Topic: Tom's Time-Travel Movie Reviews

[Tom]

Never heard of it before. Thanks for the tip! 

[Tom]

TimeQuest (2002/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Ardustry Home Entertainment (United States) Director: Robert Dyke Writing: Robert Dyke (Writer) Length: 94 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles:

Stars:
Joseph Murphy as Raymond Mead
David Haig as Clint Hill
Scott A. Wyckoff as Agent
Tony Abruzzo as Driver
Caprice Benedetti as Jacqueline Kennedy

Plot:
THE FILM THAT HAS EVERYONE WONDERING... WHAT IF?

Get ready for a dazzling mix of science fiction and political intrigue that will capture you with the question of, "What if?" What if President John F. Kennedy had never been assassinated? Timequest delivers an answer that will surprise and thrill!

When a time-traveller from the future journeys to the past to stop the assassination of JFK, the world embarks on an extraordinary new course of history. Bobby Kennedy seeks out those who attempted to kill his brother, Jackie Kennedy begins her own quest to learn the true identity of the man who saved her husbands life, and John F. Kennedy leads the country and the world into a new frontier...outward towards the stars.

What could have been comes alive in this unforgettable film experience that will reshape your views of reality in ways you never thought possible!

Extras:

• Bonus Trailers
• Scene Access
• Trailers

My Thoughts:

An interesting TV movie about what if the assassination of JFK was prevented. The movie jumps back and forth between the day the time travellor went back to to warn the president. The alternate present and other part of the alternate reality.
It takes a different route than the Red Dwarf episode with a similar premise did (I reviewed that one also in the past).

(click to show/hide)

The time travellor also warns JFK about the second assassination. The "assassination" of JFK's character. Basically he told him to keep his pants on from now on.

Rating:

[Tom]

Love Story 2050 (2008/United Kingdom) IMDb | Wikipedia Adlabs (United Kingdom) Director: Harry Baweja Writing: Mayur Puri (Screenwriter), Harry Baweja (Screenwriter), Rowena Baweja (Screenwriter), Harry Baweja (Story By) Length: 171 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35 Audio: Hindi: Dolby Digital 5.1, Hindi: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Priyanka Chopra
Harman Baweja
Boman Irani
Archana Puran Singh
Dalip Tahil

Plot:
It's a story about Karan (Harman Baweja) a young boy who lives life off the rules and Sana (Priyanka Chopra), a young petite, shy girl who lives life by the rules. Karan's uncle Dr. Yatinder Khanna (Boman Irani), a whacky scientist has been working on the Time Machine for years, which one day finally works! Sana expresses her wish to travel time to Mumbai in the year 2050.

What they see in the future is a spectacular city with flying cars, 200 storey buildings, robots and sky rails that have changed the very face of Mumbai and the world! The two kids, Sana's brother and sister who have also traveled with them find the new world fascinating.

Through a series of twist and turns, the time traveler Karan finds himself separating from his love. QT, a friendly femme robot and BOO, a small robotic teddy bear play their distinct roles in bringing the love story of Karan and Sana together but soon they find themselves under the threat of the demigod of the future, Dr. Hoshi.

Will Karan be able to overcome the threat of Dr. Hoshi and win his love and travel back in time?

Awards:
Won:

Filmfare Awards (2009)

Best Special Effects Award

Extras:

• Bonus Trailers
• Featurettes
• Music Videos
• Scene Access

My Thoughts:

