From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 3 16:15:05 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!news.algonet.se!algonet!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Dragan Antulov" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: The Time Machine (1960) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 25 Feb 1999 06:02:23 GMT Organization: HiNet Lines: 99 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7b2p1f$jea$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer20.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 919922543 19914 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #16856 Keywords: author=antulov X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer20.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:15979 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2260 THE TIME MACHINE A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 1999 One of the most popular subplots in the entire science fiction genre is time travel. That concept, although many purists doubt its scientific credentials, spawned many interesting novels, comic books and films in the last century. However, the big grand-daddy of time travels, H.G. Wells' novel THE TIME MACHINE, wasn't written with the intention to speculate about that concept or its consequences. The author, H.G. Wells merely used it as a convenient way to express his socialist views and condemn the great social gap between the rich, idle capitalist class and impoverished labour. Whatever intentions Wells had, the future generations of readers were less impressed by his political messages. Instead they were fascinated by the idea that the strange new worlds could be explored without traveling trough space. The novel became one of great classics of science fiction genre and it natural for filmmakers to use it as inspiration. First of them was George Pal, who in 1960 directed film which would, through the years, become genre classic of its own. The plot revolves about George (Rod Taylor), Victorian scientist who discovered the way to travel through the fourth dimension - time. At the eve of the new 20th Century, George gathers his friends in order to present them his invention - machine that would enable him to travel through time. They are skeptical, but that doesn't prevent George from carrying out his plan and traveling into the future. At first, he travels slowly, seeing London as it changes through the years and three world wars. Finally, after witnessing World War Three, he travels far into the future, hoping that he would cease to witness wars and senseless destructions. When he finally reaches year 802,701 AD, at first glance, new world looks like utopia - humanity consists of young, beautiful, but idle Eloi, people who are fed, clothed and taken care of by unseen machines. But, Weena (Yvette Mimieux), Eloi woman, tells George about another side of the coin - in the night, her people is preyed upon by Morlocs, humanoid creatures from the underworld. THE TIME MACHINE became the cinematic classic for the very same reason the novel became the classic in science fiction literature - the fantastic concept was a brilliant way for the authors to talk about burning issues and fears of their respective times. For H.G. Wells it was frightening threat of class struggle; for George Pal and his screenwriter David Duncan, who produced the film in the worst days of the Cold War, it was the constant and more imminent threat of nuclear holocaust, underlined with the negative references to war throughout the movie. Even the modern audience, which would be tempted to discard the film as old-fashioned, could find some values in its universal messages, fit for each era. Compared with the genre films of today, THE TIME MACHINE is even better, and could serve as a good example how to make intelligent, thought-provoking films. Of course, since this is Hollywood product after all, THE TIME MACHINE delivers such concepts in the form of classic adventure, sometimes sacrificing plausibility for the sake of attractiveness. For example, it is hard to imagine that someone would be able to understand perfect English million years in future; same is with Morlocs degenerating into mutant monsters, while Eloi remain undistinguished from the people of today. Some of the final scenes, that turn Victorian scientist into an action superhero, are also rather unconvincing. But, on the other hand, the film is very well directed, cleverly paced and the special effects, although definitely old-fashioned, are more than adequate for this kind of picture. The acting is good, with Rod Taylor in one of his most remembered roles, while in the same time Alan Young brings rather memorable performance as George's trusted friend Filby. Yvette Mimieux, who plays Weena, on the other hand, would be remembered more by her looks than by the complexity of her role. However, despite all those flaws, THE TIME MACHINE is a very good piece of cinema, something that connoisseurs of quality science-fiction films sorely miss these days. RATING: 7/10 (+++) Review written on February 23rd 1999 -- Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax Fido: 2:381/100 E-mail: dragan.antulov@st.tel.hr E-mail: dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr E-mail: drax@purger.