Review of Time Walker

Try this wacky premise on for size: when a mummy discovered inside the tomb of King Tut is brought back to a university, it turns out to actually be an alien, which is soon brought back to life by an X-ray overdose. A fairly slimy student (the same one who overdid it on the X- rays) discovers crystals inside the sarcophagus and, when he can't get a jeweller to take them, he sells them to his classmates. Well, this pisses off the "mummy" who embarks on a murderous rampage to retrieve the crystals, while the heroic archaeologist / professor Douglas McCadden (Ben Murphy) tries to figure out what's going on. I wonder how Steve Martin might work all this into his famous "King Tut" song? Anyway, I won't deny that this is far from being "good" stuff, but if you dig goofy low budget genre nonsense like this, as I do, you may also find some entertainment watching this. Hell, it does have its moments, in particular an extended chase scene. And among its crew are the under-rated composer Richard Band and art director Robert A. Burns of "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" fame. "Flesh Gordon" star Jason Williams is actually one of those responsible for the story, as well as being one of the producers and playing a small role. While the acting is largely, predictably underwhelming, the casting mix has to be seen to be believed: first off, it *is* awesome seeing "Assault on Precinct 13" leads Austin Stoker and Darwin Joston (sadly, this was Joston's last movie role) once again acting together in scenes. Also appearing are Kevin Brophy ("Hell Night", "The Seduction", 'Lucan'), the under utilized James Karen ("The Return of the Living Dead"), Shari Belafonte-Harper (getting an 'introducing' credit), Antoinette Bower ("Prom Night" 1980), Greta Blackburn ("48 Hrs.", "Chained Heat"), Nina Axelrod ("Motel Hell"), Warrington Gillette (the guy credited as Jason in "Friday the 13th Part 2"), future 'L.A. Law' regular Alan Rachins as the jeweller, and the late, great trailer announcer Don LaFontaine as a reporter cracking bad jokes on television. Sporting supposedly clever touches such as green tinted alien P.o.V. shots and the frequent use of wipes, "Time Walker" is simply too hard to resist for fans of silly schlock. The ending is downright priceless in its attempt at sentimentality, as well as its attempt to set up a sequel, stating "to be continued" before the end credit crawl. While some viewers may be very happy that never happened, I still say that this movie has a certain clunky charm. Five out of 10.