Epoch (2001 TV Movie) User Reviews (65)

An example that drove non-geeks away

[the-watcher · 5/10 · 10 September 2001]

The plot of this story is interesting, coupled with the Millenium anxiety that was prevalent during the time of release. However, huge hole in plot, lack of background and poor scripting resulted in a mediocre "armageddon" movie.

The background is that an ancient, gigantic, floating rock-like object suddenly appeared out from underground after 4 billion years. Of course, scientists, together with the prerequite of military force have to investigate. David Keith, plays the main protegonist who is supposedly incredibly intelligent and works under a female diplomat.

The usual, predictable sparks appear, between male and female, scientists and the military, USA vs China (the location is supposedly close to the Chinese border in Asia).

The worst thing is that there is potential for this show to have much better ratings. However, horrible scripts that don't into details, just action, action, action, coupled with the director's inability to elicit any emotion from the wooden actors/actresses except for the extreme ones made this show a movie that only a geek would like.

Entertaining -- Worth A Look

[brimleg · 5/10 · 13 September 2004]

I first viewed this film when it aired in 2000. I was impressed by the intensity of David Keith's performance. Having seen him in Fire Starter, I was glad to see him as lead in another SCI-FI film. Not a particular fan of Ryan O'Neal, I must confess this role was executed extremely well.

I enjoyed this film from Title to credits and would recommend taking a look if you enjoy the "mystery of origin" venue.

When viewing this film, take a tongue-in-cheek view of budget, location, etc. Enjoy the film for the intense action and great performances rendered by David Keith and Ryan O'Neal, try not to be too critical of plot or content. Just let yourself be entertained for an hour and a half.

Good story concept, mediocre special effects

[jerry_smart · 6/10 · 25 November 2001]

Good story concept. The special effects could have been a little better. I think this is a movie made by SciFi channel. Being a made for TV movie it isn't half bad. The story reminds me of the movie "Sphere" It is worth a watch based on the story concept alone. I'm glad I watched it.

Not GREAT....but a lot better than many

[uscmd · 12 June 2004]

I have to agree with the wizard. i'm stuck at home on a Saturday with the flu, and luckily I have every channel Direct TV offers, so there's a lot to choose from.

This is a very decent, made for TV sci-fi movie. Complete with philosophical issues, a few plot twists...e.g., 80% of the way through the movie, you don't know if the 'thing' is good or bad.

The actors are mostly B and C level players. But the script, and their performance allows one to become absorbed in the storyline. As opposed to many, that are just so plain horrible.......immersion into the story is impossible.

I can name 10 movies that have been released in this calender year, ones I've paid 9.00 to see in theater, that I feel are less worthy of 2 hours of my life.

I'd classify this, as definitely worth watching for free....if its on TV. Not worth going to see at the theater. Not worth making a special trip to blockbuster, but worth tucking away in the back of your mind for one of those nights when everything else is checked out.

I give it a 5.

Doc

Good elements, but lacked some funk

[SamRag · 5/10 · 19 August 2002]

There was not much I expected from Epoch, thinking that surely we would have one of these B-movies with pausing dialog and s****y script. So in some ways I was surprised, as the result was much better then I expected. What saved this film was pretty good idea and not too bad script. The main actors did well, keeping their conversation fast paced and witty. There were some parts that irritated me though, mostly to do with the government, which seemed to be filled with idiots. It had a weird balance between comedy and action, which I don't think really worked here, and even though some wit is good, they should have kept it more realistic. I especially enjoyed Brian Thompson, which we have seen in so many TV shows (Star Trek, X-File). He managed to actually act here, which he is not allowed to do often, and I think he is underrated as an actor. But the performance of Ryan O'Neal just irritated me along with a few of the others; with such bad over-acting that it was painful to watch. However, this film lacks action and the storyline went steadily down hill from beginning to end. The idea could have been used to make a pretty good action movie, with a little bit better worked out storyline, and much better casting. 5/10

ho hum

[geomac39 · 2/10 · 9 May 2007]

I am going to have to stop picking DVD's on their cover graphics, which was the case for EPOCH. This is a comedy ? yes ? must be because I laughed a lot. EPOCH is not just a stereotype, but a STEREOTYPE of a stereotype. Lets see what I can remember..... alien chamber with long threads of vapour inside, check. Entities a copy of the ones from ABYSS, check. Ethereal off key male voices, intermittent kettle drums with the odd bass drum to raise tension, check. Thuggish trigger happy US rangers invading a sovereign nation, check. Incompetent officers at loggerheads, check. A nuclear weapon with red number countdown, check. A scientist trying to defuse such bomb with a Swiss Army knife,check. The artifact collapsing with giant rocks falling down ( Indiana Jones, the Mummy etc. ) Aliens deciding that we are worth saving eventually, check. Last, but not least, a virgin pregnancy. I watched it all the way through ignoring the "turkey meter " warning horn. I don't normally do this so it MUST have some entertainment value which I am unable to fathom. Over to you, folks !

