Time Walker 1991 to Be Continued
Beware of the crummy mummy
Warning: Spoilers
Along with the dreary big budget bomb "The Awakening" and the enjoyably idiotic Italian splatter-fest "Dawn of the Mummy," this deliciously dreadful sci-fi/horror alien mummy abomination tried (and failed) to inject some much-needed juice into the all dried up mummy fright feature genre. Archeology professor Ben Murphy discovers the coffin of the mysterious Ankh-Venharis (that's "Noble Traveler" to you and me) in King Tutankhaman's Egyptian tomb. Murphy takes the mummified interstellar stiff back to the California Institute of Sciences. Naturally, the mummy comes back to life and shambles about the college campus, offing dipstick students with its lethal fungus touch as it tries to find the five glowing crystals it needs to go home.
Sluggishly paced, woodenly acted, poorly written, and flatly directed, "Time Walker" follows the basic pattern of many other then fashionable academia-set kill-the-collegians slash'n'gash movies. Boasting plenty of classically cruddy dialogue ("Listen you pervert -- if you don't get out of here I'll kick your bandaged butt!"), this wonderfully wretched stinker starts out pretty silly and becomes more increasingly ridiculous as it goes along, reaching an uproarious apex of all-out stultifying stupidity during its absurdly overwrought and sentimental conclusion. The cast reads like a veritable who's who of 80's exploitation cinema: "Motel Hell" 's Nina Axelrod, "Chained Heat" 's Greta Blackburn, Allene Simmons (she's one of the luscious ladies being eyeballed in the infamous shower sequence in "Porky's"), "Hell Night" 's Kevin Brophy as the dumb greedy X-ray technician who steals the mummy's hot rocks and accidentally revives it by over-amping the radiation; "Invasion U.S.A." 's Melissa Prophet (who does a brief topless scene and gets attacked by the mummy while taking a shower), and "Prom Night" 's Antoinette Bower. "Assault on Precinct 13" survivors Darwin Joston and Austin Stoker are reunited here as a diligent, no-nonsense police lieutenant and a wise pathologist, respectively. James "The Pathmark Man" Karen grumbles his way through the thankless role of the cranky college dean. Robert A. Burns (the titular psychotic white trash lunatic in the grimy, flesh-crawling "Confessions of A Serial Killer") was one of the set designers. Jason "Flesh Gordon" WIlliams not only co-wrote the story and co-produced the flick, but also has a small part as an overaged jerk frat boy. Prolific B-pic composer Richard Band supplies a surprisingly good creeped-out gloom-doom orchestral score. Robbie Goldberg's delectably cheesy cinematography goes overboard on the slipshod, would-be state-of-the-art fancy-pants visual flourishes: vertical wipes, shaky hand-held camera-work, green-tinted POV shots of the murderous mummy on the prowl, and some especially strenuous drawn-out slow motion. Bad to the point were it borders on the unbelievable, "Time Walker" serves as a potent reminder that sloppy, supremely ill-advised attempts at handy-dandy multi-genre combos can indeed be a surefire formula for superior shoddy schlock at its most entertainingly awful.
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An impossible watch
Warning: Spoilers
Also known as Being from Another Planet, this is a movie I have tried to finish so many times, pushing myself to the kind of hard-to-watch film brink. I'm happy to report that after several years, I have finally completed this movie and can share the results with all of you.
California University of the Sciences professor Douglas McCadden (Ben Murphy, the Gemini Man!) is exploring the tomb of Tutankhamun when an earthquake causes a wall to fall down, revealing a mummy that is really an alien kept alive through suspended animation thanks to being covered with a green fungus.
Dr. Ken Melrose (Austin Stoker!) calls a press conference to reveal the mummy, but at some point student named Peter Sharpe (Kevin Brophy, who was in Lucan, so this is really a collection of people who were in failed science fiction shows of the 70s that really only I care about) steals some gems from the body, which keeps getting bathed in radiation, bringing it back to life.
