Clockstoppers (2002) review

Dir. Jonathan Frakes

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★

NOTE: This review is a mix of my original review, written back in 2016, and some amendments made after rewatching the film on May 1st, 2025.

Clockstoppers begins by introducing us to Quantum Tech Corporation (QT Corporation), which has developed a new project called “Hypertime,” allowing a user’s molecules to reach lightning speeds, giving the appearance that everything around him or her is standing still. “Hypertime” can be activated by wearing a particular wristwatch, and despite the NSA stopping the project before it is fully completed, QT’s CEO Henry Gates (Michael Biehn) still wants the watch for his own power.

Unbeknownst to Gates, one of the leading scientists behind the project sent the watch to Dr. George Gibbs (Robin Thomas), a teacher at his son Zak’s (Jesse Bradford) school. Zak, who keeps pining his father for a hot new Ford Mustang, winds up getting his hands on the watch, and, upon discovering its true powers, uses it to impress Francesca (Paula Garcés), the new girl at school from Venezuela. It doesn’t take long for the two of them and their other friend Meeker (Garikayi Mutambirwa) to abuse the watch’s power and cross paths with Gates, who desperately wants that watch back.

Clockstoppers is simple entertainment; precisely the kind of medium-budget production you could envision Nickelodeon Movies putting out in the early 2000s. It takes a lot of similar vibes from Back to the Future, and it focuses on familiar teen tropes in order to momentarily capture the attention of pre-teens. It has an attractive lead actor with a rebellious swagger, a beautiful foreign exchange girl who sticks closely by his side after initially showing her claws, and the rowdy sidekick, who adds a more comedic spin on his buddy’s serious perils.

Throw that all in a blender and you get Clockstoppers, basic cable’s best friend. A film good enough to take up a two hour time-slot with commercials, but not good enough to have any retaining or lasting value outside of surface-level amusement. Despite both Bradford and Garcés boasting enough charisma to make them worthy of the two leading roles, it’s largely the way the film surprisingly handles the material in an unexciting way, right down to crafting a boring villain who feels about as uninspired and as cookie-cutter as they come. For a film about stopping time and momentarily stunning and transforming the space-time continuum, it’s a film with shockingly low energy.

Bradford succeeds at appearing like the most popular unpopular kid; eminently likable, but with an everyman quality that doesn’t make him the conventional movie lead. Garcés, two years before she’d land the role of the love interest in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, asserts herself in the first scene. She’s not a damsel, and she’s not going to fall into Zak’s arms. At least not easily. She’s got more spunk than a lot of Nickelodeon-generated supporting girls.

Clockstoppers came out at a time when Disney and Nickelodeon films based around brand new, live-action properties were being churned out and nearly every young actor was getting their shot at centerstage for whatever project the studios wanted to concoct. Clockstoppers isn’t uniquely bad, which in itself is a bit of a disappointment because at least it would provide me with something noteworthy to say. Unfortunately, the film is just a simple case of fast food filmmaking: a movie you can quickly watch and just as quickly forget.

Starring: Jesse Bradford, Paula Garcés, Garikayi Mutambirwa, Robin Thomas, and Michael Biehn. Directed by: Johnathan Frakes.