Time Walker (1982)

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

**CONTAINS SPOILERS** In 1982 I saw this in the theater as the second movie in a double-feature. So, my total cost for this movie was $0. I overpaid.The plot is terrible. NO one is going to believe that university professors will "mistakenly" find King Tut's tomb and a sarcophagus in it. From there, everything that happens makes even less sense. A Mummy goes after college students (one is topless, so I see how the T&A fans may have wanted it, but it is even too short to really justify that pretense) in search of crystals that appear to be light bulbs. THe mummy kills several (and after each kill, I found myself rooting for the mummy since fewer cast members meant we were getting closer to the end). The worst part, though,was the conclusion. After waiting for the movie to end, I was rewarded with a "To Be Continued." No, I'm not kidding. That really is how it ended in the theaters. Even the writer didn't know what to do with a "mummy gone wild." There is no sequel. The movie IS that bad.However, somewhere along the lines, someone must have decided it could be fodder for a "made-for-TV" level movie, so it was renamed "Being From Another Planet" and an extra 15 minutes or so were added to wrap up the ending. As you might expect, it is very hastily added, and the quality is lacking. Should you want to watch this movie, I would recommend that version since it at least has an ending.In 1992 (about 10 years after it released), Mystery Science Theater used it in one of their episodes and finally it got what it deserved - a funny soundtrack.I did not see the MST 3K episode when it aired, and only learned of its treatment of this show after MST3K was off the air, so for two decades Time Walker was my all-time, worst ever movie. It had such a bad plot that it didn't even have an ending until one was slapped together to make it a TV movie. After watching the MST3K version, though, I was able to laugh through it.If you like cheesy movies, watch this one with the robots on MST3K, or riff it yourself. Otherwise, save your time and avoid Time Walker.

The very low rating on IMDb is really unjust--I've seen films that were a lot worse than this. Flicks like STUDENT BODIES, SLAUGHTER HIGH, UNBREAKABLE and CURSE 3 come to mind.This sci-fi flick centers on a missing mummy brought to California by Professor Ben Murphy. When the sarcophagus is opened, therein lies a mummy but the next morning, during a press conference, when the resting place is opened again, the mummy is gone. Student Kevin Brophy found a sack of five jewels in the tomb and swiped them which awoke the mummy. The mummy has to collect his jewels which Brophy has given to girls and fratboy chums.Ben Murphy learns that there is more to the mummy than meets the eye. A scroll that was buried with the mummy claims that the mummy is a traveller and not one of King Tut's servants or relatives. With a mysterious green ooze emitting from the sarcophagus, Murphy thinks he has stumbled upon an otherworldy life form and not some Egytpian mummy.STORY: $$$ (The story isn't anything special and there really isn't any moral to the movie. Other alien flicks beat the audience over the head with morals--think ET and ABYSS--but TIME WALKER doesn't take that approach. The script is a bit too by-the-numbers though).ACTING: $$$ (Nothing outstanding here either. Kevin Brophy gives the best performance as the pilfering fratboy with Ben Murphy and Austin Stoker doing fine work as professors. Nina Axelrod, from MOTEL HELL, is good in her role as Murphy's pet. The acting is actually better than B-Rate flicks boast, but the actress who played Brophy's girlfriend was a terror).NUDITY: $$ (There are two completely gratuitous topless scenes supplied by Melissa Prophet. First Brophy spies on her in her bedroom while she slides into her bra and later the "mummy" comes to retrieve his last jewel from her while she showers).

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.

I saw this film when it came out in the theater 23 years ago and I'm still mad about the $4.50 I paid and the precious 83 minutes of my life that I will never get back. If I remember correctly, after watching it the MST3K group said that it was worse than any other movie they had ever seen except for "The Castle of Fu Manchu" and that is was AS BAD AS that movie. If it were possible I would devote my life to creating a time machine just so I could go back in time and do whatever it took, including assassination, to ensure that this movie never got made. I'm amazed that it did not hit the 100 worst movies list, I can only assume that it's not there because not enough people have seen it and endured its awfulness. There are some bad movies that are entertaining in their badness, there are some bad movies that I have enjoyed watching just to laugh at them. This is not one of them, this is just plain bad from beginning to end.