The mummy - who is way faster than your normal wrapped up Egyptian in rags - ends up killing anyone who has the crystals, putting a cop named Lt. Plummer (Darwin Joston, so this movie is also an Assault on Precinct 13 reunion thanks to him and Stoker appearing) on the case. He thinks it's a serial killer, but the truth is that the mummy was worshipped like a god and needs the crystals to go back home.
This movie also has James Karen from Return of the Living Dead and Shari Belafonte, who certainly knew that she deserved much better.
Time Walker was produced by Dimitri Villard and Jason Williams. If you recognize that last name, it's because Williams plated Flesh Gordon. He co-wrote this movie (he also scripted The Danger Zone, Danger Zone II: Reaper's Revenge, Danger Zone III: Steel Horse War and Nude Bowling Party, which certainly needed some level of wordsmithing) with Tom Friedman and Karen Levitt. It's director, Tom Kennedy, edited Silent Night, Bloody Night and the American release of Goodbye Uncle Tom. This was the only movie he ever directed.
There's a "to be continued" at the end of this movie and I have to tell you, I've never been so excited that a sequel wasn't made.
I'll forgive Film Ventures International nearly anything, though. Even Time Walker.
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Mummies for dummies
This isn't a great bad mummy movie--there's quite a number of those--but it's bad enough to be fun, if not bad enough to be memorable. It has all the right ingredients, but never quite kicks into a high enough gear (esp. re: violence and sex) to realize its full cheesy potential. Still, the script is verrrry silly, complete with a leap into sci-fi towards the end. I enjoyed seeing Ben Murphy, whose post "Alias Smith & Jones" career I kinda missed; he's still very handsome here, and manages to escape with dignity unscathed--unlike a lot of the other cast members, many of whom are intentionally (or unintentionally) over the top. It was also interesting to see Robert Random, who doesn't make much impression here but is notable for having finally surfaced recently as the nominal male lead in Orson Welles' endlessly delayed "The Other Side of the Wind" (shot a decade earlier, more or less). Anyway, this movie doesn't quite fully capitalize on the trash potential of reawakened-Egyptian-mummy-turns-modern-campus-slasher, but that conceit alone is worth some entertainment value, and "Time Walker" is relatively slick by 80s B-movie standards. It just could have used a bit more energy and outrageousness.
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Time Waster
A museum gets a new mummy. When they open the sarcophagus, the mummy is gone. Yes, it's walking, and is trying to do.... well, something that involves laying a bunch of tiny, blue-glowing glass beads in what appears to be a Star Trek uniform insignia.
Everyone spends the movie being clueless about what is going on. This should allow a lot of suspense, with the audience knowing what is at risk -- because we've seen all this before -- and no one in the film doing anything to stop it. Unfortunately, we've seen all this before. Running through the shtick yet again isn't really suspenseful. It's ho-hum.
It's well edited; that was the more usual job of director Tom Kennedy, who is neither the 'dumb' comic of 1930s movies nor the game show host. THe only actor I knew was Alan Rachins, and he has a tiny part, and some hair.
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One of my favorite "B" movies
I don't know why, but I found this super-cheesy story of a mummy terrorizing a college campus a lot more entertaining than I should have. Sure, the acting and effects are horrid, but I thought the story was good for this kind of movie. A classic B-movie in my opinion.
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Good Story, Bad Cast, No `The End'
Warning: Spoilers
Spoilers
In California, a university acquires a sealed sarcophagus found in the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankamon. The mummy is under the responsibility of Prof. Doug McCadden (Ben Murphy), and will be presented to the public in a big opening party in the campus. After many x-rays of the coffin and the mummy for study, the operator Pete Sharpe (Kevin Brophy) finds five hidden jewels in a compartment in the bottom. He hides the finding and steals the jewels, selling and giving them to other persons in the campus, including his girlfriend. Meanwhile, the x-rays revive the mummy and it vanishes, looking for the five jewels and leaving a weird green substance in the empty casket. A student touches it and the fungus eats his arm. A further investigation reveals that the fungus is activated by x-rays and eats human flesh. When the news about the disappearance of the mummy is disclosed, the students decide to have a thematic party about Egypt, including costumes of mummies. Meanwhile, Prof. McCadden realizes that the mummy is indeed an extraterrestrial being and the jewels are crystals for a communicating apparatus. This B-movie is not so bad as IMDB User Rating indicates: it has a good story, a bad cast and poor special effects. The greatest problem is the `To be continued' instead of `The End'. The sequel has not been released and there is a kind of frustration due to the lack of conclusion of the plot. With better actors, actresses and director, and some improvements in the screenplay, it could be a great movie. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): `Time Walker'
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It's not *that* bad
Maybe I just have a soft spot for some movies. "Time Walker" is a solid "B," with bad acting, unncecessary gore, and some really cheesy special effects.
