Timeline (2003)

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1. 

   Siskoid

   Archaeologists + unnecessary cog Paul Walker are sent back to rescue on of their own in the 14th Century in... Timeline. Boredom ensues. There are two casting decisions I think we have a right to question. First, who thought Billy Connolly and Paul Walker made a believable father-son pair? But we don't know the mother, so we can just look past it. What I personally can't get past is the casting of non-French actors as some of the French characters, delivering everything from bad accents to completely indecipherable dialog. Even though the film is partly shot in France! I understand Michael Chrichton's novel set the story's battle there, but it's so generic and ahistorical that it could have been set anywhere. So as long as you're making changes for the screen (Walker's character was originally an archaeologist too, instead of simply a creeper who's been told no by the female archaeologist but uses the situation to snuggle with her anyway), why not change the cod Middle Ages along with it? I don't know if director Richard Donner had to contend with studio notes like "you've got to include this young rising star!" or "nobody will notice if the French is wrong, we're making this for 'muricans!", but that doesn't excuse notable continuity errors, plot holes (so what was the point of the guy appearing in the desert?), or the listlessness I felt even in the action scenes. The big problem of course is that I don't think Crichton is a particularly interesting writer. He writes premises ready-made for Hollywood, full of clichés. Before we go back in time, we're essentially told everything that will happen, so there are no real surprises once we get there. It's meant to be "clever", but it's just dull. There was promise in the present-day sequences when they promised a time travel equivalent of Apollo 13, but that soon devolved into shouting matches and I'm not sure what happens at the end there. A botch! 2 years 10 months ago
2. 

   IreneAdler

   I watched this film because Gerry Butler is in it and I did not expect to much of the story. But I actually think it's a really lovely movie with quite some charm and the plot idea is good.
   
   Butler was great of course and Marton Csokas is always amazing, too.
   
   I did guess one or two turns that the story might take but I did not find it too predictable, it was still very charming and entertaining. Like it! 10 years 3 months ago

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