Worst Time Travel Movies (Top 10)

I’ve been blogging about time travel movies that I really like. It’s time to post my top 10 worst list of these films. I won’t include books on this list. We authors have a hard enough time with reviews.

I will start with what I call the rip-off movies. These are so-called sequels to great movies. They use the title to get viewers, but they have nothing or little to do with the original films.

The first one is:

Time Cop 2 (The Berlin Decision)

I haven’t blogged about the original Time Cop yet, but that was a great movie. In contrast, Time Cop 2 was a real stinker. This 2003 needless sequel starred: Jason Scott Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, and Mary Page Keller. Jason Scott Lee is a fine actor and was wonderful in Dragon, The Bruce Lee Story (1993). Because the original Time Cop starred martial arts actor, Jean-Claude Van Damme, this movie attempted to capitalize on this by casting Lee in this failure.

The second on this list is:

The Philadelphia Experiment II

This one tries to be a true sequel. It has the character of David Herdig from the first film, now played by Brad Johnson married to Allison (never shown). Click to see my ORIGINAL BLOG POST. He wakes up to a world in which the Nazis had won World War II. Where the original movie was based on true events, this one is pure hogwash. It came out in 1993.

Next is:

The Butterfly Effect 2

This direct to DVD movie was not as bad as the two I just reported about. But it was not nearly as good as the original, The Butterfly Effect. It starred: Eric Lively, Erica Durance, Dustin Milligan, and Gina Holden. It was much of the same as the original, but with less detail and special effects. Pointless! I understand there was also a The Butterfly Effect 3, but I haven’t seen it, nor do I care to.

Now for the stand-alone stinko time travel films:

Time Changer

This is a Christian film. Even though I like most faith based messages and I love time travel, the two did not come together well. This movie made me cringe all throughout the viewing. What was surprising is, this 2002 film had an amazing cast, including:  D. David Morin, Gavin MacLeod, Hal Linden, Jennifer O'Neill, and Paul Rodriguez.

Another Day

The story in this 2001 film wasn’t bad. What made it to my list was the main star, actress Shannen Doherty of Beverly Hills 90210 fame. Nuff Said!

Time Rider

I wanted to like this 1982 movie. It had a cool front cover and name about a biker riding through the old west. I used to look at it in the old video stores. When I finally got around to renting it, I just didn’t like it. It was silly and improbable. (Yes, there is probable time travel) It starred: Fred Ward.

Time Runner

With a few exceptions, such as 12 Monkeys and the Terminator movies, I don’t usually care for futuristic movies in which a time traveler comes back to our time. This 1993 film stars Mark Hamill of Luke Skywalker fame, who comes back from the future to stop aliens…bleck!

Planet of the Apes (2001)

I didn’t hate everything about this remake of the classic 1968 film, but I didn’t love it either. A friend recently pointed out that real apes can’t jump twenty or thirty feet in the air, so how is it, these evolved apes can? SPOILER ALERT: What made the original so good, is the fact the viewer thought it was another planet, yet it ended up being Earth in the future. The end of this one didn’t make any sense at all. Having said this, I absolutely loved the two newer CGI prequels. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014).

Now I’m going to ruffle a few feathers. The next two are considered cult classics and loved by a great many people. I am not among them. I will take your hate mail.

The first one is:

Time Bandits

Oh, the humanity! I should like this movie. It stars members of the Monty Python group. I love them. It was also co-produced by one of my idols and heroes, George Harrison of the Beatles, who also wrote music for the film. I saw it years ago and I was expecting true, serious time travel. I’m not sure why, I just was. I hated it. So I thought years later, I would try again, knowing that it was silly and to not go in with any other expectations. I guess I just take my time travel too seriously, I still hated it. Funny thing though, I liked Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Hot Tub Time Machine. I’m not sure why I can’t jump on the Time Bandits bandwagon (or sail on their pirate ship). It just bored me. This 1981 British fantasy film was co-written, produced, and directed by Terry Gilliam, and starred Sean Connery, John Cleese, Shelley Duvall, Ralph Richardson, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Michael Palin, David Warner, and Craig Warnock.

…and here’s another movie that people love:

Donnie Darko

Oh, no. He is not about to diss Donnie Darko! Okay, I have a love/hate relationship with this 2001 film. Awesome cast, including one of my favorite female actors of all time, Mary McDonnel (see my blog post on For All Time). It also had:

Jake Gyllenhaal
Jena Malone
Drew Barrymore
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Katharine Ross
Patrick Swayze
Noah Wyle
Seth Rogen

I loved the music, the story, and the concept. What I hated was the execution of this film. Donnie Darko seemed to go back to the 1980s horny teenager movies, like Porky’s and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, only with much cruder language (Man, is he a prude). Maybe this was not an accident, as the movie was set in 1988. My favorite part of the movie was the unexpected ending, along with the cover of the Tears for Fears song Mad World by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules.

In some ways, perhaps Donnie Darko should not have made this list, so I add a bonus film which I also didn’t completely hate:

Project Almanac

This is the most recent time travel film to have made it to the big screen. It was released in January of 2015. At the time of this writing, it isn’t even out on Blue Ray yet. The story itself was good. It took a page from The Butterfly Effect, where small changes affect life in a big way. What I hated about the movie is that it was filmed with that shaky, hand-held camera technique, made popular by The Blair Witch Project (1999). I was literally nauseous, half way through the viewing.

Here is the complete list:

Time Cop 2
The Philadelphia Experiment II
The Butterfly Effect 2
Time Changer
Another Day
Time Rider
Time Runner
Planet of the Apes (2001)
Time Bandits
Donnie Darko
Project Almanac

The bottom line is that I viewed all these movies, because sometimes I prefer watching bad time travel to no time travel.