A SOUND OF THUNDER - (DVD Review) 25/3/06

Having always enjoyed time-travel tales I was always impressed with Ray Bradbury's short story "A Sound Of Thunder" having read it more than 25 years ago now and thought it would make a good film. Having heard all sorts of horror tales about this film's production it doesn't come off that badly - Feeling like an extended episode of "The Twilight Zone" or some such? Having suffered the Prague flooding in 2002 and then the Production Company going bust it was a wonder this film saw the light of day at all - And in a couple of places it shows - Especially in the really bad early on CGI designed car scenes. One minute it feels like a feature film then drops into TV serial then back to feature film again. All it's problems withstanding - It's mildly entertaining and the edge of your seat thrills come from the "what if?" scenario. As time is changed; events spiral out of control and things just get worse. Ben Kingsley slimes across the screen as the sleazy head honcho of the dubious Time Safari Corp in a white shock wig which is fairly repellant in itself. Fighting in their own corners Edward Burns and Catherine McCormack try to hold the thin plot together under the direction of director Peter Hyams ("Timecop") Obviously Warner Brothers/Franchise Pictures shoved this Region 1 vanilla disc out with nothing but the trailers on it to hopefully recoup some of their expenditure. Expect it on TV or Satellite/Cable soon.