As Time Goes By (1988)
IMDb meta-data is 1 hour and 36 minutes rated a measly 5.5 by a paltry 157 cinematizens.
Genre: Sy Fy; Species: Alien incursion
DNA: Strine.
Verdict: More!
Tagline: Play it!
A sun bleached surfer boy with a board travels 800 miles into the desert (near Broken Hill, again) to keep an appointment made for him twenty-five years ago (when he was born). That’s odd, but wait, there’s more!
Joe Bogart crash landed his extraterrestrial bar and grill smack dab in the middle of nowhere, 800 miles into the desert. Can this proximity be a coincidence? Hardly. Screenwriters don’t rely on chance.
Thanks to inhaling helium, this Bogart outdoes Robin Williams, spouting passages from films in the original voices lickity-split which explains a little, very little, of what is going on but which is fun to watch and identify, ‘my dear, if you give a damn.’ Meanwhile, the born again gloomy copper pursues some Mad Max wannabe’s led by a none too bright but half baked arch villain in spurs. Maybe the copper is so glum because he is pining for The Quiet Earth (1985) where he had even fewer lines.
There are many misunderstandings and much to-ing and fro-ing, but it always comes back to Bogart’s Bar out there in the desert.
The plots holes are many but there is too much pace to look back. When I caught my breath I listed these:
- How did the baby survive unbeknownst to his father?
- Where was the mother in all this?
- Did the six count?
- Where can I get a cocktail shaker like that?
- What happened to the bow-tie wearing CSIRO man?
- Did it hurt? (Hope so.)
- Who cares? (Not me.)
- And last but not least, was it that Strasser?
Despite these plot holes, it makes more sense than the ever so serious Incident at Raven’s Gate of the same year filmed in the same locale (at the same time?) with a similar storyline played entirely differently. And also used helium! Must of been on special.
As with Incident at Raven’s Gate this Australian outback is devoid of aborigines in any form.