I have stumbled across this movie multiple times. Either because I was looking for Bollywood time-travel movies, or because I was looking up DVD releases with Priyanka Chopra. At first glance this always stood out as a movie which could be fun. But every time I looked up reviews and they were mostly bad, I decided against buying it (it even rates below 3.0 on IMDb).
But after recently watching "Pyaar Impossible!" and really enjoying it, I was in the mood for another Priyanka Chopra movie and I finally took the chance. Sadly I must agree that this movie really isn't any good. It has fairly good production values (which surprised me for Bollywood's first futuristic movie), but the screenplay was really weak. Even Priyanka Chopra couldn't save it for me. She didn't seem to be really into the role. I have seen her bring in wonderful performances (mainly in "Pyaar Impossible!" and "What's Your Raashee?"), so I know she can do better. The male star is a newcomer. The director's son. He very much looks like Hrithik Roshan and sounds awfully close to him. Hrithik Roshan also got his start in a movie shot by his father. So both have these things in common, but while Hrithik Roshan really has a lot of talent, Harman Baweja comes across like a ripoff. What I first didn't notice was, that Harman Baweja was also the star in "What's Your Raashee?" (which was released later). In that movie he was better and didn't come across like doing a Hrithik Roshan impression.
So in short: The movie looks good. Art direction is good. Production design is good. Screenplay is terrible. Good direction is missing. Acting ranges from bad to slightly above average.

Rating:

[Tom]

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006/Japan) IMDb | Wikipedia Manga Entertainment (United Kingdom) Director: Mamoru Hosoda Writing: Yasutaka Tsutsui (Original Material By), Satoko Okudera (Screenwriter) Length: 98 min. Video: Widescreen 1.78 Audio: Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Subtitles: English

Stars:
Japanese Cast
Riisa Naka as Makoto Konno (voice)
Takuya Ishida as Chiaki Mamiya (voice)
Mitsutaka Itakura as Kousuke Tsuda (voice)
Ayami Kakiuchi as Yuri Hayakawa (voice)
Mitsuki Tanimura as Kaho Fujitani (voice)

Plot:
What would you do if you could "leap" backward through time? When tomboyish 17 year old Makoto Konno gains this ability after an accident in her high school chemistry lab, she immediately sets about improving her grades and preventing personal mishaps. Before long, however, she realizes that even innocuous changes can have terrible consequences. Changing the past is not as simple as it seems, and eventually Makoto will have to rely on her new powers to shape the future for herself and her friends.

Featuring brilliant character design by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Neon Genesis Evangelion) and stunning visuals by long time Studio Ghibli Art Director, Nizo Yamamoto. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a feast for the eyes as well as the heart.

Extras:

• Scene Access

My Thoughts:

One of my favourite movies. This is a Blu-ray double-dip. It came in a double-feature set with "Summer Wars". I have seen this movie eight times now. Once in the cinema, six times on DVD and now on Blu-ray.

Rating:

[Tom]

Timecrimes (2007/Spain) IMDb | Wikipedia Optimum Home Entertainment (United Kingdom) Director: Nacho Vigalondo Writing: Nacho Vigalondo (Writer) Length: 88 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85 Audio: Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English

Stars:
Karra Elejalde as Héctor
Candela Fernández as Clara
Bárbara Goenaga as La Chica en el Bosque
Nacho Vigalondo as El Joven
Ion Inciarte as Héctor Ocasional

Plot:
Lauded short-film director Nacho Vigalondo makes his feature debut with this tense, unstoppable vision of science and natural law gone awry.

Héctor (Karra Elejalde) is relaxing on a lawn chair outside of his new country home, surveying the nearby hillside through a pair of binoculars, when he catches sight of what appears to be a nude woman amidst the trees. Hiking up to investigate, he is attacked by a sinister figure whose head is wrapped in a grotesque, pink bandage. Fleeing in terror, his next actions set in motion a brain-twisting, horrifying chain of events.

Drawing from the best traditions of classic science fiction and crime fiction, TIMECRIMES plays games with the genres and the audience, giving the protagonist a Russian-doll like shell of identities that are shed so often that Héctor can be playing one of any number of whodunit archetypes at any given moment as he becomes increasingly more complicit in the complicated mess that he's trying to fix.

Extras:

• Bonus Trailers
• Scene Access
• Trailers

My Thoughts:

The first hour was a straightforward and predictable time-travel movie, but then it got interesting. This movie is a solid time-travel movie where I didn't find any holes in the time-travel aspects.
I just saw that they plan an English language remake for this year. Typical. What is wrong with watching a movie with subtitles?

