SYNOPSIS...

In 1943, the government prepares to take part in an anti-radar experiment, involving sailors and their ship. An unexpected side effect of the experiment throws two sailors forward, to 1984.

Amazed to be in the future, the sailors kidnap a woman and go on a road trip. One of the sailors is pulled back into the past.

Arriving at a military base, the remaining sailor takes part in a risky, new experiment, to reverse the effects of the original disastrous experiment. The experiment a success, the sailor decides to stay in the present with his new girlfriend.

REVIEW...

Director Stewart Raffill's, THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT, is a well made, clever, time travel yarn.

Michael Pare ("Eddie and the Cruisers"), is well cast as a time traveling sailor, from the 1940's. While his character isn't very bright, he's likable, and sympathetic.

Nancy Allen ("Robocop", "Dressed to Kill"), as a present day woman that Pare kidnaps, who falls in love with him, is convincing.. As ably Directed by Raffill, she comes across as strong, vulnerable, and sympathetic.

The film's Script, (Story by Wallace Bennett and Don Jakoby; Screenplay by William Gray and Michael Janover), has some nice Sci-Fi moments. Newly arrived, in 1984, fellow sailor/time traveler, Bobby DiCicco, picks up an aluminum can off the beach, remarking, "It's so light. What's it made of?"

The FX, particularly those depicting a time storm, are quite good. The Special Visual Effects are courtesy of Cinemotion Pictures Inc., Max W, Anderson, and Special Effects Unlimited, Inc.

Director of Photography, Dick Bush, does good work here. Particularly good is a low angle shot, as the young Doctor Longstreet looks at sailors on the deck below him, as though they are lab mice, as a radar shield rotates in the background behind him.

The Music, Performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra of London, is frequently ominous and melancholy. Ken Wannberg gets the credit.

THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT should be fairly watchable for most Sci-Fi viewers. Time travel/Pare fans will dig this one.