Where to watch Thrill Seekers
2 Stars
A reporter, learning of time travelers visiting 20th century disasters, tries to change the history they know by averting upcoming disasters.
Before streaming giants like Netflix or Amazon Prime started making their own movies to curate a film library, traditional cable television channels tried the same thing decades earlier. HBO Films made movies that were typically for older audiences and centered around historical events, real-life personalities, or headline news current affairs. Then there are the movies produced by TBS, the television channel once known as “the superstation,” which are less distinguished than their counterparts. Thrill Seekers is one of the goofier flicks to come out of the Ted Turner-owned cable television powerhouse.
Casper Van Dien toplines the cast in Thrill Seekers, a time-traveling themed tale that was released in 1999, right as The Matrix entered the cultural zeitgeist and Y2K fears were prevalent. This TV movie has a cool concept that is never really fully explored or built upon, and instead the story becomes a series of chase scenes in-between moments when Van Dien is forced to spout ludicrous expository dialogue in a convincing fashion. The sci-fi element of the script is the most interesting, using time-travel to disasters as a tourist attraction, but the minimalist production values make Thrill Seekers feel like a pilot for a show that never got ordered to series by TBS.
Directed by: Mario Azzopardi
Written by: Kurt Inderbitzin, Gay Walch
Starring: Casper Van Dien, Catherine Bell, Theresa Saldana