Rating:

[Tom]

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (United Kingdom) Director: Steve Pink Writing: Josh Heald (Screenwriter), Sean Anders (Screenwriter), John Morris (Screenwriter), Josh Heald (Story By) Length: 101 min. Video: Widescreen 1.85 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Audio Descriptive: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1 Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:
John Cusack as Adam
Clark Duke as Jacob
Craig Robinson as Nick
Rob Corddry as Lou
Sebastian Stan as Blaine

Plot:
Get ready to kick some serious past with the wildly inappropriate HOT TUB TIME MACHINE. The outrageous laughs bubble up when four friends share a crazy night of drinking in a ski resort hot tub, only to wake up with nasty hangovers in 1986! Now, nice-guy Adam (John Cusack), party animal Lou (Rob Corddry), married man Nick (Craig Robinson) and mega-nerd Jacob (Clark Duke) relive a wild night of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll! This edition also contains a Digital Copy of the film, now you can watch HOT TUB TIME MACHINE when you want, where you want!

Awards:
Won:

Teen Choice Awards (2010)

Choice Movie Actress: Comedy (Lizzy Caplan)

Nominated:

Teen Choice Awards (2010)

Choice Movie - Comedy

Extras:

• Deleted Scenes
• Digital Copy
• Scene Access
• Theatrical and Extended Version
• Trailers

My Thoughts:

A nice time-travel movie. Nothing really special but it has entertaining scenes with the guys being confronted with the 80s. I am not sure what to think about the ending. One the one hand I liked it. On the other hand I would have liked to have seen the stuff which happened

(click to show/hide)

in this alternate timeline. Especially how Adam and April met again.

Rating:

[Tom]

The Adjustment Bureau (2011/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Universal Pictures (Germany) Director: George Nolfi Writing: George Nolfi (Screenwriter), Philip K. Dick (Original Material By) Length: 106 min. Video: Widescreen 1.85 Audio: Japanese: DTS 5.1, English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French: DTS 5.1, Italian: DTS 5.1, German: DTS 5.1, Spanish: DTS 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Subtitles: Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish

Stars:
Matt Damon as David Norris
Emily Blunt
Terence Stamp
Jon Stewart

Plot:
The affair between a politician and a ballerina is affected by mysterious forces keeping the lovers apart.

Extras:

• Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Digital Copy
• Featurettes
• Scene Access
• Wendecover

My Thoughts:

Not necessarily a time-travel movie, but the Adjustment Bureau sees the future.
I enjoyed this movie, but I wouldn't call it a must-see. Matt Damon gives a solid performance, but nothing outstanding.

Rating:

[Tom]

Ditto (2000/South Korea) IMDb | Wikipedia Mei Ah Laser Disc (Hong Kong) Director: Jeong-kwon Kim Writing: Jin Jang (Writer) Length: 113 min. Video: Widescreen 1.85 Audio: Korean: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: Chinese, English

Stars:
Ha-Neul Kim as Yoon So-Eun
Ji-tae Yu as Ji In
Yong-woo Park as Ji Dong-Hee
Ji-won Ha as Seo Hyun-Ji
Min-joo Kim as Lee Seon-Mi

Plot:
In 1979, university student Soeun (Kim Ha Neul) gets an antique HAM radio by coincidence, and one night, a male voice peeks out from the radio. A guy named In (Yoo Ji Tae) is on the line, and after they have chatted for a while, they discover they are from the same school, so they schedule to meet at the clock tower. They cannot get to meet each other though, finally they find out that they are living in different times...

Extras:

• Scene Access

My Thoughts:

The premise is a mix between Frequency and Il Mare/The Lake House. A man and a woman communicate accross time via a ham radio.
A nice movie well worth a watch. The actors all did a great job.

