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Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann More at IMDbPro »

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26 reviews in total

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11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
good film, even though both gene and roger disagreed with me, 16 July 1999
Author: len-26 from haverhill, ma

The following comment includes a piece of the plot. If you plan to see the movie (and I recommend you do), do not read the rest of this.

Both Gene and Roger felt that the title character seemed stupid in that he didn't understand what had happened (i.e. that he went back in time) until the very end. I, on the other hand found it most believable. If you were lost in the desert, and you came across a _rural_ town, wouldn't it take quite a lot before you'd reach the conclusion "Oh, I must have gone back in time!"

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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Comments and Goofs - Time Travel Paradox, 28 March 2002
Author: berryware from Anoka, MN

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

What a fun movie. I think this is the first time travel movie I had ever scene as a kid. Got me hooked on sci fi! It was fun simply due to surprise and comedic element of persons in the past discovering technolgies from the future. Such as the Peasent puts on cycle helmet and is blasted by rock music, and the sight of the helicoptor at the climactic end sequence.

Goof - Time Travel Paradox in movie

Lyle Swann says to Belinda earlier in the movie that the pendant he wears is from his great grand mother. At the end of the movie, Belinda snatches the pendant from the neck of Lyle as he is being lifted by the helicoptor. (The temporal police will have a field day with this one.) The pendant can't exist. It is in the eternal time loop. It was never created, only passed person to person until traveling back in time. Think about that one.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Classic Fred Ward Adventure Flick, 9 August 2004

Author: dst-thomas from Boulder, Colorado

This film is a great example of what can be done with a low budget, decent story, and a great cast. The direction is broad, and at the same time both light-hearted and dark. I think it's a good example of balance in that regard. Please see my comments in the message board regarding the ending of the DVD version. I think you have to be able to remember back to the day - 1982 - to appreciate this movie. Superior low-budget time-loops starting with "The Terminator" were still 2 years away....

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
I grew up on this movie., 24 August 2003

Author: feketerobi (feketerobi@aol.com) from Clifton, NJ, USA

I loved every minute of it, when HBO showed Timerider, I watched it everytime like I see it the first time, it perfectly fit my interest in motorcycles, it was funny (poor old guy), endless enjoy watching it, Years after, I was searching to get this movie, had hard time to find it, and I bought it on a used video tape for $70 bucks, later I find it on DVD, I bought that too. I still watch it ones in a while.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Disappointing for me, 7 December 2002
Author: Nicholas Rhodes from Ile-de-France / Paris Region, France

I love time travel films, but there are two that disappoint me, this one and "Return to the Future". This one was absolutely corny and I think primarily designed for American Motor Cycle enthousiasts ( the film is not even known in Europe and hasn't appeared on VHS or DVD ). All time travel film is of course fantasy, but the story of this one is too corny. Throughout almost all the film the bike rider doesn't even realise he has crossed time and the villagers, apart from being fascinated by his machine, don't understand where he has come from. Both these ingredients being missing, one is more or less guaranteed that the film will be a failure. In fact if you look well much of the time you just see a motorbike zooming around all over the desert. So what's interesting about that. Nothing. There is little dialogue of any consequence between the protagonists and the anacchronism of the main character is not put to good use (as it is for example in Time After Time ). There are no comic situations arising from the time difference and hardly even a romance to titillate your taste buds. This is one of the few films where I bought the dvd without having seen the film and then regretted my purchase once I had seen the film ! In addition to that picture quality on the dvd is not up to much, and there are no other language tracks, subtitles or extras. So all in all a bit of a dead loss (like Joe Loss's Brother ) !!!

