Millennium starts off very strong: with perhaps of the coolest concepts I've ever seen executed
in a film.
Kristofferson plays Bill Smith - an ordinary guy with a boring name who is an NTSB plane-crash
investigator.
After one crash, he slowly unravels a much larger mystery, one involving time travel
and infertility.
Cheryl Ladd plays opposite Kristofferson as Louise Baltimore - a woman from the future
who travels back in time onboard doomed aircraft, mid-flight, to steal all of the passengers
off the plane, and bring them to the future - before their plane crashes.
Their bodies are replaced with pre-burned replicas.
Baltimore and her co-workers from 1,000 years in the future are unable to reproduce, so
naturally - their solution is to steal men and women from 1989 and force them to breed
with each other in their crumbling, dystopian future.
And in a really clever plot point, all of the characters from the future must constantly
smoke cigarettes while traveling to the 1980's... because they're accustomed.
to polluted air, and the air quality in 1989 is just too clean for them.
As I said - in concept, the movie is incredibly strong, with the science-fiction aspects of
time travel and paradox very well explained and explored.
Unfortunately, the movie fails in just about every category.
For one, Kristofferson is bland, boring, and uninspiring as the lead - who really just
seems cranky for most of the movie.
The character motivations are also highly suspect, at one point, Baltimore travels back
in time in an attempt to distract Smith from discovering more about her body-snatching
plan.
Her method of distraction?
Have a one-night stand with him.
I don't know about you... but I wanted to watch a cheesy 80's-sci-fi movie... not a
Kris Kristofferson sex scene.
Besides this really bad romance plot that never felt right at all - I also had issue
with the film's abysmal portrayal of the future.
I mean...
come on now... are we really meant to believe 1989's perception of the future is... 1987?
I swear to god... in one scene, I saw Madonna walk by.
Halfway through the film, the narrative focus shifts to that of Baltimore, as we follow
her side of the story.
And for some reason, the director finds it necessary to literally show the entire first
half of the movie again... from different camera angles.
I mean...
yes...
now that we know what's really going on, watching the earlier scenes in the movie again, from
Baltimore's perceptive helps us better understand the plot... but seriously - nearly 45 minutes
of this movie are shown twice!
It's just bad writing, and entirely inexcusable.
But on a lighter note, this is certainly one of those so-bad-it's-good movies...
at one point towards the end of the film, when the characters start to dick around with
temporal paradox's, the computer consoles in the future start exploding and killing
people.
Right...
so you're saying that if I go back in time and kill my grandfather...
a computer in 2989 is going to burst into flames?
Umm... somehow I don't think so.
Anyway... here's what you guys thought.
DeanBearSyr Millennium was a passable time travel/mystery movie.
Basing a movie on a John Varley short story was chancy at best.
The visual effects were so-so, but Cheryl Ladd's "future-punk" look was very disturbing,
considering she was a former "Charlie's Angel."
Kris Kristofferson basically sleepwalked through this film.
A good time-waster when you're bored and channel surfing, but not worth renting or buying.
ChainsawDoctor Millenium: Was an amazing movie, it is one
of those movies you have to appreciate for it's time period.
The movie was so cheesey that it was just amazing in it's own right.
Some many not agree, but I thought it was good just for the cheese value.
S13AR10AFan Millenium: I don't want to get into how lame this movie was.
It wasn't awful, but pretty bad.
3 out of 10.
Now personally, I enjoyed this film just enough for it to be at the very least, as passable
B-movie.
Maybe scoring a 3 on my personal scale.
But wow...
you folks voted overwhelming negative - leaving Millennium with a whooping score of...
GARBAGE.
Not many of you voted, but over a third gave this lowest-score possible, a one.