Year Released: 2000
Directed by: Gregory Hoboit
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel, Andre Braugher , Elizabeth Mitchell
(PG-13, 117 min.)
Genre: Science Fiction, Drama, Mystery and Suspense

“It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.” – Chaos Theory

It’s Back to the Future but it’s not a comedy; instead it involves a fiery death and a determined serial killer. Always compelling Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel mesmerize us as a father and son trying to avert multiple disasters as they find that correcting one past cataclysm causes a multitude of others.

Thirty years after the death of his father, a police office is stunned to find himself communicating with him thanks to an old ham radio.

Of course that old ham radio is what initially drew Different Drummer to this film released over 20 years ago, since Different Drummer’s better half has been a ham radio operator since he was 14 years old.

But the ham radio is only a small part of the plot; it is really the MacGuffin, the device that gets things going. That and the intense solar storm that appears first in 1969 and then again exactly 30 years later.

It is a few days before the 30 year anniversary of Frank Sullivan’s (Dennis Quaid) death in a warehouse fire, and his son John (Jim Caviezel) still lives in the old family home. His best friend from childhood, Gordo (Noah Emmerich) still lives next door, too. Gordo’s son is rummaging through a closet and comes upon a something big, specifically a Heathkit single-sideband ham radio that once belonged to John’s dad, and he asks to set it up. But nothing happens. The rig won’t work.

Then, a few nights later, during the intense solar storm, a voice comes into the room from the radio. John talks to the guy, and they end up discussing the 1969 World Series between the New York Mets and the Baltimore Orioles. John, largely through his father, has always loved baseball and can recount each detail of the series, but then both guys realize that one is talking about the series as a present day event, while for the other it is a well preserved thirty-year memory.

After a while, the impossible emerges. Present day John is really talking to his dad from thirty years ago, and it is the night before he is to perish in an out of control warehouse fire.

Dennis Quaid excels here playing a sometimes distant dad, a great precursor to his excellent performance in 2018’s I Can Only Imagine, where puts in a tremendous performance as the abusive father of the would-be songwriter, Bart Millard. Perhaps it’s the way he throws the lines away, never really yelling, just letting the meaning of the caustic words do their own damage.

Here is the eternal time travel question. If you could go back in time and correct a tragedy, would you? Should you? And what about unintended consequences?

To John there is no question. He warns his doubting dad about the fire and then tells him that he could have lived if he had turned the other way to escape the building.

The warehouse fire is an amazing set piece, a blaze that at first seems somewhat routine, since the building is abandoned; but then a young woman emerges and says her friend is trapped inside. Of course, it is Frank Sullivan who rushes to the rescue.

One wonders how they managed to film the flames, especially the blazing staircase that crashes beneath him as Frank barely manages to leap to the landing, only to find it engulfed in flames as well. However, he does thread his way through the fiery wreckage to find the girl, still alive. The intense and realistic fiery fury of this 2000 film almost matches the infernos evoked in 2016’s Deepwater Horizon , and 2017’s Only the Brave. Remembering his son’s warning Frank takes the path that looks like a dead end and ultimately saves himself, erasing that tragedy, but causing another they cannot explain.

These changes are reflected in the family photos and scrapbooks. John father is there now, but not his mother, and the scrapbook no longer has clippings of a father heroically dying in flames, but of a his nurse mother being murdered.

Then John the cop finds out that the serial murderer who had originally disappeared after only 3 victims is now very much alive, with 10 nurses killed, including John’s mother. Together he and his father must work to catch this serial killer, and to do that they must understand how having Frank survive has changed everything.

What follows is a very good detective thriller compounded by the thirty-year time gap and the unreliability of the ham radio breaking the time barrier as the storm begins to subside.

But the parts that resonate the most are the family scenes – John talking to the dad he hardly remembers, having lost him when he was only 6 years old. John’s mother drifting by the radio and perhaps wondering why that voice over the airwaves sounds so familiar. Not to mention adult John saying goodnight to his 6 year old self over the radio,

We also learn to love family friend Satch, the always captivating Andre Braugher possibly best remembered for is role in the television series Homicide (1993-1999). He is ever present, early on bestowing prized tickets to the latest Mets games or later as the father figure who lures third generation firefighter John to become a cop under his mentorship. Avuncular then and stern now as he sees Frank and John seemingly going off the rails.

One great repeated scene is Frank trying to teach his son to ride his bike without the training wheels – how he is initially a little too harsh, leading to a crash of the bike as well as little John’s confidence. The second time around, via time alterations, Frank takes his wife Julia’s (Elizabeth Mitchell) advice and doesn’t push too hard.