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
cool time travel, 26 March 2006
Author: snowalker-1 from Canada

Timerider is a fun movie to watch. It's a good movie to watch with kids on a rainy day. Some of the content is a little adult, but not over the line. It's not a billon dollar pick, but it has some nice special effects. You will see some familiar faces when they were young, and the acting they really tired. I liked the movie, and hope it sparks the fire that leads someone to become a "timerider". I would not say run out and buy it, but if someone has a old VHS of it, watch it! I think even hardcore si-fi fans like me will get a kick out of it. Maybe its just me, but I thought the soundtrack was pretty good. It fit the mood of the movie. Only downside is there is a lot of rerun footage.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Great action/Sci Fi flic!, 12 November 1998
Author: aztlan98 from USA

Fred Ward deserves more attention as an actor...he did a great and believable job in this movie! (I especially like that part where he's asked where he got that map...he say's "got it at an EXXON Station") Peter Coyote was awesome!. What a bad BAD guy he was! and Belinda....WOHOO!....now that's a hot woman!, she can Rape me at gun-point anytime she wants! (ehh...don't tell my wife I said that!)

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Only fairly good, 10 May 2010

Author: Mickey Micklon from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Star motorcycle racer, "Lyle Swan" (Fred Ward) goes missing as he is in the middle to a race. At least that's what his friends think. In reality, he stumbles upon a secret government time travel experiment, and is sent to the late 1800's.

While in the past, he comes across a band of outlaws, who become obsessed with his "machine." He also meets the residents of a small town, who believe him to be the devil, as well as a woman (Belinda Bauer) and the local padre (Ed Lauter).

The entire time, "Swan" is unaware that he is in the past. He eventually falls for the woman, and desperately tries to get away from the villains.

There are some problems with the movie. First of all, this movie gave no time to the romantic subplot. It was like they met, and jumped into bed as soon as possible. There was no development into the storyline at all.

Another problem is that the movie didn't spend enough time in the present to show the search for the racer. You got a couple of scenes where the friend tries to contact "Swan" over a CB radio, and that's it.

I could not connect with any of the characters. "Swan" seemed to settle into his situation a little too easily if you ask me. I also didn't like that he never really realized that he was in the past. Not once did you see anything that would hint at it until he found something with the date on it.

There are some fairly good performances in this movie. There are also some lackluster ones as well. Ward and Baur were easily the best, although their romantic subplot seriously lacked. On a romantic level, the chemistry between the two was just not there. I also think that the outlaws were not evil enough. You just could not hate them There was some fairly good action in this movie. It wasn't perfect though. You got a lot of chases, especially when "Swan" came across the outlaws for the first time. You also get some gunfights, but nothing spectacular.

Music for this movie was written by Michael Nesbith, best known as a member of the 1960's band, The Monkees. The music he composed certainly had an 1980's feel to it. The music was not memorable though, and did not sound like anything the Monkees would have done.

The only thing when it comes to wardrobe is the protective suit worn by "Swan." Because it's an all-red, leather outfit surrounded by 1870's costumes. Other than that, nothing stands out.

Overall, it's not a bad movie. It is good enough for a time-waster. Just don't expect a blockbuster motion picture.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Over all holds up very well., 17 January 2010

Author: smjblessing from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

It's Timerider, The Adventure of Lyle Swann. First there was George Pal's The Time Machine, then the 1960s television series The Time Tunnel, then before Robert Zemeckis's Back to the Future trilogy there was William Dear's Timerider.

Timerider is about a motorcyclist named Lyle Swann, portrayed by the rugged Fred Ward. Lyle Swann is far from your average biker in the Baja 1000. He is an extreme dare devil who is always doing cool bike tricks as he cruises through the rough terrain of the New Mexico desert. However trouble strikes when Swann accidentally bikes on government property where scientists are testing a experiment with a time transporter. Swann is then accidentally sent back to the year 1875........................... WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING IT! The trouble quickly amps up when a trio of ruthless bandits want his motorcycle and will stop at nothing to get it. A desperate Swann (still confused about the place he is "lost' in) ends up falling in love with a beauty of the west played by Belinda Baur. With great determination Swann must try to get back to finish the Baja 1000 in a suspenseful thrill ride all put on the seat of a bike. With a fast driving rocking soundtrack brought to you by (long time friend of the director) Michael Nesmith.

My first initial reaction of Timerider was unsure. After all being a fan of Michael Nesmith for quite sometime I wondered if his creativity at writing short comedy skits in his films Elephant Parts (1981) and Television Parts (1985) could be good at writing action films really made me burn with curiosity about what this film would be like.

