Word: swann
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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LIKE A GOOD MANY science fiction movies. TimeRider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann, introduces an intriguing idea and then systematically blows it. "Lyle Swann" is an off-road motorcycle racer who, while speeding across the desert during the "Baja 1000," suddenly finds himself transported back to the year 1977. A science research company, it seems, is conducting time travel experiments in the desert when Swann unwittingly passes into range of the time-travel equipment. The "science" of all of this, of course, seems improbable at best. (Even a believer in time travel might expect the research company to take...
Soon after he has been transported back in time. Swann, played by Fred Ward, comes across a trio of dandle on the run from "the Law." After recovering from their Swann in his bright orange racing suit and helmet, the bandits begin shooting it him. Swann quickly roars off. The leader of the gang shouts to his cohorts. "I want that there ridin machos. From here the plot degenerates. Swann rides on to a small Mexican village with the Gringo bandits following him on horacbrck, and the rest of the movie is a case of the good gave...
...Favorite Year" is 1954, and the narrator is Benjy (Mark Linn-Baker), a junior scriptwriter-cum-gopher on an NBC comedy show. His job is to keep an eye on the show's upcoming guest star, Alan Swann (O'Toole), a faded but still popular swashbuckler whom Benjy idolizes. His task is not an easy one: a man who keeps flasks of 12-year-old scotch sewn into the lining of his coat. Swann has a propensity for appearing on tabloid covers in morally dubious positions...
...Swan dive but comes up playing nothing less than O'Toole. He still has that slightly pathetic, glassy-eyed stare that refuses to acknowledge the presence of either camera or audience. But this performance has a new focus. Rather than underscoring his decline by clinging to heroic roles (as Swann does). O'Toole confronts his age directly and triumphs over it. He emerges rejuvenated from My Favorite Year--reborn, in fact, as an immensely talented comedian, even a better actor (a process that was already evident in the wonderful, underrated The Stunt...
...Dying is easy, comedy is hard," Swann intones at one point, claiming this switch on an ancient show-biz truism is an expiring actor's last words, but My Favorite Year's writers and director are sometimes too determined to make it seem as comfortable as possible. The script occasionally ladles warm chicken soup over situations where a spritz in the face would be more appropriate. There are times when Actor Richard Benjamin, making his debut as a feature-film director, is too content with a scene's obvious values to find a handle to twist...