Millennium

Millennium (1989)

Runtime: 105 minutes (the international version is a few minutes longer; the one on Netflix is the original version)

Directed by: Michael Anderson

Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Cheryl Ladd, Daniel J. Travanti, Robert Joy, Lloyd Bochner

From: 20th Century Fox

Here's the review I promised before; it's for a movie that isn't too good but the reason why I saw it: it was a first for me. Read all the details below: 

There are many reasons for me to watch a movie; “because Netflix screwed up and they still haven't fixed it as of now” is a first for me. For some reason, late last month they were bragging that on the 1st this would be available for streaming. Now that it is... the title as listed is correct. However, the picture representing the film: it says the title is “Millenium”. How that hasn't been fixed yet is utterly embarrassing and disgraceful for such a major website and service like Netflix. Then again, maybe it's being run by the future aliens from this movie; after all, they were incredibly dopey and incompetent...

The movie has a promising plot, at least from the basic description. Kris Kristofferson leads the investigation of airline crashes. The current case he's on has some strange things, including a bizarre weapon. Turns out, it's from the future and Cheryl Ladd is back from the future trying to retrieve it. As others have noted, the first 25 minutes or so are good as the story begins and you try to figure out what's going on. After that... off the cliff it goes.

My big problem isn't how you barely get to look at how the world works in 2989 (or whenever future time is), as I understand this was low budget and they couldn't afford much aside from being stuck inside a run-down crappy building as it's a crappy future. Rather, I wonder how those idiots even managed to do time travel in the first place. They're always leaving items behind that cause “timequakes” because it creates a butterfly effect, and they're just dopey. That's not even including the logic of their endgoal and why they're in the past in the first place.

When the movie's not dopey, it's just plain dull. The general idea of looking at a series of events from one perspective then seeing it from another perspective later on is interesting as described. When it's a shoehorned-in and pointless romance, who cares? I did not, really. A lot of goofy things happen then it has a wacky ending, which I understand is even wackier in the international cut. To clarify, what's on Netflix is the original American cut from 20th Century Fox.

It's a shame this is not even good, as there is a kernel of a good idea that is always present in the film; it just did not work for me overall.