The TIME SHIFTERS

Although not given any screen credit this story was based on a treatment of mine — I was the guy who came up with the gimmick and the basic plot.

]If you squint quickly, you will see the name of a buddy of mine from my college days, Kurt Inderbitzen, as one of the Executive Producers. He called me up out of the blue one day and asked if I could come up with an original idea for a time travel story. I said I could come up with twenty, and promptly did. This was the one he picked.

Any fans of my storytelling might well enjoy this yarn.

Those of you who read my recent column on why I hate time travel stories can tell which of the several available sleights of hand I used to make the absurd seem possible.

Because of this film, I have always had a fondness for actor Casper van Dien. How can you not like someone who plays a character you make up?

I can almost forgive him for playing Rico in Paul Verhoeven’s abomination called STARSHIP TROOPERS, which, since in my house it is forbidden on pain of paternal displeasure to name that film by name, we all call BUG WARS.

This is the first known example of the LAST JEDI syndrome, where a film maker hates and loathes his own source material so badly, he is willing to turn the film into a dumpster fire in order to belittle the source material.

Such a film can still be enjoyed, of course, by those who regard it as a slapstick parody. There is always an element of gross-out in such works, whether it is milking a green alien Dr. Seuss monster, or giving a bug monster a lethal enema.