Clockstoppers (2002)

Starring: Jesse Bradford, Paula Garcés, and French Stewart
Directed by: Jonathan Frakes (Strar Trek)
Produced by: Nickeloden Movies

Clockstoppers is good clean fun. A movie for all ages, tho the main audience here is clearly a young one. I'm 24, and saw the movie on Showtime...I loved it. I think I loved it (as opposed to liked it) because of the outrageously cute, Paula Garcés who plays Francesca. Tho, she plays a teen in the movie, she's 28 in real life...has a 9 or 10 year old child and is married (damn!) The point of mentioning this is- it ruins all my fantasies about her! And, dang it, I'm pissed. I also mention it, because tho it bugs me they use older actors to play teens in so many movies, I think she works well here. I believed that her and Zak were the same age, and the actor who played Zak is actually younger than I am. They both did a really great job portraying two young people falling for each other and having one big adventure while doing so.

Zak finds a watch that has dad has made...it can stop time. It can put you into 'hyper time.' They find out that they're not really stopping time around them, but instead, they're speeding up all their molecules and going SO fast that it seems as tho time is stopped around them. They use the watch for pranks for a bit, which is fun to watch, but then some "bad guys" come looking for the watch and Zak is forced to run from them to save his life and to keep them from getting ahold of the watch. He meets French Stewart who works for his dad, and knows about the organization that wants to get the watch from them. I was never really clear on this, because I missed a part of the movie in the middle...they worked for some group run by some evil (near scientist) guy who wants to use the watch for evil, I think. Anyhow, they're chasing Zak, and Francesca gets involved as well...Stewart is great here, he's pretty funny, constantly getting kicked in the face by the gorgeous Garcés.

The main characters, Zak and Francesca- Zak is a decent guy...pretty average, not very close with his brilliant scientist father, semi-close to his mother and sister. Francesca is a tough girl...very witty, very sweet, every guy's dream. Zak falls for her and she ends up going on this big adventure with him because of it. The scene where she tells Zak he doesn't need to use the watch (magic) to get a kiss was really sweet, and the way they acted with each other...I was sitting there feeling lonely because I don't have a girl like that in my life. It's always a good sign when the actors can make you feel real life emotions that have nothing to do with the movie itself. That to me is great acting, and they both pull it off very nicely.

They end up saving Zak's dad (who is kidnapped by the group, and forced to work on a time piece to save his son's life)...it becomes one big adventure when Zak, Fran, and Dopler (French Stewart) going into the compound run by the group to save his dad...There are some pretty funny moments between those 3 characters, and lots of fun come out of the relationships built between them.

The first half of the film is mainly fun, the second half mainly the dangerous advneture. There's no violence really, no nudity, nothing bad for kids (of course), so kids of any age can watch. I did find it kind of odd that Francesca came out of the bathroom in a towel when Dopler and Zak were in the room...she seemed to give off a mild sex appeal throughout the entire movie, which was also rather confusing. She was always on the verge of cute and sexy...and sexy doesn't really go well in a film from Nickelodeon. That aside, it all worked nicely. The story, tho basic, works...and, as mentioned- the acting was pretty good. Clockstoppers is a pretty good movie...kids will probably love it, and some adults might too.

I admit this was a poorly written review...but I'm in a hurry and wanted to get it posted! So, forgive me! :)