Rating:

[Tom]

Title: The Time Traveler's Wife
Year: 2009
Director: Robert Schwentke
Rating: 12
Length: 107 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.35
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Eric Bana
Rachel McAdams

Plot:
Lose yourself in timeless love with this gloriously romantic story of the journey of two hearts. Artist Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams of The Notebook) shares a deep emotional bond with Henry De Tamble (Eric Bana of The Other Boleyn Girl), a handsome librarian who travels involuntarily through time. Knowing they can be separated without warning, Clare and Henry treasure the moments they have together, imbuing them with the yearning and passion of two people imprisoned by time... and set free by love. Based on the #1 bestseller The Time Traveler's Wife weaves together destiny and devotion, past and future to turn an extraordinary love into an extraordinary love story.


Extras:
Featurettes
Scene Access

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed this movie. The pacing is similar to Rachel McAdam's other movie I have seen: "The Notebook".
The time-travel aspect has been used well. I didn't notice any obvious mistakes on the writer's part.

Rating:

I have finished reading the original novel this movie was based on. Of course it had a lot of stuff which is missing in the movie. But I think that the movie makers made good choices what to cut and how to present the rest. I was a little disappointed in the book. It is good, but the first half promised a lot of time-traveling. They mentioned how often Clare and Henry will meet in the past (about 150 times) and I thought I will get to read about most of those encounters. But sadly it was not all shown. Only about as often as you saw it in the movie, except for the additional times which included story lines cut from the movie. About halfway through there wasn't any time-travel at all anymore and was all mostly about them trying to conceive a child.
Recently I watched the movie again, and I really enjoyed it again the second time around. This made me buy the book. I cannot understand why the movie has such bad reviews. What I often have read is that it is too confusing. Strange that people always have problems when the story is told in a non-linear timeline.

[Tom]

Triangle (2009/Australia) IMDb | Wikipedia Icon Home Entertainment (United Kingdom) Director: Christopher Smith Writing: Christopher Smith (Writer) Length: 99 min. Video: Widescreen 2.35 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Audio Descriptive: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English

Stars:
Melissa George as Jess
Joshua McIvor as Tommy
Jack Taylor as Jack
Michael Dorman as Greg
Henry Nixon as Downey

Plot:
When Jess (Melissa George, 30 Days of Night) sets sail with a group of friends, she cannot shake the feeling that there is something wrong. Then the yacht hits a storm and the group is forced to board a passing ocean liner, a ship Jess is convinced she's been on before. Although it appears deserted, they soon find they are not alone... Someone is intent on hunting them down, one by one. And Jess unknowingly holds the key to end the terror.

Extras:

• Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• Scene Access
• Storyboard Comparisons

My Thoughts:

An interesting time-travel thriller. It can be confusing because this movie has two distinct time-loops interacting with each other. And also the time-loops can differ slightly in each repeat. The main character who relives these time-loops has only lost the memories of previous loops (instead of here being completely "reset") and has deja vu feeling.

Rating:

[Tom]

Action Replayy (2010/India) IMDb | Wikipedia Moser Baer Entertainment (India) Director: Vipul Amrutlal Shah Writing: Shobhana Desai (Original Material By), Suresh Nair (Story By), Aatish Kapadia (Story By), Suresh Nair (Screenwriter), Aatish Kapadia (Screenwriter), Ritesh Shah (Screenwriter) Length: 130 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35 Audio: Hindi: Dolby Digital 5.1, Hindi: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English

Stars:
Akshay Kumar as Kishen
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as Mala
Om Puri
Kirron Kher
Neha Dhupia

Plot:
Bunty and Tanya - two people very much in love. But there's a problem. Bunty will do anything for love - except get married.
It's not hard to understand his phobia of marriage if one were to look at his parents. Kishen (Akshay Kumar) and Mala (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) - two bickering senior citizens who are so incompatible that they are like a match made in hell even on their 35th wedding anniversary! While the couple runs a restaurant where they serve their volatile arguments as complimentary with the food. Bunty has never really understood why his parents got married and what stops them from getting divorced. Desperate to save his parent's marriage and his own love life. Bunty embarks on the most challenging journey of his life - by stealing his prospective grandfather-in-law's time machine right before his eyes! To rewrite Kishen and Mala's destiny and alter their disastrous arranged marriage into a romantic affair of the hearts.
Action Replay is a comedy rollercoaster that takes you back on a time machine to the good old 70s where a son plays Cupid to his own parents - and redefines generation gap!