Frank’s refrain as he looks at the bike, “What do you think we tame this bronco, huh? You and me. Spirit and guts,” finally has a happy ending, and it becomes the battle cry as father and son work to wipe out the tragedies inadvertently caused by Frank escaping death.

Then there is the scene with Frank Sullivan sweeping a barefoot Julia off her feet as they dance in delight to a tune from the kitchen radio. Watching from the doorway little john and Gordo cannot help but smile at a couple that clearly adore each other. The audience peeps at them, too, and we become as motivated as their son to keep the family together

But that is no easy task. The killer is as clever and cunning or moreso than the fireman-cop-father-son team. As they work to trap him, he lays his own traps as well. Theirs seem haphazard compared to the evil genius of his.

But we always know the time traveler has a few aces up his sleeve, whether it be an investment tip about Yahoo – even if it is a direct steal from When Peggy Sue Got Married – or an almost photographic memory of a World Series game that has not yet occurred.

The final confrontation with the serial killer is magnificent, as it bounces from 1969 to 1999, with Frank and John on the verge of double death.

This film has something for everyone. Baseball, time travel, mystery, and a father / son renewal of faith in each other.

It doesn’t get much better than that, especially in these cynical ties. Not to miss for the whole family.

–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁🥁🥁

Trailer

Footloose Foodie

This film touches all the bases of American lore. Not only ham radio and the love between fathers and sons, but baseball, too.

And what is better than rooting for the underdog in 1969 when the New York Mets from the borough of Queens won the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles? This daughter of a life long Chicago Cubs fan surely gets it.

Queens is the borough for working class New Yorkers, and in particular with Frequency, cops and fire fighters, rivals of a sort but united in their love for the Mets. Televisions – the small screen black and white boxes – were dragged out onto driveways where neighborhood Mets fans cheered them on with the hotdogs on the grill completing the cozy atmosphere.

But let’s do something better than hotdogs. How about a recipe for some gourmet baseball stadium food, even if a trip to real game was a rare event for these working dudes, and maybe the fare back then was a little more limited.

It’s not just hotdogs, popcorn, and pretzels anymore.

Different Drummer has chosen the best, Big Mozz’s Mets Mozzarella Sticks. I will link to the best recipe, but it is a little too involved to print here, and the details are shrouded in mystery . Follow the link if you are ready for a culinary workout. Here is how good they are:

Our standards for mozzarella sticks have been driven down by the preformed, frozen fare that bars usually don’t even manage to fully heat up at happy hour. This is what mozzarella sticks are supposed to be: The breading is crunchy and flavorful but not too greasy, the cheese inside tasty and gooey and amazing. – Ted Berg

And have a little fun browsing through some other Mets Citi Field ballpark food. You may want to hunt down the recipes for Baked Cheese Haus’s Alpine Brat, Fuki’s Loaded Fries, Nicoletta’s Italian Cheese Balls, Catch of the Day’s South Bay Lobster Tacos, Lil’ Sweet Chick’s Chicken and Waffles. Wowfull’s Hong Kong Egg Waffles, and Do’s Edible Cookie Dough.

Today’s recipe from Bon Appetit.

Big Mozz’s Mets Mozzarella Sticks

If you’re short on dried herbs for this mozzarella sticks recipe, just compensate by using more of another. But please, don’t use pre-seasoned fine crumbs; the crunch factor will suffer.

Ingredients

1 MAKES ABOUT 24 PIECES

1pound mozzarella (preferably Polly-o)

¾ cup all-purpose flour

3 large eggs

3 tablespoons whole milk

2 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

1½ teaspoons garlic powder

1½ teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried thyme

            Vegetable oil (for frying; about 6 cups)
            Kosher salt
            Soicy Marinara Sauce

Directions

Step 1

Cut mozzarella into 3x½" pieces. Place flour in a shallow dish. Whisk eggs and milk in another shallow dish. Mix panko, garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregano, parsley, and thyme in third shallow dish.

Step 2

Working with one piece of mozzarella at a time, dredge in flour, shaking off excess. Dip in egg mixture, then coat in panko mixture, pressing to adhere. Repeat steps for a second coating. Transfer to a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet. Repeat with remaining mozzarella. Transfer rack with mozzarella to freezer and freeze at least 1 hour.

tep 3

Fit a large pot with deep-fry thermometer and pour in oil to come 2" up sides. Heat over medium-high until thermometer registers 350°. Working in batches, fry mozzarella, turning occasionally, until golden brown and crisp, 2–2½ minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and season with salt while still hot. Serve with Spicy Marinara Sauce.