One to miss.

[Rob_Taylor · 1/10 · 17 December 2002]

Oh my! What a wonderfully awful film this turned out to be. It even had Troy..er I mean Marc McClure in it. "You may remember him from..." No! No. I'll stop now.

Anyway, Epoch is a film with a simple enough plot. Think 2001 A Space Odyssey, but without any space bits. Basically, an alien artifact appears in Bhutan and a team is sent to investigate. A team which includes the likes of David Keith, Craig Wasson and Ryan O'Neal. Poor old Ryan was looking a little the worse for wear in this one. It's been a long time since Love Story, for sure.

Anyway, the action is pretty lame and I got a good laugh out of the scissor-lift HQ truck (watch and you'll see what I mean). The plot is pretty hokey and has more holes than a swiss cheese. I'd like to give you a spoiler alert, but honestly, I'm not ruining anything by telling you this. The artifact was put here by aliens eons ago. Every now and again, it pops up and, if whatever civilisation is not advanced enough to deactivate it, it wipes that civilisation out completely and disappears for another few millions of years. I can't honestly recall if they said so or not in the film, but the implication was that it wiped out the dinosaurs.

Now, call me picky, but I have trouble understanding just why an alien race would create such a device. Given the timescales involved in life forming and evolving to a civilised state, what do they get out of it? And since the device could wipe out a civilisation just a few years before it was able to deactivate the artifact, surely that would be counter-productive (to whatever motive the aliens had in the first place). Far better to create the device to wipe out any advanced species before it became a threat to the creators. Yet this is clearly not the aim of the artifact.

And what wonderful test of civilisation do our humble human heroes perform to deactivate the device? Perhaps solving some complex alien language and pressing the "off" button? Or simply providing the missing part to some quantum mechanics equation? No, all our heroes do in the end is nuke the artifact. A triumph of brute force over ingenuity. No thought required, just fry it.

The only small ray of sunshine in this otherwise overcast film was Brian Thompson. He regularly plays bit parts in films and TV and usually ends up the villain or goon. Here he plays a Special Forces Captain. But despite his square jawed glaring, even his dialogue and part are dismal and forgettable.

SUMMARY: One to miss.

Odd and interesting

[gherstein · 7/10 · 9 June 2002]

A pretty good "B" grade SF. I worried toward the end that it was going to "wimp out" and opt for a religious interpretation of all the various goings on. But the film stayed true to itself, offering no easy or obvious answers, while at the same time resolving its story line in a fairly satisfactory manner.

Several of the plot "twists" and characters are cliche's; however, some are not as cliche as they initially appear, and ultimately, even the most predictable ones are managed in a comparatively non-offending manner.

Worth seeing.

A frustrating film

[motor89 · 5/10 · 8 May 2005]

Epoch starts out reasonably well... even if it's not very original. An alien artifact -- a strange twisted rock-like formation -- suddenly appears in the remote country of Bhutan and the Americans and Chinese race to reach it. The Americans win and begin to explore it.

The problems for the film begin toward the end. It starts to become really stupid. There are interesting narrative threads that are just forgotten about, and people start to do moronic things for no apparent reason. I'm reading between the lines here (I haven't seen the original script so I just don't know), but there seemed to be a theme of life/death/rebirth/pregnancy and how it links with the object (particularly considering the strange Bhutan child and the final scene) but only traces remain the film. Of course, it may just have been a poorly written story... or it may have been butchered later. It does seem as though large chunks of the script were ditched in order to shorten the running time.

The film is entertaining at the start but hugely disappointing at the end. It leaves you feeling annoyed at the wasted opportunity.

Not a bad premise

[Omne · 6/10 · 16 June 2002]

The main idea, that an energy being descended to Earth 4 billion years ago in order to monitor and create intelligent life on the planet, was interesting.

Minor spoilers ahead.

The being, now "encased" in a rocky 1/2 mile tall ship/monolith, periodically wipes the planet clean and starts over with a new dominant species. Of course this also explains the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Mankind is on the short list to be purged in the present day. Maybe it's going to try raccoons or something next.

