Movie of the Week: Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

"Hanging at a local pub, Ray, Pete, and Toby meet a lovely young woman who claims to be a time traveler from the future. As she spins her wild tale, the skeptical Pete stumbles into a time portal--in the pub's toilet--and sets off a wild adventure that results in a comedic crisis of mistaken identities, close calls, romance and anarchy--with the future of mankind at stake." - HBO Go.

So I was recently watching an episode of Game of Thrones on my Kindle Fire through my HBO Go app and I thought; "What other stuff is on here?" A quick search through their movies and I found this film. I had never heard of it. I never saw a trailer, read a review, or even knew who was in it. I only knew the title and the description you see above. But I was sold because I love time travel stories. And this movie is funny. I think I enjoyed it more because I never heard of it and went in blind. Sure Anna Faris is in it, but I didn't know that until I saw the opening credits. That had me worried that it would be a shitty comedy, a bad parody, or worse; feature a lot of Anna Faris's bad acting. But she is barely in this movie and she doesn't do a bad job or make me want to stab myself in the eyes at all this time around. It's a British comedy, and co-presented by the BBC as well as HBO. It's a location movie where they stay in one place the whole time but done in a way that doesn't feel like it. As well as you can actually feel like these guys are friends and feel like friends I have. It's not over the top and it doesn't leave you feeling like you wasted your time. The effects aren't bad either.

The trailer below is only if you need further help pushing you to want to watch the movie. I recommend going into to it with out watch it, but to each's own. It's fun, different, a nice story, and very enjoyable. Not the best, but good. Check it out if you have HBO Go, or buy the dvd on Amazon. (Remember, if you have HBO from your cable provider, you have access to HBO Go as well. It's included.)

Movie of the Week: The Time Machine (2002)

"Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds humankind divided into two warring races." IMDB

The Time Machine (2002) is a modern remake of The Time Machine (1960) which was a film adaptation of an H.G. Wells novel published in 1894.  Oddly enough, the novel was titled The Time Machine.  You'll never guess what it's about...

This movie is one of those remakes that I really and truly like apart from the original because they are very different movies with different stories and story telling styles.  The 1960 film was very much like the novel, both in story and voice. The main character was H. George Wells (that name sounds familiar for some reason)  He has invented a time machine because he could and wants to go do things and see stuff...ya know, time travel-y stuff.  He doesn't really have a reason for building his machine other than to say, "See!?  Told ya I could!"  The entire story is told in the form of a flashback which he is describing to his friends who stand around, sip brandy, and probably remember how cool it was to own people. I won't spoil if for you, but it's pretty good. Now, in the remake, our main character is a man named Alexander Hartdegen.  He is kind of an absent minded professor type with a love for math, pocket watches, and a woman named Emma.  On the very same night he proposes to her, she is murdered for her engagement ring.  Alex doesn't take this well and spends the next four years inventing time travel in order to prevent Emma's death.  Unfortunately, because temporal causality is a bitch, nothing he does can prevent her death.  So, instead of dwelling on the past, he sets out to find answers in the future, so he can dwell on the past...in the future.  The rest of the movie ensues.

The two movies do share some common elements of the original story such as the end of modern civilization caused by stupid humans, evolved races of future people like the Eloi and the Morlocks...hell, there's even a time machine! (fucking duh)  There are even a couple of nods to the fans of the original movie such as the scene with the clothes changing on the mannequins outside his workshop, and the crystal nob on the time machine control handle. However that's pretty much where the similarities with the original story end.  This movie has a completely original story which I very much enjoy, even with the colossal plot holes at the end.  Watch the movie and see what I'm talking about why don't ya?!

Terra Nova Series Review

 

Ah, yes. Yet another Fox show to get cancelled before it's time. That is the fear with watching new shows any more. Do you take the risk and get invested in a new show or do you miss out and join in after it aired for a season or two? Easy choice for me, I enjoy marathons. I find it fun to immerse yourself into a new world and get lost for a while. So yeah, I will miss out on the community experience of talking about a show after it was initially on but I don't care. Still, I find myself in that "getting burned" area. I had put off watching Terra Nova for a while, for reasons I'll get into later, and now it was finally on Netflix. So I add it to my instant queue and proceeded to forget about it. After watching several other shows, I came back to it and decided to give it a shot.