Teen time-travel trippers

Rating: 5/10 (20 November 2009)

Not quite sure just why I watched this popular teen comedy-adventure film from the 80's but I was a teenager once myself and I enjoy a good time-travel yarn and with hopes of a "Back to the Future" type entertainment thought I'd give it a shot.
Okay in hindsight, I'd probably have enjoyed it more if I was actually still in or just out of school, but it was enjoyable all the same. The nods to predecessors like the afore-mentioned "Back To The Future" (meeting themselves in time, the lightning bolt exits and entries), Dr Who (even down to using a phone-box as their time-travelling craft) and "Quantum Leap" (with the Rufus character as their Admiral Al mentor and cajoler) are obvious and of course it plugs into the same nerdy humour which made the "Wayne's World" movies equally successful.
I enjoyed the first half hour more when the dynamic duo's catch-phrases and mannerisms were fresh but lost interest in the rest feeling that there could have been better interplay among their historical kidnapees. One or two of the jokes made me smile (Freud quizzing an interrogating cop on his feelings for his mother and Bill owning up to a mildly Oedipal complex over his sexy step-mom) and the two leads obviously have fun outgorm-ing each other.
I could have done without the so-dated 80's pomp rock soundtrack, even as I felt that the movie was crying out for an Eddie Van Halen cameo appearance, but I can't judge this too harshly. Okay, so maybe "Time Bandits" did it better, but this was pleasant lightweight inoffensive fun and a lot less vulgar than most of the teen-market aimed output from latter-day Hollywood.