Timerider

By Marshall Fine

As time-travel adventures go, this 1983 outing is an enjoyable one: a loosey-goosey shaggy-dog story about an '80s kind of guy who gets tossed back to the '70s--the 1870s, that is. Fred Ward plays the hero, a motocross racer who, along with his motorcycle, accidentally rides into the middle of a science experiment and is transported to the Old West. There, he runs into a cast of bad guys that includes some of the best character actors of the period: L.Q. Jones, Tracey Walter, Richard Masur, Ed Lauter, and Peter Coyote. It's your classic fish-out-of-water setup, with Ward as the slightly dippy wise guy who startles the heck out of the cowboys and pioneers of the period with his motorized bike, until he runs out of gas. The movie runs out of fuel as well, but it's an enjoyable ride while it lasts. Notable for its coproducer and cowriter: Michael Nesmith, formerly of the Monkees.

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