Still, I have to say I liked the movie, even if it is just late night video fare. The story was original, and it was a surprise to find out at the end what the mummy really is.
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Good movie!
Time Walker isn't really a bad movie at all.I really liked the very beginning with the planets and how the prolog was presented. It was a different mummy film with a different story.The effects were really good especially the crystals in the mummy/alien's device.The music by Richard Band was very good.I really don't know why people dislike this film.The from of the video box is really cool and the film is from Charter Entertainment but the box itself looks very much like CBS Fox box.If you are able to find Time Walker and haven't seen it before then get it because its out of print and its worth it in My opinion!Check it out!
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Could have been great
I have to say, although this film was badly executed, it still had a cool storyline and a lot of potential. It's not often you get mummy/alien hybrids, but that is what this film is. It all starts off with some stock footage of planets and then of Egypt. After this the story begins, and a mummy is brought to a university for examination. A mega dose of x-rays brings the mummy to life, and it begins its search for some crystals that were removed from the sarcophagus. But this is no ordinary mummy, oh no, this is actually an alien!
The main problems with Time Walker is the slow pace and lack of gore. The film just seems to trundle along really slowly, as the mummy stalks around looking for his crystals. There's a few cool scenes such as when the mummy attacks a woman and pushes her against a wall, and throws a man in the air. If some gore scenes had been added, it would have been a lot more entertaining. The POV shots of the mummy are quite cool and reminded me of a slasher film called The Lamp. The ending is very cheesy, as the mummy reveals himself to actually be an alien (someone wearing a ridiculous mask) and then disappears to the stars, and the fateful words "To be continued..." appear on the screen.
Overall, I can't rate this film too highly as it really was boring, but I do love the storyline and it's a shame it wasn't properly executed.
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Boring From Another Planet
This not-very-good mummy-alien flick does feature a cornucopia of your favorite movie stars like BEN MURPHY ("Riding With Death"!), Bob Random ("Village of the Giants"!), Darwin Joston (Napolean in "Assault on Precinct 13"!), Austin Stoker (Bishop in "Assault on Precinct 13"!) as Dr. Ken Melrose, Nina Axelrod ("Motel Hell"), Shari Belafonte-Harper (who was a voice on "Rick Moranis in Gravedale High"!!!), Clint Young ("Rape Squad", "Switchblade Sisters"), and best of all, Pathmark pitchman JAMES KAREN ("Poltergiest", "Return of the Living Dead")!
The plot is this: A priceless sarcophagus has been recovered in King Tut's tomb. Of course, it's taken to a small college in California where bumbling students can manhandle it and screw up X-raying it, instead of, oh, say, a museum. One loathsome, video-game loving student steals some diamond-type-thingees from the sarcophagus, sending the mummy on a poorly planned killing spree to get them back. For some reason, no one can catch a glimpse of the slow-moving, glowing mummy as it lumbers from killing to killing on the college campus.
This movie isn't very good. Not much happenens, except for some funny scenes where teens touch some radioactive goo on the mummy and start to get fungus growing all over them. The party scene with a bunch of obnoxious students dressed as mummys is also grating, and all James Karen does is mope and yell at Ben Murphy.
Pathmark means savings!
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A mummy, green flesh-consuming fungus and... an alien!
