Clockstoppers is a 2002 American science fiction comedy film directed by Jonathan Frakes and produced by Gale Anne Hurd and Julia Pistor. The film stars Jesse Bradford, Paula Garcés, French Stewart, Michael Biehn, Robin Thomas, and Julia Sweeney.
Director Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek: First Contact) deftly mixes laughs with thrills in the sci-fi adventure film Clockstoppers. Zak Gibbs (Jesse Bradford, Hackers) is an ordinary teenager who suddenly obtains extraordinary powers when he stumbles upon a mysterious wristwatch-type device that can literally stop time in its tracks! To Zak, it’s the perfect gadget to impress Francesca (Paula Garces, Dangerous Minds), the beautiful new foreign exchange student at school. But to those more passionately familar with the incredible timepiece – a hapless scientist (French Stewart, 3rd Rock from the Sun) and his sinister boss (Michael Biehn, The Terminator) – the ultimate power of the entire world literally lies in the hands of whomever possesses the amazing apparatus. They want it back – at any cost – and that’s when Zak and Francesca find themselves unwittingly swept into a thrilling, high-tech race against time!
The concept had been done before over and over again in TV but never with the budget of a motion picture before and this is a really interesting concept that could be made into a good feature film and Clockstoppers does, for the most part, live up to that potential.
The young cast do work off each other very well, French Stewart surprisingly has a more laid back role that what we’re used to seeing him as. It says something when Michael Biehn is more over the top in a movie than French Stewart is.
The effects of when the characters are frozen in time surprisingly do hold up for the time and when you see the main character interacting with the frozen time, it’s impressive how well both of them blend together.
The film definitely does have its’ flaws like you know when you can tell where Jonathan Frakes had more control over some scenes while you can also tell when Nickelodeon had more control over what scenes they show such as the lackluster bullies and a bizarrely ridiculous club scene in which Zak and Francesca try to help their friend Meeker by slowing down time to make it seem like Meeker is doing these crazy dance moves…even though the watch isn’t suppose to make people invisible or at least, they didn’t establish that beforehand.
Despite obvious flaws that ding the movie a lot, Clockstoppers overall does manage to keep you thoroughly entertained with its’ intriguing premise, a solid cast, and some ridiculously over the top moments. Take it for what it is and you can enjoy it on that aspect.
The Reviewing Network 
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