Clockstoppers film review

certificate_PG

CLOCKSTOPPERS

Like most high school students, Zak Gibbs (Jesse Bradford) finds it impossible to fit everything into 24 hours. What with homework, sports, school, chasing girls and having fun on his trusty BMX, there just isn't enough time in the day.

However, the lad would like to spend more time with his famous physics professor father (Robin Thomas). Unfortunately, the old man seems more engrossed in his students, and his wacky inventions.

By chance, Zak picks up a watch which has been mislaid by his father, and the inquisitive 17-year-old discovers that the timepiece is much more than a fashion accessory. With a push of its dial, the watch slows down the flow of time, so that the world around Zak appears to come to a virtual standstill.

Zak has discovered hypertime, a state of being that gives the average human the extraordinary ability to freeze time. People in hypertime are invisible to people in normal time because their molecules are moving too fast, and conversely, for people in hypertime, the normal world looks like it is standing still, because its molecules are moving at a much slower rate.

The fun-loving teen, best pal Danny (Garikayi Mutambirwa) and sexy exchange student Francesca (Paula Garces) have a whale of a time - literally - using the watch to wreak revenge on high school bullies and town yobs.

Needless to say, the US government is also keen to get its greedy mitts on the invention, and rogue agent Gates (Michael Biehn) is enlisted to acquire the technology.

In order to lure Zak into his clutches, Gates kidnaps the boy's father, and holds him hostage in a secure, hypertime-proof facility. With only their wits and the watch to help them, Zak and his pals embark on the most exhilarating and perilous adventure of their lives.

Clockstoppers is a mildly entertaining and inoffensive action romp, aimed squarely at the pre-teen market.

Bradford, who recently buffed up for the thriller Swimfan, once again plays younger than his age, and brings plenty of charm to his plucky young hero. There is a pleasing chemistry with Garces's sexy senorita, which should satisfy female audiences too, but Mutambirwa is shamelessly underused as the comedic sidekick. Biehn is a pleasingly demented villain, but could perhaps have hammed it up a little more.