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Millennium (1989)

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From Time Out Film Guide

Sci-fi writer John Varley adapted his own short story Air Raid for this screenwriting debut, but an intriguing concept ends up with all the credibility of speculation that the moon is made of green cheese. Plane crash expert Bill Smith (Kristofferson) is called in to investigate the mid-air collision of a 747 and a DC-10. But this is no ordinary catastrophe: watches found in the wreckage run backwards, and a futuristic stun-gun is unearthed. Bill soon meets Louise (Ladd), who heads a commando team from a thousand years in the future. These time travellers have urgent business in the 20th century, which helps sustain life among a dying race of humanoids subsisting on infusions of fluorocarbons. The film never really overcomes obvious budgetary constraints, with important moments drained of impact because the effects lack imagination. Kristofferson and Travanti (as a physicist) are effectively true to form, but Ladd is woefully inadequate.

Author: CM

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

SB said...

Posted on Nov 02 2010 22:41 It's not a great film, but I liked it anyway. In some ways it seems like a much earlier sort of SF film -- clunky, characters lecturing each other, man in robot suit, etc., but based on interesting ideas,. Anyone who loves films of that vintage will be willing to forgive the lack of the slickness one would have expected for 1989. I've found it stands up to re-watching quite well. Time-travel romance: a genre attempted relatively often but not always satisfactory; here not bad. The trajectory goes from grim to funny (and then to resolution) which is a bit unusual, and which I rather like. Probably the best part is the scene with the time-travelling seductress the second time round. Sort of happy ending, at least it feels that way. Recommended to: classic SF lovers who don't care about super special effects; romantics.

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