The acting is mediocre at best. You know it's bad when Brian Thompson is one of the better actors in it. The other characters are cut out 2 dimensional figures that nobody really cares about. They cut so many corners in order to squeeze this into 90 minutes they lose anything of value. Maybe as a mini-series with better actors and more complex plot development it might have resulted in a superior effort worthy of the basic premise. Unfortunately they chose the quickie version and it shows.

All in all an OK attempt at a difficult plot. I'd give it a 5 or 6.

It doesn't get any worst than this

[yojimbo999 · 1/10 · 30 May 2003]

"Epoch" has a pretty good premise, but oh my God does the execution blow chunks. I don't like to use the word often, but this movie is just retarded. The screenplay, the acting, the character motivations -- God. It's like a bunch of kids wrote this movie, giving the characters all childish qualities. The idiot Chinese Government, who SHOOTS A MISSILE at the big black rock thingy, and THEN blames the U.S. Government for their jets getting destroyed! And guess what? Later, the brilliant Chinese sends a division of soldiers to invade a foreign country because that country wasn't "big enough" to have a say about who comes into their country!

What a retarded movie. I swear, I've never used that word to describe any film, but "Epoch" really takes the cake.

A Great, Intelligent B-Movie

[slayerjmk95 · 8/10 · 29 October 2011]

When i saw this aired on the Scifi channel in 2006, i thought that it would be another ultra-cheesy, incredibly terrible film that Scifi usually makes but was i surprised! Epoch was a great, classic B-Movie that actually had good CGI for a TV made film, decent to good acting, and a story that actually got me hooked because it felt like i was watching something made by Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg, only on a much smaller budget. David Keith was really good in the cocky role of Mason Rand, an engineer who works for the DOD who's called in to work on a team in Bhutan where a giant towering object called the Torus lifted itself out of the ground and began to give of EMPs that traveled far across the globe, and began to heal the sick and reanimated the dead, which has doctors and scientists baffled. All in all, Epoch is a very good movie that can capture the audiences attention without being stupid and loud, and keeps to the classic sci-fi movie feel as there is not much action but more thrills, as they begin to study the Torus. This is a must-see for science fiction fans

8/10 Stars***

Another movie in which the Americans try to save the world...come on!

[disciple128 · 7/10 · 24 November 2001]

This movie surprised me I must say. Not to say that it wasn't predictable, because it was, but the whole production of this film amazed me. The visual effects were great! So was the set design, and to some degree, so was the direction. The only factor that doesn't quite measure up is the acting. It's sad...but true. But all in all, it's an entertaining and very thrilling film! Well worth the cost of renting it!

Tired Remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still - Epoch

[arthur_tafero · 3/10 · 23 March 2020]

This is a lame student film with two good first shots and then weary predictability afterwards, which vaguely resembles "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and a dash of 2001 Space Odyssey. Ryan O'Neal is unintentionally hilarious as a professional actor trying to play a role of some commander, but everyone else does a credible job in their roles. I have seen student videos superior to this film.

A pleasant surprise

[StaticEngine · 1 June 2003]

Ahh, the critics who are so quick to dismiss this made for TV movie often make me wonder what they're really looking for.

I picked this movie off the shelf of Blockbuster thinking "hey, unknown Sci-Fi movie, must be awful, but I bet there's some sample material for me in it." What a shock when I got it home and found it was actually clever and worth watching!

To begin with, the script is actually pretty smart, and filled with surprisingly witty dialog that had me laughing out loud at parts. The CGI effects are as good as they get for a movie of this budget, and are better than I expected them to be. The story, while mildly predictable, keeps you thinking, and is certainly of a bigger scope than the standard "five people trapped in a unknown alien artifact" that I expected. Any story that acknowledges politics and an outside world has to be given more credit than some viewers (and commenters here) would care to admit.

Overall, if you've got a rainy day and are looking for a little diamond in the rough, this isn't a bad way to spend two hours. There are faces you'll recognize, some intelligent unfolding of the story, reasonable cinematography and direction, and Epoch is an overall entertaining bit of work. 7.5 out of 10.

Stunningly awful

[ratbag97 · 1/10 · 30 April 2003]

Every cliche you can think of is in this movie. A good game to play is 'say the line before the actor does'. Here's your starter for 10 points ... "I'm not paid to think" (hint - a soldier's line). Would probably appeal to 11 year old boys with nothing better to do on a wet Sunday afternoon. The only good thing I can say about this movie is it would be great to show when you have a few friends round so you can pick it to bits for fun.

Avoid at all costs!