Boy, I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid. So naturally, I almost remembered nothing of it. Except for the fact that it somehow left a strange impression on me, and a dormant urge to some day revisit it. That urge awakened recently when I found this obscure gem on an old ex-rental tape, so this was my chance to re-watch it. As to be expected, this is by no means a 'good' movie. Far from, probably. But it still remains a curious and strange gem.
A mummy gets dug up in King Tut's tomb and transferred to an American University. A student finds 5 diamonds hidden in the sarcophagus and steals them. The next day, the mummy is gone too. I'll just stop describing the story now. But if you want to know how a mummy, ancient diamonds, green dust that turns into flesh-devouring fungus, a blue-skinned alien with big black eyes and a college campus tie in all together, then you might want to consider watching TIME WALKER. But be warned, most people might generally classify this as a bad movie, and I don't even have much arguments to compete with that. The acting is just tolerable and the directing isn't top notch either. What had me chuckling most, were many inserted reaction shots of certain actors, just standing there looking for a second, not saying anything, or just giving a short stupid reply. But here's an interesting contradiction: Not much really happens in this movie, but still there's a lot going on (just remember the previous things I mentioned). Everything ties in together nicely, but it's all very predictable. The mummy prowling the campus provides a couple of nice and creepy shots, but his green-colored POV vision was a bit cheesy. Of course he kills a couple of people (not just randomly, I might add), but the kills themselves aren't much to write home about. On the other hand, the murderous mummy encounters a topless female student on one of his escapades and most of his kills are filmed in shocking slow-motion. The movie builds up towards a nice twist-conclusion too, but sadly when you know the tagline to this movie, or just take a glimpse at the front or back cover art, you already know what's going to happen. Also, the story severely lacks a climax at the end.
TIME WALKER tries really hard, remains an offbeat, weird gem, but in the end doesn't succeed in what it sets out to do. There's plenty of interesting elements, but they are rigged together in a below average sci-fi/horror flick with a conclusion that leaves a lot to be desired. Given the nostalgia feelings I treasure for this one, it is with grief I have to flunk this baby. But don't let that discourage you to check it out if you should ever stumble upon it. And then come around some day and blame me for having watched a bad movie.
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It may be low budget junk, but it's *fun* low budget junk.
Warning: Spoilers
Try this wacky premise on for size: when a mummy discovered inside the tomb of King Tut is brought back to a university, it turns out to actually be an alien, which is soon brought back to life by an X-ray overdose. A fairly slimy student (the same one who overdid it on the X- rays) discovers crystals inside the sarcophagus and, when he can't get a jeweller to take them, he sells them to his classmates. Well, this pisses off the "mummy" who embarks on a murderous rampage to retrieve the crystals, while the heroic archaeologist / professor Douglas McCadden (Ben Murphy) tries to figure out what's going on. I wonder how Steve Martin might work all this into his famous "King Tut" song? Anyway, I won't deny that this is far from being "good" stuff, but if you dig goofy low budget genre nonsense like this, as I do, you may also find some entertainment watching this. Hell, it does have its moments, in particular an extended chase scene. And among its crew are the under-rated composer Richard Band and art director Robert A. Burns of "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" fame. "Flesh Gordon" star Jason Williams is actually one of those responsible for the story, as well as being one of the producers and playing a small role. While the acting is largely, predictably underwhelming, the casting mix has to be seen to be believed: first off, it *is* awesome seeing "Assault on Precinct 13" leads Austin Stoker and Darwin Joston (sadly, this was Joston's last movie role) once again acting together in scenes. Also appearing are Kevin Brophy ("Hell Night", "The Seduction", 'Lucan'), the under utilized James Karen ("The Return of the Living Dead"), Shari Belafonte-Harper (getting an 'introducing' credit), Antoinette Bower ("Prom Night" 1980), Greta Blackburn ("48 Hrs.", "Chained Heat"), Nina Axelrod ("Motel Hell"), Warrington Gillette (the guy credited as Jason in "Friday the 13th Part 2"), future 'L.A. Law' regular Alan Rachins as the jeweller, and the late, great trailer announcer Don LaFontaine as a reporter cracking bad jokes on television. Sporting supposedly clever touches such as green tinted alien P.o.V. shots and the frequent use of wipes, "Time Walker" is simply too hard to resist for fans of silly schlock. The ending is downright priceless in its attempt at sentimentality, as well as its attempt to set up a sequel, stating "to be continued" before the end credit crawl. While some viewers may be very happy that never happened, I still say that this movie has a certain clunky charm. Five out of 10.
