| ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. | |
| PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. | |
| OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. | |
| NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Parents need to know that there is mild peril, though the guns only shoot ice bullets (to shock the system out of hyper-time) and no one is hurt. Francesca wears some revealing outfits, but she and Zak share only a couple of kisses. The movie features multi-ethnic good and bad guys and Francesca is strong, smart, and brave.
Zak (Jesse Bradford), the son of a loving but preoccupied scientist, accidentally takes a top-secret device, thinking it is a watch. It turns out to be a mechanism for speeding up the metabolic rate of whoever is touching it so that they see the world around them as almost frozen. To the rest of the world, they are moving too fast to be seen. At first, Zak uses it to impress a pretty girl (Paula Garces as Francesca) and together they have fun with some pranks and pay-backs. But then the bad guys come after them, and Zak and Francesca have to save the world.
This special effects action comedy is fun for kids and fairly painless for adults. More important, it is a rare film directed at kids from 4th-8th grade, that most-neglected of movie audiences. Not surprising, it is produced by Nickelodeon, the cable channel dedicated to just that group.
The plot is a throw-back to the old Disney classics like The Shaggy Dog (also with a pretty teenage girl named Francesca) and The Absent-Minded Professor. Director Jonathan Frakes (of Star Trek) ably handles the sci-fi aspect with special effects that truly are special. We see water droplets suspended in air and a bee floating over a flower. CLOCKSTOPPERS zips along quickly and has a lively pop soundtrack.
Families can talk about the problems of developing technologies that can get into the wrong hands and the problems of balancing commitments to work and family.
| Topics: | adventures |
| Studio: | Paramount Pictures |
| Director: | Jonathan Frakes |
| Cast: | French Stewart, Jesse Bradford, Paula Garces |
| Genre: | Action/Adventure |
| Run time: | 93 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | March 29, 2002 |
| DVD release date: | August 13, 2002 |
| MPAA rating: | PG |
| MPAA explanation: | peril and mild language |