A time-travel movie may not be the best choice for a first review, but I caught The Tomorrow Man on Showtime Beyond, and would recommend it, even for those who man not be fans of time-travel (I am).

The bullied 10-year-old son (Brian) of a loving but hard-headed and becoming-increasingly-abusive 1970's father ( a weight-gaining Corbin Bernsen of L.A. Law), is kidnapped and transported 30 years into the future (present day), with the father grabbing onto a government agent in pursuit.  The kidnappers?  A gang led by the boy's 40-year-old self, a notorious criminal wanted for "death penalty trials" in 7 states, who wants to take the boy further into the future to rescue him from the "to become even more abusive" father, whom he blames for his criminality.  The boy, of course, bonds with his older self, and is ambivalent regarding which direction to take.

This is a serious movie, but with much humor.  The time-travel is handled very well, campy and tongue-in-cheek, poking fun of itself and the weekend-long debates we've all had on the subject.  The female agent is at times hilarious, hating the father for having sired/raised the son who that same day murdered her lover, appropriating the top-secret time-travel device. (sample dialogue: Father, inquiring about the device, "How does that work?"  Male agent, "That's classified.  If we told you we'd have to kill you."  Female, "I'll tell him." )

I would highly recommend this as a "treat your kid right/don't abuse" movie, done very, very well, with the time-travel as a unique way to present that theme.  Corbin Bernsen does an very believable job portraying a very hard-headed, stubborn, yet loving father -- to say more would be a spoiler (which I'll add WAY below my second set of pictures).  I thought the boy did quite well with what he had -- he's portrayed as a little "too wimpy" (beyond realism), but then he didn't write the script.  I don't know the name of the boy -- there isn't much to be found (go ahead, try); actors listed in the ending credits whom I cannot find at IMDb are Dwayne Gamer, D.K. Kelley, and Adam Sutton.  There is also a Stevie Johnson with one listing at IMDb, too old to be Brian.
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I like the idea of time travel but of course it won't ever get to happen or there'd be people visiting us from the future.

For some strange reason the movie only rates 3.9/10.  Is there something in the movie that would garner such a low approval from audiences?

I wanted to offer a belated thanks to wwaabbiitt for mentioning this film. I had the opportunity to see it this weekend.
I think the low rating at IMDB is due to writing deficiencies, but if you are willing to overlook them, the film is rather entertaining. I gave it a 6.
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Time gets bent and twisted so out of whack in writer-director Douglas Campbell's modest, ultimately middle-of-the-road B-flick THE TOMORROW MAN it makes films like FREQUENCY and XCHANGE look like models of narrative logic in comparison. It's another case of attractive high concept brought down by low-brow execution; stop to think about what's happening for a second and you might burst into a nervous sweat.

In present day Los Angeles, a gang of criminals bust into the homes of two government agents---Spence (Zach Gilligan), who is proposing to Vick (Beth Kennedy)---and steal their fancy Playstation-style time-travelling device. Spence is shot dead, Vick vows revenge and travels back into the past to track them down. These time-hopping criminals, led by Mac (Morgan Rusler), drop into a hospital in 1970 and disrupt the lives of Larry MacKay (Corbin Bernsen)---an abusive working class father who's just lost his job---his wife, and their son Brian, whom they kidnap. The thing is, Mac is actually Brian, only 30 years older and a little less innocent. Mac's ingenious plan is to jump further forward in time, into the 23rd century, with his young self, in the hope of finding a better life.

Primarily a vehicle for Corbin Bernsen ("L. A. Law", THE DENTIST), THE TOMORROW MAN kinda plays like a sci-fi update of Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL for the direct-to-video crowd: the protagonist only realizes what a creep and coward he is when travels forwards in time and sees the damage he's done. It's a briskly-paced, moderately entertaining thriller that teases, amidst the standard-issue shootouts (which are not very well choreographed) and bickering odd-couple comedy between Bernsen and the no-nonsense Kennedy, with brief glimpses of delicious irony and invention, and makes you wonder if this would've been a hell of a ride with a more developed script, better direction and actors. Bernsen's performance is almost endearingly bad, an embarassingly empty portrayal of the suburban dad who mixes alcohol and child abuse into his cocktails. He's such a clunky bear of an actor, chewing and spitting out risible dialogue without emotion, you'll have to swallow a brick before you accept his warm fuzzy turnaround in the end. Rusler's good/bad guy character practically neutralises the tension in the thriller; after all he's kidnapping himself, so why would he hurt himself? So should we really be worried?

Die-hard time travel fans may want to have a look, Bernsen buffs may want to see what he's up to these days, others will be better served elsewhere.

Modified by aaron yap at Thu, Oct 25, 2001, 00:50:01