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A Mummy From Space with Rodger Random?
This is basically a 1950's style B-movie with low rent 80s production values. The story is about an archaeological dig which unearths a mummy which is blasted by radiation , reviving it from its slumber. What follows is a mixture of a mummy curse movie with an alien trying to return home movie. Its not at all scary or gory with very few kills. It doesn't manage to ramp up any tension or excitement at any point. It really should have been a comedy. There is also an odd sub-plot about fungus, again another 1950s staple , which doesn't seem to add anything to the story. The effects are super low budget and comparable to something you would see in a TV show not a movie. This was actually one of the MST3K episodes which tells you all you need to know, however it was not one of the more popular episodes. If you have the time to waste on a bad movie then fine however do not expect to be entertained.
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Horribly Fun
This a horribly fun movie to watch. No one in this movie can act, except Ben Murphy. The writing is atrocious and law enforcement folks are so awful you have to laugh. I swear the voice of the Detective Lieutenant was dubbed. Luckily, I taped it so I could fast forward through all the monsters green moving scenes. There are a lot of them. The college boys look like Neanderthals.
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I'll give the filmmakers points for originality.
Warning: Spoilers
A professor gets ready to unveil a mummy to the media, only to have it not be in the sarcophagus when they open it. It appears the mummy is on the move because a X-ray tech zapped the thing with too big a large a dose. Plus, said tech stole some transmitter crystals hidden in a secret compartment of the mummy's coffin and he wants those back because it turns out this ain't no mummy! It is actually an alien life form that landed in Egypt 3,000 years ago, spread its deadly mold to Tutankhamen and then promptly died. Also, they have a fun cast including Ben Murphy as the Prof, Darwin Joston as a cop, Austin Stoker as a doctor and James Karen as the sneaky head of the school. Apparently this movie got the MST3K treatment at some point but I actually enjoyed it as a stand alone b-movie. It ain't gonna change the world but I was never bored. Quite possibly the only film to feature a mummified alien peeping tom. Jason (FLESH GORDON) Williams co-produced, provided the story and has a small cameo.
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Where is my Mummy? Making a bad movie, that's where!
Warning: Spoilers
Ahh, Mr. Ben Murphy. Before Bruce Campbell stole his crown, Murphy was the King of Cheese. Unfortunately, Murphy was serious about his lousy acting career. He really, actually thought that he had some talent. Amazing.
In this crappy serving of Murphy's Law(that the more serious a movie with Murphy in it is supposed to be, the worse and more cheesy that movie will be)Murphy plays an anthropologist(yeah, right!) who finds a sarcophagus in King Tut's tomb. In it is a peculiar mummy who was a visitor to Tut's kingdom three thousand years ago. Apparently this mysterious visitor made people sick(literally), because he had some kind of weird fungus growing on him..Or something.
One of Murphy's idiot students touches the fungus, which got accidentally irradiated by another of his idiot students. It ate the moron student's hand faster than the flesh eating virus. Meanwhile, the mummy disappeared from his coffin(he felt the need to party. Well, it had been three thousand years, after all!) and started lurching around off camera looking for some ridiculous looking crystals that the idiot student who had irradiated the sarcophagus stole from it(larcenous as well as stupid.Did Murphy hand pick these guys?). The crystals glowed whenever the mummy got near them, becoming tiny disco balls. Welcome to the seventies, everyone! All that was missing was seeing the mummy do the Hustle.
