Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982)

What makes it different from others?

just watch it!

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

"Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann" has an intriguing premise: What if a modern day motorcycle rider was transported back in time with his motorbike to the age of the cowboy? The movie manages to mine some interesting and entertainment moments from this, ranging from the reaction of nineteenth century people to this modern figure and his machine to some interesting action moments. It's also fun to see cult stars L.Q. Jones and Ed Lauter.While the movie passes the time acceptably, at the same time I couldn't help but feel that the screenwriters didn't punch up the script enough. The bad guys are for the most part brutal thugs, and the reason for the chief bad guy wanting the motorbike is never revealed. The hero is also weak - we don't get to see much of him before he's transported back in time, and he seems mighty slow to figure out he's been transported back in time. And the movie doesn't take much opportunity for the modern day hero to use what he has and what he knows on these backward people.Overall, the movie is worth watching, though when you aren't feeling that demanding. It also helps if you like westerns.

My favorite Fred Ward movie is Remo Williams:The Adventure Begins. Of course, the adventure ended with that movie as well as they never did a followup. I have seen him in Silkwood and The Right Stuff as well. All of these movies, including this one were released about the same time (1982-1985). I don't know why I haven't caught him in anything since, but I certainly enjoyed that period of his career.I really enjoy time travel movies. They don't have to be first quality, just the idea captivates me. When I watched this, I had just finished another time travel film with William Devane and Lauren Hutton (Timestalkers). Not first quality, but interesting nonetheless.This one starts off with Swann (Ward) getting caught in a time travel test and being shot back to 1877 with his motorcycle and full gear. You can imagine the impact that had on an old Mexican.Swann spends his time trying to figure out where he is, while he tries to escape the bad guy, played by Peter Coyote, who wants his "machine." Interesting twist at the end of a mediocre, but fascinating movie.Would have liked to see more of Belinda Bauer, but I'll have to check out her appearance in Winter Kills for that.

Lyle, a motorcycle champion is travelling the Mexican desert, when he find himself in the action radius of a time machine.So he find himself one century back in the past between rapists, thieves and murderers....The thing that is wrong with this movie, and what deters it from other schlocky eighties movies of this nature, is the fact that there is no characterisation, no real story, no narration.The film at times doesn't know what to do with itself, so spends the time with Ward riding his bike to one situation that ends with a comedy moment, or with an action moment.But the most irritating thing about this movie is that not once does Swann ask what year he is in, thus making the title of the film pointless.There are a couple of good scenes, bloody boots and Coyote trying to start the bike, but it really doesn't hold a candle to cult movies like Zone Troopers or Solarbabies.

Fred Ward gives a typically credible and engaging performance as Lyle Swann, a hotshot off-road motorcycle champion who becomes lost in the Mexico desert while in the middle of a motorcross race. Swann accidentally stumbles across a top secret government base that's conducting a time travel experiment and gets transported back to 1877. Grimy, vicious desperado Peter Coyote and his two dumb, craven, greasy, unwashed scuzzbag partners (marvelously played by the ever-grubby Tracey Walter and an uncharacteristically nasty Richard Masur) want to steal Swann's wheels. Swann seeks refuge in a small, remote Mexican village. The God-fearing peasant vocals think Swann is the devil incarnate. Only priest Ed Lauter and fiery, fetching femme Clair (the highly alluring and enticing Belinda Bauer) treat Swann with any hospitality and become his sole allies, protecting him from both Coyote's gang and a couple of bothersome federal marshals (one of 'em is grizzled Sam Peckinpah movie regular L.Q. Jones).The fantastic premise is given a semblance of gritty, lived-in plausibility thanks to the brightly conceived script, believable reactions the 18th century characters have to both Swann and his motorcycle, sound acting from a top-rate cast, and especially director William Dear's harsh, rough around the edges, very dingy and fiercely unromanticized evocation of the Old West. It's this latter element of ragged, dust-under-the-fingernails filthy historical authenticity which makes "Timerider" such an effective and engrossing offbeat sci-fi/Western outing. Former Monkey Michael Nesmith co-produced, co-wrote the quirky screenplay, and supplied the lively, thumping, guitar-blasting, synthesizer-driven rollicking rock score for this interesting anomaly. The Anchor Bay DVD offers an excellent letterboxed presentation of this unsung favorite, along with a disarmingly candid William Dear commentary, two theatrical trailers and a bunch of TV spots.