A very intriguing story, taking a fresh and original look at the concept of time travel. The premise is brilliant, albeit facilitated by a load of technobabble. The multiple timelines of the story are very interesting, if a bit difficult to figure out. I actually had to go through a complex timeline to at least wrap my head around the story, and I suspect I'll have to watch the movie once more to put it all together. The production quality is quite low, as expected with a mere $7,000 budget, but it doesn't really detract from the movie. In fact, it makes it more believable - a proper budget would have just meant focus on special effects instead of story. Quite complex, but definitely worth watching.

I would have liked to see the filmmakers go into more depth about the dangers of time travel. The bleeding ears and shaking hands are only two of the effects; it would have been interesting to see what some long-term effects were. In fact, what this movie sorely needed was another 20-30 minutes of screen time. More of an introduction at the beginning - the pacing is really off at the start, and the movie doesn't start going for a while. More filling in of the complex storyline, so it's at least possible to figure it out on the first go. And more of a build-up to the climax, so that it's a more dramatic ending. These are all flaws of a rookie filmmaker, who has written a great screenplay but made a merely good movie.

Seriously, I've watched my DVD of this a million times already and it still adds more conundrums and timeline questions during repeat viewings. I haven't felt this much headache since I fell off a cliff or studying Physics. Next time, I will write a flow-chart or something of the different timelines that exist in the movie.

I created a thread for this in Cinemania not to long ago urging people to check thsi one out. What a mindfuck. I watched it twice, surfed the itnernet across several fansites/Wikipedia, and thought about it for quite some time after that, and still the whole story only halfway makes sense. And, for the record, it's not a bad confusion. Some movies are poorly structured and thought out. This is not. A lot of thought went into this movie, and a lot of care. Ignore the tinty budget. It really isn't that apparent while watching. Highly recommended.

I find it impossible to grade.

Shane Carruth (and friends and family) really treated this as their baby and it shows with the meticulous, professional shots and the complex writing.

Hehe... Aaron's wife complaining about rats in the attic. It makes so much sense.

F


Words fail me to describe how much dislike and desinterest I felt for this film. That being a fan of time travel movies and theories. One of the very few films I have ever given an F to. One of my five least favorite films ever.

This is a mind-blowing and inspirational time travel film. I loved this movie! I won't go into the plot too much, but these very realistic engineering geeks accidentally build a time machine and a very cool, very indie, nested story ensues. What I find especially inspirational about it is that the director (and writer and star) Shane Carruth, made this movie for $7,000 and best of all he used his budget limitations to make the movie seem all that much more authentic. It's almost as if your eavesdropping on a true story. This combined with the naturalistic acting and very well written story that doesn't feed you all the answers makes for the best sci-fi movie I saw in 2004 (easily!). To me it shows that if a story is strong enough and you have enough grasp of the visual language of film, money is not the issue. For that matter, I find it inspirational in any media, that money is never the excuse - it is ambition, creativity, and actually getting the thing done. They also had a very cool promotional gimmick - you could go back and see the movie at the same theatre again and again with your original ticket - I saw it 5 times and enjoyed it more each successive time - the theatre itself became my time machine...

6 out of 5.

It's a mindfucker alright. No grade for now too. Only thing I know is that my head hurts a little bit, the movie doesn't make sense at first, but I think I understood how the machine works at least.


Needs more repeated viewings in the future, definitely.


This is not a good film to see on the day before a test, lol. If only I could go back in time...

That's so cool.


I think it was straight to video here, heh. EDIT: actually, it was released in a selected number of theaters, but of course with little publicity.

I can't believe that no one has given Shane Carruth a pile of money to make his next film yet...




(I guess the market for smart, exciting films has all but dried up.)

Bump... for those mistakenly thinking Inception is a real mind fuck movie...

BTW, there's some early hints of rumors that Shane Carruth may finally be beginning his next film: A Topiary (!)

I really fucking loved it. There's some really good explanations online making it all sensical. Gotta love ambition and attention to detail like this.

*** / ***** (C)

Nice concept that gets boring quickly. This could've been a great short. It's only a mediocre full length.