Timeline

Mutual films and Paramount pictures present

Starring: Paul Walker and Frances O'Connor and Gerald Butler

Directed by: Richard Donner

Rating:**1/2

Plot: Okay so there are these archeologists and they are working on a castle or something, the only problem is they find artifacts left by a friend of theirs. When they investigate they find out the professor was sent back in time, the shitty thing is that he is lost or dead. So they send the team which also has his son in it back to 1357 France to find him. One problem though, they run into nasty knights and run around a lot. A bad movie based off of a brilliant book ensues.

Acting: I came into this movie with high standards from reading the book not only once, but twice because I loved it so much. Written by Michael Crighton who wrote Jurassic Park. Anyway when I found out that Paul Walker was in this my standards dropped amazingly. Not dissing Walker or anything it's just I could not imagine him in this movie. Joy Ride was actually a pretty good ride. It's just the two Fast and the Furious films especially 2 Fast 2 Furious made me worry. Watching the movie every fear I had about it came true. Paul Walker basically slept through the movie, he did literally nothing but look good for the ladies and constantly annoy me dialogue wise. Like when the film would get into it's uber fake science he would just cut in and be like "Okay, but where is my father", well they were just explaining it until you cut in!!! He just was a constant annoyance. The rest of the cast though was no better. Basically a list of character actors who have good before, but horribly fail here. Frances O'Connor who plays Kate in the film, Paul Walker's love interest which is hard enough work as it is,struggles through out the film. Here lines usually made up of back up lines like "yeah, that makes sense" after someone says something. I felt bad watching this because I thought she was brilliant in A.I. but whatever, maybe its just the director's fault but it felt as if all the actor's fell short. Well actually that is not true, the extra's I thought were great. They felt very knight like and must have loved the work and you could tell because they had more enthusiasm than the actors. Also keep note that one of the bad guys in the film is the bad guy from xXx. It took me like a couple hours to remember where he was from. So I am saving you the trouble.

Directing/Writing: Wow, I did not know you can turn a great book into such a bad movie. This movie is actually great at heart and has many great moments. It's just it has way too many bad moments that stain the good one's. First off the dialogue had no soul or feeling to it. Too many generic lines said over and over. The screen play was also too clustered, they tried to stuff the film with all the book's plot turns. This makes the movie feel very rushed and as the audience tries to gain balance with what is going on, they do something else to make the audience go "Wait, what?". The film itself centers around a major battle between the French and British in which the time traveling dorks accidently wonder into. The battle sequence is neat, lots of arrows and things exploding but then at the end it falls short with the typical sword fight in which everything you know happens, well guess what it happens. The movie just had no taste to it. It felt as if Donner half way through just gave up and just made a simple movie with no style. I loved Lethal Weapon because the action was smooth and the dialogue and character's were perfect. So maybe Timeline's mess ups are not Donner's fault but maybe the screen play just fell flat.

Overall: Nothing new here, the twists have been seen before and the battle is okay. It has it's moments but nothing that stands out to you for longer than a day. I was very disapointed with the film, I had fun because my friend and I were making jokes with each other since the theatre was like empty but still a big let down. Do yourself a favor and go read the book instead, and that way its better for you. Books don't have twenty minutes of commercials before you start reading.