Director Peter Hyams pairs up with Jean-Claude Van Damme in this big-screen adaptation of the Dark Horse comic. Co-starring Ron Silver, Mia Sara, Gloria Reuben and one of my favourite character actors, Bruce McGill, this is probably the Van Damme film I enjoy the most.

Max Walker (Van Damme) is a street cop who’s just been recruited by his best friend, and boss, Matuzak (McGill) to come work for the Time Enforcement Commission, but before he can take the job, someone attacks him and his wife, Melissa (Sara) in their home and Melissa is killed.

Ten years later, Max is working for TEC and is damned good at what he does. His most recent collar points to something bigger happening behind the scenes, someone manipulating time for money and power, and a run at the presidency.

McComb (Silver) is that someone and Max is determined to stop him, because if Max can’t change the past to save Melissa, than McComb certainly isn’t going to be the wealthiest most powerful man on the planet.

Or will he? If he can change time and wipe Max out completely, no one will even know he altered things.

Max attempts to stay one step ahead of McComb in his temporal pursuit, but everything will culminate on the night that changed Max’s life, and maybe this time things will play out differently.

I love a good time travel story, so this one ended up being right in my wheelhouse. There’s only one thing that really bothered me throughout the entire film, the TEC officers get into a strange little rocket-powered vehicle to jet back in time. Yet, when they appear in the past, they just pop into existence with little ripples forming around them as they pass through the spatial-temporal barrier.

The same thing happens when they return from their jaunts, they’re back in this little vehicle. I’m a little iffy on how that works, and it’s never explained. I wonder if there were deleted scenes, a change in script, I dunno, but it’s very weird.

It’s not like they park the DeLorean and go wandering around the 50s, they ride this rocket to the past, which apparently doesn’t come with them, and they pop up whenever they’re going, and then come back in the same vehicle, so weird.

Mia Sara is lovely as always, and it’s very easy to see why my crush on her endures. She, McGill, Reuben and Silver all raise the level of acting in this film, because no matter Van Damme’s physical abilities, he’s still not the best actor.

Still, I quite enjoy this film, but I’m predisposed to like it because it’s about time travel. Van Damme kicking butt was just a bit of an extra bonus.