Upon watching it I found that some parts in fact seemed to be like a motorcycle commercial. And it definitely showed that the writers or at least Nesmith himself drooled over motorcycles (This is very evident for Nesmith especially for he has been photographed during The Monkees wearing a Triumph motorcycle t-shirt and participated in a bike race somewhere around late 1969. He also raced in the Baja 1000 himself and won! Under the name of Timerider.). This film definitely showed shots of the motorcycle from every possible angle for waaaaaaay too long. This will sort of bore you. As the film went on I sort of had this MST3K (Mystery Science Theatre 3000 was a television that made fun of bad movies. it aired on T.V from 1989 to 1998) thing being envisioned in my head. I wanted to knock it out, but it started to annoy me a bit. It even made me hysterical at points!! This thought probably increased because of the VHS quality (MST3K's films quality was always a VHS quality especially for films made in the 1980s.I have only seen it on VHS. NOTE: If deciding between the $74.00 out of print DVD or the $4.00 out of print VHS get the VHS. The VHS has the complete ending to the film, unlike the DVD which has a snipped ending.). So as the film's plot progressed it became apparent that Michael Nesmith and William Dear did have an edge at writing action films (with excellent creativity!) but sort of left it plain. The plot itself is very bland and nothing too special. Unlike the Back to the Future trilogy where it features someone who doesn't want to go back in time and ends up screwing the past up shattering his own existence makes you feel more suspenseful than a guy who doesn't know he's a hundred years in the past and doesn't really do much except ask for directions. In other words the plot is weak, but fair. The action scenes are good in this film and shouldn't be missed.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Some Bad Movies are Very Entertaining..., 19 October 2009

Author: Bats_Breath from Phoenix, AZ

And this is one of them. Yes it is a bad movie. But it is certainly not a terrible film. It's not a good film because it lacks a cohesive plot, the narrative sorta just plods along and we never really learn much about Lyle Swann, the dirt biker part of a motor-cross marathon that accidentally gets sent from 1982 to 1877. We don't learn much more about the characters he interacts with either, and no one seems to change or grow at all by the end of the movie. The film seems to end rather abruptly, and on a somewhat bittersweet note.

The biggest complaint I always see about Timerider is that Lyle Swann is pretty stupid about what happened to him. He doesn't seem to put together that he went back in time till literally the very last scene, even the moments leading up to that last part don't give a hint that Swann had realized he was sent back to the 19th century. Yes this was annoying. Though I do find it believable that most people would not suddenly think "hey I went back in time" simply because they are lost. Swann's interaction with the old man in the desert or the villainous Reese and his crew would probably not be enough for him to make that connection, but I think that by the time Swann had reached the small village something should have sparked in his mind that this was not right. Too many people were reacting with hysteria and fear upon seeing him in his red dirt bike dear and Yamaha bike (or machine as they start calling it). By this point Swann should have seriously wondered about why people continue to assume he is some demon.

I want to echo the sentiments of another poster, some of the stuff I really enjoyed about this movie was the raw unapologetic presentation of 19th century America. For PG standards anyway. There was nothing romantic about THIS Old West. People were dirty, dingy, nasty cruel barbarians with guns. Apart from Claire, who had her hair done up and wore nice make up (this was forgivable since she was hot), everyone else was presented as a grimy, yellow teethed, uneducated lot of folks that likely did inhabit the real 19th century. Most of these people probably never or rarely saw a dentist, and bathing was a luxury. I really liked this, when I saw this movie for the first time as a small child this struck a chord with me, as I don't think I had seen too many films up to that point that presented the old west like that. These issues also illustrated how radically different the culture of the late 20th century was from previous eras. Simple things we take for granted such as good hygiene, were in the 19th century, almost assuredly reserved for the wealthy who had the means for such dalliances. You certainly would not want to live in Timerider's Old West, there is no compulsion to sit and write poetry or muse about the old American frontier, no the director makes you feel just as eager as Swann does to get the hell out of there. If there was a least believable aspect of the film, it's that Lyle gets shot at repeatedly but never once gets hit. Nevertheless, catching this movie on a lazy weekend on a syndicated channel back in the 80s was always a treat and it's still good viewing for any rainy day.

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