as is a scene at the end where he sees a glimopse of the new future he helped create from what he learned about himself in the old future.  The time travel aspect and it's impact on everyone's lives his handled pretty well.

The only negatrive in the movie was that  'the past' is 1970, 'the future' is 2000, and the cops are part of a secret time-hopping police force that leaves time-travel devices on the kitchen table to be stolen is a bit hard to swallow as a setup, but once the movie gets moving, it's easy to ignore.

A significant cut above most time travel movies in terms of acting, writing, plot, and character treatment