Profiles In Cinematic Greatness: Timecop

With the Academy Awards being on Sunday I thought I would write something that could be a regular series (but it probably won't because I am lazy).  I wanted to write about a movie that I thought was great but for some reason was snubbed by all of the award shows that particular year.  The movie I would like to discuss is "Timecop".  This film is from 1994 and was, in my opinion, the jewel in the crown that is Jean-Claude Van Damme movies.  "Timecop" also starred Mia Sara who is known for being Ferris Bueller's girlfriend and absolutely nothing else.

Here are a few reasons I love this movie.

1) It has kicking.  There was no real surprise here, it's a Van Damme movie.  He isn't exactly known for his singing so they kind of had to work to his strengths.

2) It has time travel.  I am a bit of what is known as a Sci-Fi nerd so the travelling through time element appeals to me and my kind.  Not only that, it has this director's vision of what the future will be.  I think the obvious error is that they thought mullets would come back in the future.  I don't care how much time goes by, this will never happen.  On the other hand a flowing mullet (like the one Jean-Claude sports) really puts an exclamation point on a roundhouse kick (see number one). 

3)  Action movie one liners.  In an effort to make films more realistic, action movies these days have for the most part eliminated the action movie one liner.  Since "Timecop" was made in the mid 90's it was in the golden age of bad action movie puns.  Van Damme wasn't quite the master of this that "Ah-nold" was, but this movie definitely had some gems.  After he kicks a bad guy into liquid nitrogen Van Damme says, "I guess I should have told him to freeze."  Genius!!!

4) Van Damme's accent.  One of the greatest things about Jean-Claude Van Damme movies is that they never offer any feasible explanation for his thick accent.  Most of the time his costars even act like they can understand what he is saying.  This is great because we want action and don't have time for the backstory about growing up in Belgium and coming to America to fight crime.  Van Damme never wasted our time with boring crap like that.  He needed all the time he had for splits and kicks.

So if you have a free evening and are in the mood for an actiony sci-fi movie you could do much worse than this one.  Just do me and yourself a favor and go in with lowered expectations.  It's not "The Kings Speech" it's a freaking Van Damme movie.   Enjoy.