Extras:

• Bonus Trailers
• Music Videos
• Scene Access

My Thoughts:

The basic story reminds of Back to the Future. A guy is travelling back in time to get their parents to fall in love with each other instead of having a loveless arranged marriage with each other.
The movie is rather silly and not very convincing. But I had fun overall. Especially towards the end when his father started to grow some backbone I enjoyed it. It's not telling of the kind of humor the movie has otherwise, but it must have the first fart joke I remember seeing in a Bollywood movie. I had to laugh because it was so unexpected.

Rating:

[samuelrichardscott]

The film I last watched, The Last Mimzy, has a large time travel aspect. Available for £0.01 from Marketplace UK.

[Tom]

Source Code (2011/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Optimum Home Entertainment (United Kingdom) Director: Duncan Jones Writing: Ben Ripley (Writer) Length: 93 min. Video: Widescreen 1.85 Audio: English: PCM 2.0 Stereo, English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English, Trivia

Stars:
Jake Gyllenhaal as Colter Stevens
Michelle Monaghan as Christina Warren
Vera Farmiga as Colleen Goodwin
Jeffrey Wright as Dr. Rutledge
Michael Arden as Derek Frost

Plot:
Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is on a mission to identify a bomber who destroyed a train just hours earlier and who plans to kill thousands more with a much larger explosion in the heart of Chicago.

A top-secret program, named 'Source Code', allows Colter to exist briefly as another man in the parallel reality of the doomed commuter train. Each time he returns to the train, Colter has just eight minutes to uncover the bomber's identity. The more he learns, the more convinced he becomes that he can prevent the deadly blast from ever happening – unless time runs out first.

Extras:

• Bonus Trailers
• Commentary
• Featurettes
• Picture-in-picture
• Scene Access
• Trailers

My Thoughts:

A mix between Quantum Leap (it even has Scott Bakula in a voice cameo) and Groundhog Day, which keeps you interested. The acting was good, especially by Jake Gyllenhaal.
Although I think the title is stupid. It's like they wanted to call the machine The Matrix (which would have made more sense) but couldn't and had to find another computerish title.

Rating:

[Tom]

The Philadelphia Experiment II (1993/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Lion's Gate Home Entertainment (United States) Director: Stephen Cornwell Writing: Wallace C. Bennett (Original Characters By), Don Jakoby (Original Characters By), Kim Steven Ketelsen (Story By), Kevin Rock (Story By), Kevin Rock (Screenwriter), Nick Paine (Screenwriter) Length: 98 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles:

Stars:
Brad Johnson as David Herdeg
Marjean Holden as Jess
Gerrit Graham as Mailer/Mahler
John Christian Graas as Benjamin
Cyril O'Reilly as Decker

Plot:
They cut a hole through time

In the hit sci-fi thriller "The Philadelphia Experiment" the sole survivor of a wartime experiment is catapulted 41 years into the future and must race to save the world as we know it.

It's now 10 years later – 1993. David Herdeg (Brad Johnson), the surviving hero, has built a life for himself and his young son that's unraveling fast. The U.S. military is conducting another Experiment – one that not only alters Herdeg's DNA makeup, but also threatens the fabric of the entire universe.

The Experiment's goal is to transport a Stealth Fighter back to 1943 to use as the ultimate war machine, but its effect hurls Herdeg into another time warp – still 1993, but a 1993 where Germany won the war.

Can Herdeg win the race against time and save his son – and the world – from a terrible future? Or will the future be a twisted reality distorted by the Philadelphia Experiment?

Extras:

• Closed Captioned
• Scene Access
• Trailers

My Thoughts:

I forgot to write up a review for this. This movie was rather boring. I only read bad things about it, but being a fan of time-travel movies I still had to check it out myself.

Rating:

[Tom]

I have watched "Cinderella III: A Twist in Time". You can find my review here.