Murphy discovers that the mummy is actually the body of an alien visitor. It is trying to retrieve the stupid looking crystals so that it can phone home. Apparently the alien was in a state of suspended animation or something, which is why the zap of radiation brought it back to life. Never mind that that deserves a big fat HUH? since this movie is so groovy and with it that it doesn't really have to make sense. In the end, the mummy retrieves its tacky jewelry and is about to beam itself up(to what, we'll never know, since I doubt the mother ship actually hung around waiting for it to return for three thousand years)when a security guard tries to shoot it. Murphy plays the hero and hurls himself onto the bullet(thank you, movie!) and then is beamed up with the alien. Good riddance, Murphy, and I hope you enjoy the anal probe.
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almost a turkey
What a turkey if you see when it was made, in the middle of the slasher era and this has really nothing to offer, the effects used when people touches the fungus is ridiculous and the mummy itself didn't look scary at all, and towards the end when the mummy shows it's real face you will laugh again.
Nevertheless, it got some names in it that were famous back then, Ben Murphy (Prof. Douglas McCadden) came from the series Alias Smith and Jones (1971-1973) and went further to Gemini Man (1976). Nina Axelrod (Susie Fuller) is more common towards horror buffs due her role in Critters 3 (1991) and the blockbuster Cobra (1986). Kevin Brophy (Peter Sharpe) can be seen in Hell Night (1981) one year earlier than this flick together with Linda Blair.
But it fails due the script itself. The mummy do attacks but really in a stupid way. And the editing itself is roughly done with full of mistakes. When a girl is running in corridors you see the POV from the mummy running behind her but when they shoot before the girls you can't see any mummy running behind her. And there is even a microphone to spot. There is one shot with a small nudity and the shower scene also looked laughable. But the movie never moves further and due some really bad acting it becomes a turkey. Easy to see that it was a low budget B-flick. Maybe for some it's a collectible due the cheesy situations but many will find it a waist of time.
Gore 1/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5
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A mummy that is an alien that has deadly fungus, but is not hostile, but it breaks bones
This film had something almost going for it as at times the movie held my interest even with the gang from Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffing it. It held my interest enough that I may actually want to see this film in an uncut state as this one not only got the MST3K edits, but also looks like another casualty of that video company that would get older movies and repackage them with either a new generic title screen (this one and Marooned in Space) or they would play an entirely different film during the opening credits (Pod People and Cave Dwellers). In the end, it is still probably pretty bad though as there were aspects of the film that were interesting and it had some good effects, but it had a horrible setting and completely idiotic plot points. This film stars Ben Murphy and the only other film that I have seen him in is another MST3K film, Riding With Death. He is actually somewhat decent in this one, I don't fault him for the horrid aspects of the film, that falls back squarely on the screenwriter who seemed to have absolutely no idea how to end the film so he ended it quickly and vaguely, kind of reminiscent of Monster-A-Go-Go. Or, perhaps, the blame for that ending falls on the company that repackaged the film and they cut it short? Who knows?
The story has people discovering a mummy and bringing it back to a college where the head of the university is strongly in favor of using it to get more money or something. The man who discovered it, wishes to take a slower approach and considering the guy who discovered it is Ben Murphy and the hero, you know he is right. Well, a strange fungus is found with the mummy and an idiot who finds a secret compartment of things that look like diamonds and steals them. He X-rays the mummy a couple of times and this awakens the fungus which is very deadly to the touch and the most interesting aspect of said film. It really does a wicked number on anyone who touches it! The mummy wants those gems and the head of the school's sidekick wants to frame Ben Murphy who thinks the mummy is an alien and his girl gets one of those diamonds as a gift and soon gets targeted by the mummy who doesn't mean her any harm, but he sure meant to harm that dude he threw into the wall!
This made for a pretty good episode of MST3K. I found it a bit absurd when Tom Servo suggested that this film was worse than many of the films they had viewed up to said point. This was not worse by a long shot, in fact, it had some things working for it. I thought the way the fungus got people was cool, but they ditched that aspect, probably because it was too costly an effect. There is also a lot of point of view monster going on here with green light. It is not a good film I guess, but to say it is worse than some of the crap they had riffed is absurd.
