SHANNON’S DRIVE-IN: TIMEMASTER

It’s Wax-on, Wax-off for Shannon as she watches the 1995 family sci-fi film Timemaster, a confusing trip through time with Pat Morita.

A young boy travels through time in to save his parents from being pawns in virtual reality games of the future.

Director: James Glickenhaus

Writer: James Glickenhaus

Stars: Jesse Cameron-Glickenhaus, Pat Morita, Michael Dorn, Michelle Williams

The opening scene of 1995’s Timemaster throws the audience into the post-apocalyptic world of 2007, where two kids, Jesse and Veronica (played by Jesse and Veronica Glickenhaus, son and daughter of writer/director James Glickenhaus), are living their lives on a desert commune. They talk about the food they miss in the world before the nuclear attacks, when the commune is attacked by raiders and Jesse, Veronica, and their parents are kidnapped. It’s an exciting scene which raises the question, “Are we getting a family-style Mad Max movie where we follow kids wandering through a post-apocalyptic wasteland?”

The short answer is no. We end up in 1996 with Jesse in an orphanage.

This is only the start of what makes Timemaster what it is; random scenes strung together with a plot that feels like Glickenhaus made up as he went along with no real logic or cohesion as to what’s happening. Sure, we get an opening narration with the Chairman (Michael Dorn) telling us what the whole deal is with kidnapping people to be pawns in virtual reality games which people bet on, but once the movie gets going, there’s so much more going on to confuse you.

All that being said, the movie is best when you don’t think too hard about the specifics of the plot. Also if you stick with the movie long enough you’ll be treated to a scene where Jesse uses Billy the Kid’s gun to shoot at flying kitchen appliances while Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” plays as background music.

When Jesse is told by the orphanage’s headmaster he and his sister will be split up, he decides to run away, but not before talking to Isaiah (Pat Morita). Isaiah tells him about time travel and how to find his parents, but none of it makes any sense. He sends Jesse through a time rift and we find that time travel looks like floating through outer space and finding the right historical bubble to crash into as images and sound bites of historical events waft around him.

From here we follow Jesse through various set pieces, meeting Billy the Kid in the wild west and picking up Annie (Michelle Williams) to follow along on his adventures.  

With some polishing to make the screenplay tighter and more cohesive, Timemaster could be a fun little movie. Even without that, it still is, but I found myself too invested in trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Annie mentions a previous Jesse in the old west world and we’re never given clarity on who that might have been. Isaiah mentions so much about changing history and people betting on the outcomes, but is the time travel a reality, or is it the virtual reality game?

While the plot isn’t the bright spot, there are multiple reasons to give Timemaster a chance. Michelle Williams shines in this early film role, lighting things up with a cute likeability. Pat Morita does his thing as being a warm grandpa/mentor figure, which is always a comfort (even though a lot of his dialogue is non-sensical wisdom about time and history). Zelda Rubenstein has a cameo as a betting clerk, doing her Zelda Rubenstein thing. The set pieces are interesting and some of the cinematography is downright gorgeous (look for a spectacular sunset scene in the old west). Harry Manfredini provides the score with its sense of sweeping adventure to make the story more epic than the mess it actually is.

All in all, there’s a lot of creativity in Timemaster, but very little cohesion. Still, there’s so much weird wildness that’s hard to forget, though I would have loved to have gotten more post-apocalyptic Mad Max shenanigans inside of a family movie.

Shannon Grant is a writer, performer, adventurer, and horned cryptid living in the wilds of upstate New York. Her work can be found in many small press anthologies such as A Guide to Useless Sidekicks, Catskill Chaos, and The Lizzie Borden House Anthology. She is currently at work on a vampire novella. When not writing, she can be found haunting drive-in movie theaters, karaoke bars, and looking for ghosts in the woods.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing, nor do the views or opinions of Crystal Lake necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or its staff. Thank you for understanding.