Grand Tour: Disaster in Time

Stars: Jeff Daniels (The Butcher's Wife, Arachnophobia, Something Wild). Adapted from a novella and directed by David Twohy, Grand Tour stars Jeff Daniels as widower Ben Wilson. Having lost his wife in a freak car accident with a horse-driven sleigh, Ben is struggling to raise his daughter Hilary and finish remodeling his home into a bed and breakfast inn. When a bizarre group of tourists arrive and pay handsomely to stay at Ben's place rather than the hotel in town, Ben becomes suspicious. When he eventually discovers he's housing disaster groupies from the future, Ben is forced to do a little time traveling himself in order to save his family. With the exception of the always personable Daniels and his daughter Hilary (played by Ariana Richards), the characters are all pencil-thin, and the story takes far too long to develop. The final half-hour which features Daniels in a dual role as a future Ben and a past Ben, who join forces to save the town, is entertaining and reasonably exciting. However, weak secondary characters and a slow-moving initial set-up really hurt the film overall, and will lose many viewers early on. Audience: Sci-fi fans who are more interested in clever ideas than story will enjoy the cynical satire at the heart of Grand Tour. Others will likely pass. [DVD Review--Feb. 11, 2003--Anchor Bay, 99 min., PG-13, $19.98. Making its DVD debut 10 years after its original video release, Grand Tour: Disaster in Time remains an occasionally thought-provoking sci-fi film from a director who's gone on to make such notable thrillers as Pitch Black and Below. Sporting a decent widescreen transfer with some soft and grainy images, the disc includes no extras. Bottom line: A bare bones disc for an early made-for-cable effort from director Twohy, this is optional.]