So not a good film, but it had some points in it that were interesting. I would like to see an unedited version of the film just to see if they showed more of the fungus as it may have been something they cut out because it was too graphic. I do think the college setting and some of the plot points kind of doomed this one. We did not need to have a kid trying to sell the stones nor did we really need to see the head of the college and his sidekick trying to frame Ben Murphy as both of these things were just filler. You had an entire campus to kill, and you go really light on the kills. I guess because they wanted that really cheesy ending that just kind of halts the film and brings it to a complete stop.
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Mummy mummy GO AWAY!!
This movie sucks!! I can boldly state that because I had actually seen it in the movie theaters when it came out, and on MST. (yes it was actually in movie theaters for a BRIEF time) It sucked then and it sucks now. It's only redeeming value is that MST got it and riffed the hell out of it which it needed. Ben Murphy steals a mummy from Egypt which turns out to be an alien which one of his students accidentally brings back to life. This movie was filmed at Cal State University Northridge, where I studied anthropology myself, and I doubt that any of my professors would have any of these idiots as students. But for what it's worth it is a funny MST episode and a lame horror movie. Maybe there was supposed to be a sequel, thank god there wasn't. Though it probably would have made a great MST episode.
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"Being From Another Planet", I want OUT of this flick!!!
Warning: Spoilers
This is a perfect example of the kind of low-level, low budget, crummy movie that really should not have been made in the first place. It has the feel of a "direct-to-cable/3rd feature at the Drive-in" snooze fest that never really generates any interest or momentum. The best you can say about it is that it helped a bunch of B-to-Z level actors make their condo payments, that Sherry Belafonte-Harper was fairly cute, and that both the director of photography and the soundtrack composer worked really hard to pump up the watch-ability of this movie with a lot of extra jiving and filling.
Poor Ben Murphy slogs along as best he can here, trying to make the audience (all 4 or us) believe that he is an archaeologist. I'll give him this; even in a snooze like this movie, where all the close-ups are held too long and every scene has the drama and pacing of a drivers' ed training film, he remains amiable and likable. God only knows how hard "Time Walker" would have been to watch if he hadn't at least given the movie his agreeable screen presence. People make fun of him, and he is a light-weight, but I've always liked the guy; I hope he made a million dollars and retired happily somewhere.
The rest of the cast comes off as somewhere between "unlikeable" and "despicable", (I have no idea what they are like in real life, so please don't take this as character assassination), so you actually sort of enjoy it (instead of being horrified) when the mummy kills them. Of course, that may have been the intention of the movie, but in that case, the director could at least have made the deaths a little more memorable. I saw better staged monster attacks in the infamous "Pod People" - the victim's death-scenes here are like watching hamsters getting squished with a giant clown hammer. And Belafonte-Harper actually has some on camera charisma, but the movie doesn't seem to know what to do with her - she seems to be in, but not of, the film. It's as if she wanted the exposure, but she couldn't bear to actually be involved in the plot.
The movie ends with Murphy's character teleporting off with the mummy to an unknown fate (good riddance) and the dean's assistant screaming into the camera as left-over space slime eats his hand. I think this was meant to leave us with a feeling of mystery and wonder and horror, but it left me with a profound feeling of relief that this bag of creaky dramatic devices was finally done. Not the worst or most incompetent movie I've ever seen, but definitely pretty useless.
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Can I borrow a movie plot for my mummy?
The movie wants to be original with a story about a mummy that is really an alien from outer space, activated by radiation to terrorize a college campus. But in the second half it starts borrowing from films like The Blob, Shadow of the Cat, Psycho, and even E. T. The TV movie music on the soundtrack doesn't help much either or the "To Be Continued " message for a plot that never continued into another movie. All of the drive-in cheapie thrills are included in a plot by numbers style that causes too much emotional detachment.
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Another mess of a mummy movie.
The mummy is quite possibly the dullest movie monster ever, and yet they've been shuffling and killing without much of a rest ever since 1932, each cinematic outing for the bandaged creature being virtually the same old guff. Time Walker at least it tries to do something a little different. Different, but ultimately just as dull.
