Forever Young (1992)

IMDb plot summary: During a cryogenics test, a pilot frozen in 1939 awakes in 1992 but time is running out, as his body starts to age rapidly.

Directed by Steve Miner. Starring Mel Gibson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Elijah Wood.

Forever Young stars Mel Gibson as a test pilot in the 1930s who agrees to be part of his friend's top-secret cryogenics research. He expects to be woken up in one year, but something goes wrong and he wakes up in 1992 after young Elijah Wood stumbles upon his abandoned cryotube. I often really connect to sci fi or fantasy fish-out-of-water stories, body swap stories or accidental time travel, all that kind of thing, but this one never quite sticks the landing, always wanting to go in for the cheap sentimentality rather than genuine humanity. Gibson just kind of wanders around here as a general confused nice guy and doesn't get much depth of character. Wood is much better -- at this point in his career he'd picked up some technique and outshines Gibson in most scenes. Jamie Lee Curtis as Wood's mother works very hard to bring something interesting to her thankless role as "nurturing woman who helps everyone else out" but there's only so much you can do with material this thin. It's a fun concept but this is a pretty flat, schmaltzy interpretation of it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Forever Young < Hairspray (1988)

Forever Young > The Man with One Red Shoe

Forever Young < Kuroneko

Forever Young < Incendies

Forever Young < Lucky Number Slevin

Forever Young < Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Forever Young < Gothika

Forever Young < Arthur Christmas

Forever Young < Camp Rock

Forever Young < The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

Forever Young > Fun with Dick and Jane (1977)

Forever Young > Vampyr

Final spot: #1853 out of 3717, or 50%.