The Final Countdown (1980)

A time travel tale that tackles a big concept with big guns but doesn't do all that much with it creatively. This involves an aircraft carrier in the then-current times of the eighties going back in time to the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 via a blue, swirling time portal which mysteriously appears. Douglas plays the carrier's captain; Sheen is a civilian observer; Farentino is the CAG, who also happens to be an amateur historian; while Ross and Durning play a couple of people from 1941. Durning is a supposedly-famous senator who disappeared in 1941; had he not disappeared, he probably would have become President eventually, like in the 1950's.
There are a couple of these possible time paradoxes mentioned during the film, but nothing too mind-bending. Sheen is the one who usually voices these possibles, while Douglas listens - looking amused for some reason; his actions do not make much sense. He determines, for example, that he cannot command his pilots to destroy a couple of Japanese fliers - he does not want to change history - but he does instruct them to save a couple of people (Ross & Durning) from the ocean, thereby presumably changing history. Granted, this is an exercise he was not trained for so I suppose he's making it up as he goes along. In the end, he decides to vanquish the Japanese fleet - so much for being careful - but... well, watch the film.

This is watchable and workmanlike, with some dull spots; the filmmakers were able to make use of the Nimitz carrier, with the Navy's cooperation, but there's a downside to this. Unless you're really enamored of repetitive shots of jets taking off and landing, you might find the time travel aspect lacking, while the routine of such an aircraft carrier is stressed. The ending is anti-climactic, with a final little twist for a nearly-interesting epilogue. Kirk Douglas's son Peter Douglas produced this. The special DVD release of a few years ago has audio commentary by the cinematographer, but it's haltingly presented and he takes a long time to get to some simple points. BoG's Score: 6 out of 10