The film opens in the tomb of Tutankhamun, where college professor Douglas McCadden (Ben Murphy) is doing a little excavation work when an earthquake strikes, uncovering a hidden chamber housing a sarcophagus. Somehow, McCadden gets permission to transport his find to his university in California, where a bunch of students help him to open the stone coffin. Inside, they find a mummy covered in green powder. After taking x-rays of the ancient occupant (accidentally bombarding the mummy with ten times the intended amount of radiation), the students leave the professor to study the markings on an an ancient scroll.
Meanwhile, troublesome student Pete Sharpe (Kevin Brophy) sneaks back into the lab to open a secret compartment on the sarcophagus, as revealed on the x-rays; inside, he finds several jewels, which he pockets, selling them to his fellow students as gifts for their girlfriends. Unfortunately, the radiation overdose has revived the mummy -- actually an alien -- who goes looking the jewels, which are necessary for him to return to his home planet. Those who get in his way end up burnt, covered in space fungus, or just plain dead.
This hokey plot could have allowed for plenty of hugely entertaining B-movie schlock, but the uninspired script and tedious direction from Tom Kennedy make Time Walker just as creaky as its many mummy predecessors. The monster attacks are weak, there's very little in the way of gore (and what there is doesn't look great), nudity is limited to one pair of breasts (a later shower scene misses a great opportunity for more T&A), and a mummy-themed frat party scene is nowhere near as much fun as it should have been.
At the end of the film, the alien manages to gather all of his crystals and starts up his interplanetary matter transmitter. As the space traveller is about to beam up, a university security guard shoots his gun, McCadden blocking the bullet's path with his shoulder. When the alien disappears, he holds on to the wounded professor's hand, taking him with him to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Does the professor live? Who the hell knows? This is one of those films that ends with a 'To be continued' caption. There's been no sequel to date.
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Big mummy on campus. Little redeeming entertainment.
Was it writer Tom Friedman's fault; or director Tom Kennedy's treatment? TIME WALKER makes the view want to take a walk. Sorry. Get this. A mummy from outer space is buried in King Tut's tomb over 2,000 years ago. He is let out of the tomb in California, and as he tries to find his way home, he leaves slim covered bodies all over a college campus and community.
Cast members are: Ben Murphy, Nina Axelrod, Kevin Brophy, Annie Barbierei and Shari Belafonte.
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Good Sci-fi Script, Cheesy & Bad Acting W/Poor Direction (or Budget?)
Good enough script to try it professionally again someday to improve on this campy flick perhaps, but the actors and poor direction (low budget?), feels like they were taking any scene everyone nailed their lines, no matter how terribly spoken...it was going in the can..."next scene...roll em, and action!"... plodding forward on a deadline instead of going for any meaningful performance.
Fair to say direction & production style meant nobody looked like they spent much time on knowing lines and scene choreography.
That said, I've seen plenty worse flicks of this genre, if it's any consolation.
The list of actors and actresses names for a time traveling themed movie is the producers admitting they aren't taking themselves too seriously in my opinion, admitting low budget but having a sense of humor recruiting stage names that are in and of themselves campy and fitting.
It's interesting the ending... Definitely intended to have more to say.
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Jack Palance can make anything sound serious
Another cornball movie nowadays known only because it got riffed on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". "Time Walker" is not atrocious in the vein of "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians", but it's still pretty laughable. A muddled story of a sarcophagus containing a mummy that wasn't even human to begin with. If you ask me, it's best to leave the sarcophagi in the ground; removing them smacks of imperialism. As for MST3K's presentation, it was great to hear Joel, Servo and Crow trashing the movie (the references include the Monkees, "Funny Girl" and "Happy Days").
Basically, you'll enjoy the version that gets shown in the Satellite of Love. Don't watch the movie on its own.
For the record, Bill Mumy - whose last name rhymes with roomy, not mummy - has a band.
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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084796/reviews
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