Great wee sci-if film with so much to come from the ' what if ' scenario. Good for it's time of release but just watched it again and far ahead of it's time & poses so many relevant questions. If remade I agree with my fellow reviewer Gold 5 that this could be absolutely terrific! Everyone excellent in their roles with Martin Sheen outstanding as always. Nice direction & cinematography too. 8 out of 10.

Intelligent science fiction films have a tendency to be few and far between – which is why it's refreshing to watch this thought-provoking time-slip drama which sees a naval warship from the '80s transported back in time to the day before the attack on Pearl Harbour! The film's conception was clearly inspired by one of my favourite movies – the Japanese classic G.I. SAMURAI, with Sonny Chiba and his troops transported back to samurai times. I was looking forward to see what this US-centric twist would add to the story, and I wasn't disappointed.For a start, this isn't an action film. Aside from plenty of scenes of planes flying around and landing on the ship (via some cool elastic technology), this shows no battle scenes, so if you're looking for that kind of excitement I'd recommend going elsewhere. The crux of the film is the captain's moral dilemma as he has to choose whether to become involved in WW2 or not. Any action he takes is likely to have drastic consequences – leading to a nail-biting climax that poses the question "what if?".The cast is pretty good, a mix of star names and character actors. Douglas is one of those old-time guys who seems great in any part, and I couldn't fault him here. Martin Sheen has something of an extraneous role, given that he doesn't actually do anything other than act as the audience's eyes and ears. James Farentino and Katharine Ross supply a low-key love affair and Charles Durning has fun as a ranting politician. I also enjoyed Soon-Tek Oh who appeared briefly as a menacing Japanese pilot – the stand-off involving his character is the film's best scene. Sure, this isn't the most exciting film in the world, and in terms of spectacle the special effects have dated somewhat. But I found it original and unpredictable, a fine addition to the spate of time-travel-paradox movies that never panders to the booms-n-bangs crowd.

A movie that bears a similar resemblance to the legend of the USS Eldridge and the Philadelphia Experiment flick of 1984, in some aspects. That movie saw an experiment on board the US warship to try and make it invisible to radar. Of course it goes wrong and two crew members are sent into the future of 1984. In this time travel adventure the USS Nimitz is on training operations in the Pacific when a mysterious storm comes out of nowhere and sends the ship back to 1941.The casting is impressive with this old sci-fi, Martin Sheen is a civilian observer, a systems analyst who is on board for reasons unknown frankly. Charles Durning plays a fictitious senator back in 1941 and the epic Kirk Douglas is the USS Nimitz Commander. All three of these actors add much needed impetus to the project as lets be honest...this is total B-movie fluff. Although I still can't for the life of me work out why Sheen's character is required, and here lies one of the plot issues.In this movie the USS Nimitz was designed by an aged Mr. Tideman who we don't see. Now this chap has made sure that Sheen's character gets on board the Nimitz for its training run. The reason being because what happens on board the ship and in the past (when the ship gets there) will effect the future. You assume Sheen's character will obviously somehow effect someone or something that will cause a time ripple, but he doesn't as far as I could see. Sheen doesn't really do anything throughout the whole movie accept stand around and offer the odd bit of advice. The only thing I can think of is the fact that the Nimitz was delayed by two days waiting for Sheen's character to arrive and board (according to Douglas' character the Commander), by order of the mysterious Mr. Tideman. So maybe that delay was required so all the following events would be set in motion at the right time.Naturally time travel paradoxes may arise in a story like this and I'm pretty sure the main twist in the tale here doesn't work. Basically it turns out one of the officers on board the Nimitz is a younger Mr. Tideman who gets stranded back in 1941. Tideman helped design the Nimitz because he served on board her as an officer up until the point he gets stuck back in time. So it was the older Tideman back in 1980 who wanted Sheen's character to travel on the Nimitz for her training ops...although I don't get why as I already said Sheen does nothing.So here is my issue. Young Tideman goes back in time and gets stranded (in 1941), he then must pretty much relive his life through to the present of 1980. Thing is in the present of 1980 with Tideman now an old man, at some point many years earlier, another younger version of Tideman must be born so he can join the Navy, join the Nimitz and eventually go on the training ops mission back in time. So this would surely mean there would be two versions of Tideman living in the same time, is that possible? I'm sure the older version would know not to try and meet his younger self so maybe it would be OK?There is much that isn't really explained in the movie, whether that's because its left up to your own imagination or not I don't know. The mysterious storm is never explained, the fact it seems to be aware at one point because it tracks or homes in on the Nimitz when they try to outmaneuver it. The whole event is simply written off as a mystery or freak of nature. Also I noticed that when the Nimitz goes through the time portal, even jets that aren't on board her go through too. At the end there is an entire strike force of jets up in the air and nowhere near the Nimitz when the storm time portal thing catches the ship and they go back through to 1980. So even if these jets aren't on the ship and not even close to either the ship or the portal...they still go through? Is that because the ship goes through and they just materialise along with it? maybe they are foreign objects in time and time knows they don't belong there? Admittedly most of the run time is taken up by military prowess and military hardware porn, put it this way if you like big guns, jets, aircraft carriers, warships, old planes, helicopters, flybys etc...you're gonna have a field day. Its basically a US Navy recruitment campaign combined with a training video showing you all the cool fun stuff, life on a carrier and errr...all the cool fun stuff. You could also say it was a long homage and love letter to one of the USA's best supercarriers, one of the biggest warships around. A day in the life of the Navy at sea and how it runs. I can't deny it all looked very impressive though, very slick, very cool, it gives 'Top Gun' a good run for its money...and this was 1979! imagine what they're like today.Anyway back to the movie, it was fun, an enjoyable little Twilight Zone-esque escapade which I find agreeable on most days. I knew there would be problems along the way with this, you can kinda tell, but it doesn't detract from the fun too much. Very well put together, nice effects for the time, cool aerial camera work on various military toys and it keeps you thinking.7/10

Capt. Matthew Yelland (Kirk Douglas) is in command of the American nuclear aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. Warren Lasky (Martin Sheen) is on a special assignment from the DOD. He has a mysterious benefactor Richard Tideman who helped design the ship. They go out to sea and is caught in an unusual storm that sends them back in time to right before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Laurel Scott (Katharine Ross) is the assistant to Senator Samuel Chapman (Charles Durning). They are on a yacht attacked by the Japanese. Cdr. Owens (James Farentino) is the lead jet pilot.There is some great footage of an aircraft carrier and real fighters. This is most notable for all the real work considering this is pre-CGI. Everything is in camera. It's probably the only time that jet fighters get into a dogfight with propeller fighters on screen. When the music comes up, it's all done with so much energy. There is some drawback with using the regular crew as extras and Farentino isn't the most charismatic actor. I do like that they have a discussion about time travel. This is probably the second best real fighter planes movie after 'Top Gun'.