Clockstoppers (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Featurette-Making Of Music Video-Holiday In My Head-Smash Mouth TV Spots-4 Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	90:06
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (52:47)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jonathan Frakes
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Jesse Bradford French Stewart Paula Garcés Michael Biehn Robin Thomas Garikayi Mutambirwa
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	Ralph Sall Jamshied Sharifi

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Portuguese Hebrew Greek Croatian Italian Spanish Slovenian	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Zak (Jesse Bradford) is trying to save up and buy a car, selling all kinds of junk around the house on eBay for a bit of cash. His professor Dad (Robin Thomas) is a bit of a workaholic who is being somewhat of a neglectful father. His best friend, Meeker (Garikayi Mutambirwa), works at the local extreme sports store and wants to be a DJ. And to complete the scenario, Zak has the hots for the new chick in town, Francesca (Paula Garces). However, when he picks up a watch that he thinks is trash in order to sell it online, he unexpectedly discovers a secret government project which allows the wearer to move so fast through time that they cannot be detected by the human eye. Before he knows it, Zak is being hunted by some sinister secret agents and he finds himself and his friends caught up in a secret conspiracy against the government.

    Ever been stuck babysitting boisterous youngsters and they’re just hell-bent on going to the cinema? If so, you’ve probably wound up watching some of the most painful movies you’ve ever seen. The torture of Disney animated features, or one of those nonsensical cartoons from some production house in Taiwan with the cute little creature with a name that doesn’t translate into English but you can buy just about everywhere in both soft-toy and key-ring format. You sit there in the theatre with your friends’ kids and a bunch of other peoples’ kids coughing and wheezing and complaining about this, that and the other, just wishing you had some MDMA and pseudoephedrine to at least make the experience one of those chemical-induced evenings which you just don’t remember. Irresponsible, to be sure, but you’d do the same thing if you were getting a root canal done at the dentist, and the experiences are about on par. However, every now and then there comes a movie that you can actually enjoy with the little ones, if you are willing to surrender your expectations to teenage level for a couple of hours. Clockstoppers is such a movie.

    Directed by Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation), and with a witty script, this is a highly entertaining and utterly inoffensive film. Very young kids might be scared by some of the loud noises, but there’s no real violence here, just some fun whiz-bang! special effects, and a few interesting ideas to get you through ninety minutes. The young cast are extremely good, especially Bradford and Garces who seem to throw themselves into their role with abandon and have a ball while they're doing it. They don’t have the screen presence or eighties cool of Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd in Back To The Future, but there is an energy here which just keeps the film rolling along.

    To be fair, this is really a movie for older children and young teens in the 8-12 year old range. This is no Donnie Darko – a pseudo-teen film with appeal to persons of all ages. However, kids as young as 5 will probably be happy to sit through Clockstoppers (whereas they are likely to bawl their eyes out or just plain not understand Donnie Darko). More importantly, Clockstoppers is a bit of fun for adults who are tired of taking their little ones to animated children’s shows, but aren’t quite ready to introduce their kids to the world of movies recommended for a mature audience. So, before you start them up on the Marvel Comics world of cinema, with films like X-Men, Spider-Man and Daredevil, check them in for a bit of Clockstoppers action on the way. It’s a bit of fun, and at least you won’t be trying to gnaw off your right arm during the film to distract yourself from the pain of the experience.

Video

    Presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, this is close enough to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 so as to be virtually indistinguishable.

    This is about as close to perfect a transfer as I have seen for quite a while. Given the fact that I have been reviewing mostly foreign films, that might not be much of a call, but really, this is a pretty good print.

    The picture is crisp and clear throughout. Colours are vibrant and positively glowing off the screen. This is a very colourful film, and the effect is quite mesmerising. Shadow detail is also very good, although admittedly even night shots are well lit; the show is a kid's film after all and does not have a dark tone.

    I spotted no MPEG artefacts, and only the odd film-to-video artefact: some moire on grille plating at 18:10 which is brief, and some very faint aliasing which is in no way distracting. There is also some very faint low-level noise in the background which may just be indicative of a slightly grainy print. I only noticed it because I was looking for it specifically, but others might find it more distracting.

    There were a couple of dots here and there caused by dirt on the print, but nothing major. Most of them occur very early on in the blend between the credits and the first scene.

    There are nine sets of subtitles, mostly in languages I don’t comprehend. They are white with a black border, and clear and easy to read. Those in English generally conveyed the story with only a couple of minor deviations.

    The dual layer pause is at 52:47. It is during a scene change and is not distracting.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are four audio tracks available here: English, French, Italian and Spanish, all in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround.

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand throughout, although Dr. Doppler (French Stewart) has a tendency to mumble sometimes. I detected no audio sync problems.

    The surrounds were given lots of use in this film, particularly during the various ‘hyper-time’ time-change sequences, but also just to create a full ambient surround field in the various settings. While not overpowering, I was often aware of information coming from behind and around. Check out the opening credits for just a snippet of what I’m talking about.

    The subwoofer also got a really good work-out, again well utilised during the various special effects sequences, but also to flesh out the music. The DJ try-outs sequence at 33:49 – 39:09 will definitely put your sub through its paces.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    All menus are static, presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, and with no musical underscore.

Featurette - “The Making Of Clockstoppers” (10:41)

    Presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced, and with 2.0 Dolby Surround audio. This is more promotional than adding any real insight into the making of the film. Includes interviews with cast and crew.

“Holiday In My Mind” Music Video by Smash Mouth (2:44)

    Presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Surround.

“Clockstoppers” Theatrical Trailer (2:17)

    Presented in 1.85:1, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Surround.

TV Spots

    Presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Surround. These are 4 TV spots based around presentations by the three main characters – Zak (0:30), Zak & Francesca (0:32), Francesca (0:30), and Meeker (0:31).

    The R1 release of this feature has an English 2.0 Dolby Surround track as well as a French 2.0 Dolby Surround track and an “It’s The Weekend” Music Video by Lil’ J. Otherwise, barring the NTSC versus PAL formats, the R4 is pretty much the same.

    Clockstoppers is an entertaining flick for older children and young teens. It’s bright, colourful, and fun.

    The picture is very good, with vibrant colours and a clean transfer.

    The sound is fantastic.

    The extras are fairly minimal, but still better than nothing. An audio commentary by director Jonathan Frakes would have been nice, but we will just have to do without.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall