![]() Time Changer
Submitted Tuesday, June 1, 2004 - 4:57:02 PM by Klaitu
Here's a load of a movie from TBN
So, it's 3 AM, I'm bored out of my skull, so I flip on the old television to see if theres anything other than infomercials on, and I spot a show called "Time Changer" over on TBN. I pulled up the description and discovered that the synopsis was that a Bible scholar travels 100 years into the future to see how times have changed.
Alright, I'm into time travel, I'm into the Bible, it's 3 am, and I have nothing better to do, so *click* away we go.
The premise here is that a professor at a theological seminary has an "old kook" of a friend who has, apparently either invented, or inherited a time machine. The main character believes in teaching Biblical morals as a means of conversion. The Old Kook guy disagrees, and says "check out what happens in the future because of this philosophy".
Of course, the guy gets tricked into stepping on the time machine thing, and *woosh* is is off to present-day.
So, basically this guy from 1890 is running around being dismayed at the lack of Christians and the lack of his own morals in America. These include:
- Panicing when the Lord's name is taken in vain in a movie
- Complaining about the immodesty of a dress in a department store
- Amazed that children are little brats
- Shocked when he can't teach about the Bible in a public school
- Moved to tears by watching Evil TV
Of course, there were probably about a dozen others that I can't remember at this moment.
As a movie, this is simplistic, and low budget. It's mildly interesting, but not very entertaining. the plot is weak, and the characters are two dimensional. The movie attempts humor, but fails miserably. Here's an example:
The time traveller stays at a hotel, a bellhop shows him to his room. Do you know what happens next? Yes, you know that the bellhop wants a tip, and you know that time traveller man dosen't know about it. Hilarity does not ensue.
The movie is chock full of "humerous moments" you've seen a thousand times before.
Details of the plot are left intentionally vague, as is the trend with TBN movies. You pick up that the guy is originally from 1890, but then he travels "over 100 years into the future" to the "21st century". He lands in an alley in "the city" and meets a librarian who works at "the university". He attends "A Church". Locations and times are not mentioned specifically, which is incredibly distracting.
When the Time Traveller comes to the present day, his reaction is not consistant with his character. He spends most of the time running around being amazed at people dressing inappropriately, and not very much time being amazed at things like.. oh.. cars, concrete, planes, roller skates, electric lighting, the predominant use of aluminum, or the economy.
The Time Traveller has a limited series of lines he repeats over and over and over again. "A Hot Dog, what is this?", "A computer, what is this?", "A movie, what is this?", "A laundromat, what is this?" He probably says "What is this?" at least 70 times in the movie in reference to.. well.. everything.
Set design is poor, and period sets are inaccurate. In a scene where the time traveller is teaching in his seminary, his classroom has a chalkboard that is not slate, it's a steel chalkboard coated with synthetic. The chalkboard is mounted to the wall, and held with an aluminum frame. In 1890, this chalkboard would have been made of slate and mounted on wood. It would not have been attached to the wall, which was also plastered. The students chairs were made of steel and were riveted together, yet this technology was not yet invented.
The time machine itself had several levers and knobs. The primary levers are from a midsized Troybuilt wheelbarrow (you can read "troybuilt" in one scene) and the smaller knobs are tipped with plastic.
The dialogue before the time travel scene has the "old kook" character saying sentences like "It's a transporter" as if anyone in 1890 would know what a transporter is, or what it does, or even what it implies.
Period costumes are more accurate, but there is use of polyester, which did not exist in that time. The clothes do seem authentic, so they did an alright job here.
The film laments the infamous "prayer in schools" Supreme Court ruling, but the character doing the exposition here states that children are not allowed to pray at all in school. The statement is incorrect and intentionally misleading.
The film portrays movies and television as the reason for the degradation of morals in America. It does this while I am watching this MOVIE on TV.
The librarian character "used to work in the film industry" and gives a brief history of morals in film. The history she gives is incorrect. She specifically states that in the beginning, movies were made to glorify God, and that slowly this began to change. In reality, movies are made so that film companies can get money, and that has never changed.
The film insists.. and when I say insists, I mean "states as fact" that Armageddon is coming soon, in fact, it states that it will occur before the year 2050. I find this ridiculous for several reasons, but the primary one is that there is a reason why the time of armageddon is not spelled out specifically in the Bible. Secondarily, this film is so simple that it is obvious that it is supposed to be used as a "witnessing tool" to the unsaved. If this is in fact the case, then the tactic here is "scare non-christians with Armageddon". Better get saved quick! The world is ending!
There's a scene where a black woman drinks out of a water fountain, and then the time traveller drinks out of the same water fountain, amazed at the technology. This is completely out of place, as he would be shocked to see the freedom that black people have, and would probably have some sort of prejudice against them.. especially regarding water fountains.
Additionally, the black women who drinks out of the water fountain is the only black person in the entire movie.
Some of the churchgoers that Mr. Time Traveller encounters are also policemen. They think there's something suspicious about him, and they discover who he is, though they think he is trying to steal his own identity. In pursuit of their investigation, they break into his hotel room without a search warrant.. which is illegal, and they also threaten to put him in jail, even though he has committed no crimes, and they have no evidence of such.
Near the end of the movie, the two suspicious churchgoers "set something up" with the pastor of their church, wherein they tell the pastor to have the time traveller speak. Why do they do this? There's no reason! The real reason is that the writer needed an excuse to get the time traveller onto the pulpit so that he could create a kodak moment.
There is, however, quite a great many good points about the movie. In the beginning, when the time traveller is lecturing in his historically inaccurate classroom, the lecture he gives is correct. He's talking about science vs the Bible, and why there can never be any contridiction between the two.
The film does a good job of comparing the average protestant churchgoer of 1890 with the average churchgoer of.. well.. 20XX. The comparison of the enthusiasm and fervor of the churchgoers is particularly accurate.
The portrayal of secularism and the "whatever, who cares, it's just a ________" attitude is spot on.
Overall, I found this movie was not very good, but not a complete waste of my time. I think the story had a lot of potential which gets ruined because the film was not actually made by filmmakers. Additionally, the main character is played by a horrible actor.. if you can call him "an actor".
I want to see good Christian films, but all I tend to get is garbage like "Omega Code 1 and 2" "left behind" and now "Time Changer", which was, I thought, suprisingly better than those others. I know it's possible to make a good Christian movie.. I've seen several of them.
Overall Score: 2 out of 10
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