A man creates a time travel helmet that can only be used in the future to travel back to it and decides to use it to patent troll his ex.
Written and directed by Mike Jackson, this sci-fi comedy is decently entertaining with some solid ideas throughout but will be of limited interest to many. Basically, this film is for fans of indie sci-fi and comedy with a very specific sense of humor. The film here is clearly a passion project and one in which the talent all comes together to get the story on the screen in a manner that makes viewers want to watch the whole film. The writing and direction work hand in hand here and quite well at that. The film is entertaining; the dialog is annoying at time with some truly eye-rolling bits here and there, but it makes sense given the lead character and his personality. He is not meant to be necessarily loveable throughout the story here, and the writing works with this quite well, walking that line between “ugh” and “Imma turn this off”.
The cast here is a big part of why the film works. While there are bits here and there that are overacted, they do not feel too out of place with the tone of the film, and they work in a way. The lead of Donald Voltmann is played by Peter New who nails the man most folks wouldn’t want to be around. He imbues his character with a smarmy-ness, a condescension at times even; that works just right. His character is seen at two very different times in his life and one of them is much worse than the other, something New manages to make quite distinct in his performance while retaining the general aura of the character through it all. Joining him are Lou Ticzon as his sort of assistant, Paula Burrows as the lawyer he’s hired for his patent application, Camryn Macdonald as his nemesis, Rhona Rees as his long suffering and peculiar ex-wife, and a few others. Everyone here does quite well with a standout performance by Macdonald who just goes for broke and brings a fun energy to it all.
The film’s look here is quite decent with solid lighting and framing allowing for the characters to take center stage, the appropriate way to film this story here. The work by Cameron Belseth shows an understanding that flair works for some films, and others require a more subdued approach. The film at hand here is enough as it is without going crazy with angles and lighting, so the careful approach here allows the story to stand front and center and the images to frame it and let it shine.
Time Helmet is a sci-fi comedy that should highly please fans of its specific sub-sub-genre but may not work at all for many others. It’s decently entertaining, the lead character is someone most wouldn’t want to spend 5 minutes with which plays against the film here and there during the run time. Overall, the film is entertaining and works as a sci-fi comedy putting it in the higher rungs of its own type of this genre.