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The Philadelphia Experiment
01/07/2006 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
region 0 :DVD. Anchor Bay Entertainment DV11234. 101 minute film with no extras. Price: $ 9.98 (US) although I got mine for $ 6.99). Stars: Michael Paré and Nancy Allen. Buy The Philadelphia Experiment in the USA - or Buy The Philadelphia Experiment in the UK  check out website: www.anchorbayentertainment.com/
I've been waiting a long time for a region 2 DVD release of the 1984 John Carpenter directed film 'The Philadelphia Experiment'. Hasn't happened yet. In the end, I pulled this one from America via Amazon.com and discovered it was Region 0. That means that even if you haven't got a multi-region DVD player, this one should play on your machine. Just in case it doesn't, remember the word 'should'. There are some odd DVDs that don't but this one doesn't appear to be one of them.
'The Philadelphia Experiment' is a fiction based on the alleged disappearance for a time of the US battleship Eldridge in 1943 during an attempt to make it undetectable by radar. Apparently, it also became both invisible and teleported to Norfolk. For the film, the Eldridge gets caught in a temporal wormhole connected to 1984 where a continuation of the same experiment is tried in contemporary times. Two of the sailors jump ship, literally, arrive in the present and slowly begin to piece things together while finding things confusing. I mean, an actor as president of America. When the film was first released, it was a good joke. Even 22 years later, it still establishes the difference between the two times.
The sailors link up with Allison (actress Nancy Allen), a lady on her way to a job when they are forced to steal her car from a diner. Eventually, they are caught and one sailor, Jim Parker (actor Bobby di Cicco) disappears in an electrical discharge while the other, David Herdeg (actor Michael Paré) finds he is still being chased. After investigating what happened to Parker and Allison discovers Herdeg hasn't been feeding her a line, they return to where the new project is being carried out with the sailor asked to do one thing to save the present which could also mean his life.
Director John Carpenter did a couple SF films and although not given a sizeable budget, 'The Philadelphia Experiment' is still a very watchable film. A blend of an SF storyline with love story but nothing cloying with worthwhile performances from all concerned. If you didn't care for the characters, a film such as this would be very dull. The security people are still a little trigger happy but that hasn't changed over the generations. The science is at least consistent and logically plotted. For time travel stories, I put it on par with 'The Final Countdown' but for entirely different reasons. A secret classic that still deserves some time on your shelf and even occasionally in your DVD player.
GF Willmetts
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