[vanbarel · 3/10 · 5 January 2002]

If you want to see a movie where - the main charachters are flatter than a table - the background charachters are just "background", no emotions, except for some chinese extras that while pretending to be menacing smile at the camera! -the visual effects range from nice CG landscapes to rubber boulders -ANYTHING happening his predictable! -the plot is so silly that "Manos" seems Ben Hur in comparison -the silliest end in all the movies i ever saw: "I'm pregnant!"

than see this movie. I saw it just because i was ill, and it made me sickier...

Silly from go to whoa

[redkiwi · 3/10 · 7 March 2002]

This is one of the sillier alien films you'll see. There's obvious attempts to use symbolism in the way that worked for 2001, but they fall flat.

The alien monolith? Hmmmm, I'm sure that's a coincidence ;)

Badly acted and with a silly script, this is a B grader if ever I saw one. One for the late night TV film section I think.

Yes it's a B movie with an attitude...

[bheadher · 7/10 · 16 June 2022]

But so what, if you were channel surfing looking for something to watch then this one will suffice for an hour and a half...Epoch may be the classic B move, but it actually has some charm. The plot is way out there for all us SciFi fanatics, and the acting is almost believable, so heck, give it a shot with a bit of popcorn and long for those days of no CGI and half baked movies that only wanted to entertain you...

And no thnking needed...

Where the bad movies come from?

[Mr__Underhill · 1/10 · 24 December 2002]

Ever had the experience of walking into a video store and seeing a box that looks interesting, so you take a risk? You get home, start watching it, only to find yourself being sermonized by some low-budget evangelical propaganda film that is nothing like what the cover suggests. There have been a lot of films coming out like this lately, so I took the liberty of checking out the company that made it to see if it was a coincidence.

The company is called Two Left Shoes Films, which turns out to be a trademark of D.E.J. Productions. D.E.J. productions is a subsidiary of Blockbuster Video and is owned by its parent company Viacom. Its function it to snap up very low-budget films of 1-3 million dollars and market them by contract to, not only Blockbuster, but loads of big chain video stores. Each store dedicates a certain amount of shelf-space to these crummy films using box art and marketing to make them look like normal films. They make a killing at viewer's expense.

A bit too complex...

[bonejones00 · 7/10 · 6 July 2005]

The movie's plot, though rather hard to follow at times has some real potential in it. The acting was far better then many I have seen in other made for TV movies and the special effects were not bad at all. The plot itself is extremely deep and can require too much thought for those looking to watch a regular sci-fi flick but there is too much left out for those looking to see a complex movie with answers. Had this project been taken up by a larger studio it could easily have been a great sci-fi hit that would last generations.

In conclusion, I recommend the movie for anyone who is looking for a decent flick to watch in the summer hours when you may not have anything else to do.

Real Bad...

[kamwingp · 1/10 · 2 March 2002]

The kind of film that you spend 30% of your life watching, because you can't help yourself... especially when you have nothing to do late at night except to channel surf and watch B movies...

Good premise of a film, got me interested, forgave the cheesy acting, didn't mind the simple FX, but the script was real bad. I could have cried.

If you have nothing better to do, go to sleep.

This movie is much better than prior reviewers have averaged

[thtaylor-69661 · 8/10 · 1 January 2020]

Yes, lots of predictable, "B-movie" stuff, but solid sci-fi, easily as credible (and hokey) as several older cult movies.

Really poor script, Directing, but true to 1950-1980 blend SF evo and - SMELLS GOOD!!

[ion_christopher · 7/10 · 15 May 2020]

The movie stinks good - very evocative of favorite themes and made-for-TV scenes, like the effects in season 1 of Star Trek, climbing around in a smoky alien ship. It's got a bit of Zardoz mystery-mountain, and a bit of Jurassic Park in the team - and probably a dozen others in bits and pieces. So it could have gone in many directions - but ultimately it was a cheap thrill remake of 2,001 a Space Odyssey. Quite an accomplishment for $1.93 budget.

Should have been a book instead

[rodental · 5/10 · 8 September 2002]

Like everybody has already said - the idea is great, but the treatment falls apart. The plot is completely predictable following the standard 'recipe' for unknown-superhuman-threat-movies. It also seems like a lot of the ideas behind this movie comes from _Spriggan (1998)_, not that the two are that alike. Thompson, Brian (I) delivers the most convincing acting in the whole film as a stouthearted army ranger. I would say that the special effects are forgivably bad because they actually work on a television screen, and they wouldn't on a big screen. The music is actually pretty good - if you like gloom and doom stuff (it has a Poledouris, Basil sort of ring to it) All in all : not terribly bad, but the kind of movie you won't be sorry to have missed.