A "1 A.M. on Bravo" Movie Review: "Frequency"

Bravo was showing the 2000 Dennis Quaid vehicle "Frequency," and I watched it. All of it.

The premise is one of my faves -- wish-fulfillment theatre. The not-yet-Christed Jim Caviezel finds a way to talk over a ham radio with his dead dad back in 1969, a day before a firefighting accident was to have killed him. Caviezel tells his dad what not to do, and saves his life. Annnnnd -- he tampers with the space time continuum. Before I get into all that, let me admit that I'm a sucker for wish-fulfillment theatre; "Six Feet Under" was one of my favorite shows (talking to the dead), and I always love me some time travel. If only he had a few days of connection with dear ol' dad, dayeinu ... but instead, he winds up mucking with history like Homer Simpson in that chronal-toaster-vignette in that one "Treehouse of Horror." By saving dad's life, he kills mom somehow. And on and on it goes, until he gets the right combination of things to go right so that dad bloinks into existence, and mom isn't serially murdered.

Blah blah blah it descends into a murder mystery whodunit whokillsit whocares in the last hour, becoming thoroughly tedious. The worst part was that when Caviezel would change the past, the wrought effects would also bloink into existence abruptly in the present. I mean, if he had changed the past, wouldn't it have always been that way? Huh? Huh? Jerkie movie.

Full disclaimer: My stepfather Bill Reynolds, an FDNY vet of 24 years, assisted on the pyrotechnical aspects of filming of this flick back in 1999.