Biggles: Adventures in Time Movie Download

5 / 10

Out of place, out of time
BIGGLES could have been a great, authentic adaptation of the famous ‘boy’s own’ adventure stories by Captain W. E. Johns, but some genius scriptwriter had the idea of updating the storyline to then modern day to draw in the American audience. Thus we get a slapdash sci-fi outing involving an annoying Yank who repeatedly time travels to WW1, where he gets involved with the antics of the eponymous hero.

In essence, this is a film of two halves. The period-era stuff is fairly decent, featuring a workable performance from Neil Dickson as the hero. There are the requisite aerial dogfights and gun battles, all of it following a simplistic action-template formula, but it works well enough. The old ruined gasworks setting of Kubrik’s FULL METAL JACKET is brought into play again and provides a fitting backdrop for the action.

A shame, then, that the modern-day stuff is so off-putting, and no surprise that it has dated more than the WW1 story. Alex Hyde-White’s American accent is way over the top, and the lame humour adds absolutely nothing to the story. The only good part is the presence of Peter Cushing in a large-ish supporting role; this was to be his final screen performance, and it’s an acceptable denouement for the star, his character filled with the quiet dignity we’ve come to associate with the actor.Read More