Cheap Grand Tour - Disaster in Time (DVD) (Jeff Daniels, Ariana Richards) (David Twohy) Price

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Customer Reviews of Grand Tour - Disaster in Time

missed this one
I want to award four stars because it was a good, solid story and refreshing to see a time-travel movie I had missed. But it is dated, effects are comparable to a late 80's low to mid-level production value and there is a hole or two. Ain't perfect, but by no means a bad movie. My girlfriend made it through no problem. When I first put it in, I immediately said this is going to be dated sci-fi= your not going to like. But she enjoyed it. Not really "Grand", but watchable. As a sci-fan, I was beholden to check this out and was not disappointed, but actually pretty impressed.

The story: A group of time traveling tourists come back to see a disaster unfold in a small town where Jeff Daniels' character has a small Inn (with a perfect view). The story is not as cut-and-dry as you might think though, he does of course figure it out and try to stop it from happening, but there are some interesting twists that make this a cut above the average. rent.

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The Bygoners
I loved the Sci-fi film, "Pitch Black" and so when I saw another, older Sci-fi film from the same director (David Twohy), well, I just had to see it. Unfortunately, "Grand Tour: Disaster in Time" deprives us of Vin Diesel, and gives us Jeff Daniels, instead, in the lead role.

Widower Ben Wilson (Jeff Daniels) is in the process of renovating an old mansion located on the outskirts of town when a busload of bizarre people arrive and offer any amount of money to stay there for three days. Now considering that the house is a total mess (including no doors on the rooms), the strangers' strong desire to stay in the mansion seems more than a bit fishy.

"Grand Tour: Disaster in Time" is a time travel film, and it offers some interesting new variations on that theme. Unfortunately, the film suffers from bad acting (the travelers), bad costumes (the travelers once again), and a sentimental sub-plot. The words "low-budget" screamed out at me occasionally, and low budget is one thing that really hampers a time travel film. The end result is a cheesy film that has a 60s-feel to it, awful make-up (Jeff Daniels looks as though someone stuck a glob of blue paint across his eye), bad hairstyles, and pathetic costumes (we all know a mask when we see one). The plot also needs some serious rehashing as the initial time travel idea is stretched beyond the interesting and moves into foolishness--displacedhuman

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When you try to improve on an original ...
This film is a take on C L Moore's classic short story "Vintage Season". In "Vintage Season" time travellers from a distant future visit the present. Just as wine connosieurs savour a particular "year" so does these travellers seek out a specific year noteworthy for its unexpected descent into tragedy. Like that last Bank Holiday in August 1914, before the Great War came. The travellers are totally dispassionate about the events they witness, they are just as happy visiting the coronation of Charlemagne as they at witnessing the collapse of a modern civilisation. Reading the story conveys the impression that time travellers would view any world they visit as sort of an open air zoo or theme park. The story is disturbing, particularly as it is written from the persceptive of a man who only gradually realises that his visitors are the equivalent of racecourse spectators waiting for a crash, and that his world is doomed to collapse. The travellers are venal, petty and devoid of any empathy for the suffering of others.

Whilst copying several of the plot elements from the original story the film burdens Jeff Daniels with an unbelievable soap opera-ish tragedy in his past. The tragedy is supposed to invigourate Mr Daniels into trying to change the future, even though he can't change the past. The narration is weak, and the "action" by Daniels lacks any dramatic tension. Daniels is an actor too associated with light roles to bring much dramatic tension or detremination to the role. A happy ending when the future has already been written ? A great story looses all its strength when watered down to this anaemic film.

Unfortunately this film, like the latest remake of the "Time Machine" just doesn't do justice to its antecedents.