Norman's Awesome Experience (1988) User Reviews

Better than you'd think from the title

[sorceror171 · 6/10 · 24 August 2001]

Contrary to what you might think, this *isn't* a knock-off of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure". Sources differ on the exact release dates, but it was at the very least in production before B&T came out. The plot is quite different (except for the bare fact that time travel happens) and it's pretty clear it was retitled to cash in on the more successful movie's reputation.

It's not a particularly great movie, but it doesn't aim to be Shakespeare. Aside from the time travel itself, what happens is technically feasible, and the story points out the realistic difficulties even a knowledgeable modern person would have just surviving in, much less changing, the past.

Norman's Excellent Adventure

[sol- · 6/10 · 12 July 2017]

'A Switch in Time' -- re-titled 'Norman's Awesome Experience' in some countries to cash in on the success of 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' -- this earlier Canadian comedy is a very different sort of movie, premise of traveling back in time aside. Norman, unlike Bill and Ted, is well educated and clever; in fact, he is a scientist accidentally sent back in time with a fashion model and her boyfriend who con him into showing them his laboratory. As the trio find themselves in Ancient Rome, the model and her boyfriend take to assuming power in their tiny village while Norman sets about inventing things that do not yet exist; one of the film's funniest lines has him tell the model "I'll invent soap!" if she quits complaining about the noise that he is making. Norman's inventions (which also include the world's first printing press!) unfortunately take a back seat to battle sequences and side scenes in which the Ancient Roman characters debate what to do about the 'revolution' that the model and her boyfriend have sparked. In fact, Norman gets less screen time than his fellow two time travelers. 'A Switch in Time''s descent into near obscurity over the years is not too surprising at the end of the day. The opening handful of scenes (filmed inside real laboratories) are great, but the filmmakers do not always seem to know what to do once their characters arrive in the past.

It's not an awesome adventure when you want to see the main characters tortured after the first ten minutes.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 14 May 2023]

I'm not talking about poor Norman (Tom McCamus), stuck on a time travel back to the days of Roman emperor Nero with vapid scheming model Laurie Paton and her nasty pretentious photographer (Jacques Lussier), two characters I hated from the start and hoped to see drawn and quartered. The self centered Paton can't take no for an answer from the security guard at the gate of a private lab so she decides to seduce McManus whom she sees leaving at that very moment. Instant red flag for her character, painfully difficult to watch, and if her flag is red, the flag for Lussier is absolutely in flames. I'll take idiotic Bill and Ted over those two any day. Big haired McManus is just a fool for allowing himself to be manipulated into becoming a part of this trio.

So in not liking any of the three main characters, I hoped the time travel story would be better, maybe teaching a lesson of survival and fairness and teamwork to the model and photographer...which it doesn't. The film isn't even set in ancient Rome, but a barely civilized Sweden where the young barbarians come to love rock and roll as heard from the portable tape recorder, not plugged in and able to miraculously charge itself. There are so many negatives in this film that the one realistic element (the ancient Romans actually speaking Latin) becomes a minor plus. No laughs at all, easy to see why this never had a theatrical release in the United States. At least the actor playing Nero looked like him, but "Quo Vadis" this ain't.

A great story

[The_Professor_Scary · 10/10 · 4 May 2006]

Through the actions of a fellow scientist, Norman, a model and her photographer travel back in time to the Roman Empire under Nero. The trio arrive in the Swiss Alps and are soon captured by a local tribe. They start a revolution and are quickly running the village. When Nero finds out - he sends a Legion to to put down the rebellion. Once the Romans arrive, things really hot up. How will the tiny village defend themselves against the strength of Rome's finest. But then, the Romans have never encountered Norman before. And how will the trio ever get back to their own time? This is a great story, well acted and with the music of Roy Oberson, makes it perfect.

Okay time-travel feature

[lor_ · 2 May 2023]

My review was written in October 1989 after watching the movie on South Gate video cassette.

This entertaining time-travel feature, released direct-to-video, was made in 1987 as "A Switch in Time" but retitled to take advantage of the hit Orion release "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure".

Oddball promise has hip young lab assistant Norman (Tom McCamus) transported back to the days of ancient Rome due to a power surge at the Geneva high-energy physics installation where he works. Accompanying him are a pretty model (Laurie Paton) and her Italian photographer (Jacques Lussier), who've secretly entered the facility to shoot a glamor layout for Omni magazine.

Unlike "Bill & Ted", pic doesn't hop around but takes the cast on a single adventure, fighting barbarians in remote European colonies controlled by ancient Rome. It's nicely filmed on Argentine locations. Lack of variety is a drawback in a genre in which time paradoxes and sci-fi gimmickry usually makes for most of the fun.

Cast does a fine job, particularly Paton as the feisty heroine. Golden oldies on the soundtrack aim for the target youth audience. Special effects are modest.