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 20 16:13:47 2002 From: Jon Popick Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Time Machine, The (1960) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2002 21:40:32 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31230 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293025 X-RT-TitleID: 1021500 X-RT-SourceID: 595 X-RT-AuthorID: 1146 Summary: r.a.m.r. #31230 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 69 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!wineasy!newsfeed1.wineasy.se!news.sto.telegate.se!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!213.56.195.71!fr.usenet-edu.net!usenet-edu.net!freenix!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3092 rec.arts.sf.reviews:217 Planet Sick-Boy: http://www.sick-boy.com "We Put the SIN in Cinema" © Copyright 2001 Planet Sick-Boy. All Rights Reserved. This weekend, you can either visit the googleplex and see the spiffy new version of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (directed by Wells' great-grandson, Simon) or do a little time-traveling of your own over to the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman House (or, if you're a total geek like me, you'll do both). Saturday night, the Dryden is screening the 1960 version of that film, which took home the Best Special Effects Oscar for visuals at which we can only roll our eyes in this day and age. Anyone who digs those incredibly cheesy and wonderfully campy '50s sci-fi/horror films won't want to miss out on this one. Machine is based on Wells' 1895 novel (he also wrote The Invisible Man and The Island of Dr. Moreau) and was adapted for the screen by David Duncan, who penned unintentionally hilarious gems like The Monster That Challenged the World, The Thing That Couldn't Die (a/k/a The Jesse Helms Story) and Monster on the Campus. The film was directed by George Pal, who was an Oscar nominee seven years in a row (1942-1948, for short cartoons) and helmed the popular screen version of Wells' The War of the Worlds, in addition to the effects-heavy Seven Faces of Dr. Lao and tom thumb. Like all good sci-fi films, Machine isn't just about monsters or aliens - it's social commentary, too, and this one tackles the huge gap between the rich and the poor. Rod Taylor plays H. George Wells, a Victorian scientist in South London who, as the film opens, has been missing for nearly a week. Four of his educated friends have gathered at his house for a dinner party and are shocked when George emerges wearing tattered clothes and on the verge of collapse. He begins to relate an incredible story, which started just five days earlier on December 31, 1899. Via flashback, George tells his friends about the fourth dimension and claims he's made a machine that will prove time travel is possible. They all laugh at his declaration, even when George produces a miniature version of the machine, which takes off into the future (or so he claims). With his friends gone, George steps into a room with a full-size model of the time machine, hops in and slowly starts to travel into the future. From his seat, George can see the dress shop across the street and the mannequin in its front window, which shows bold new fashions arriving in stop-action style. He makes stops and learns of the first two World Wars as well as the third (in 1967, which was seven years after the film was made) that destroyed civilization and encased George and his machine in molten lava (the miniatures and stock footage used here are tremendously funny). He shoots forward until the lava erodes, hopping out in 802710 to see a large group of lackadaisical, Village of the Damned-style blonds with the same clothes and the same hairstyle (it's just like going to Tonic!). People who saw Machine when they were kids probably only remember the battle between the Eloi and the Morlocks, but there's so much more to take away from the film, like the fact that the English language is able to survive the nuclear holocaust and that the future will offer a complete lack of minorities (hey - maybe this should be The Jesse Helms Story). Pal made Machine for under $850,000, which is one-tenth the cost of the new version and, by today's standards, would pay for either three of Mel Gibson's toes or two of Marlon Brando's chins. 1:43 - G ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31230 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293025 X-RT-TitleID: 1021500 X-RT-SourceID: 595 X-RT-AuthorID: 1146 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 20 16:13:47 2002 From: JoBlo Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2002 20:00:55 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31227 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293018 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 573 X-RT-AuthorID: 1021 X-RT-RatingText: 3/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #31227 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 108 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!wineasy!newsfeed1.wineasy.se!news.sto.telegate.se!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!194.25.134.62!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!nntp-relay.ihug.net!ihug.co.nz!hub1.nntpserver.com!telocity-west!TELOCITY!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3088 rec.arts.sf.reviews:216 THE TIME MACHINE RATING: 3/10 http://www.joblo.com/timemachine.htm For more reviews and movie trailers, visit http://www.joblo.com/ PLOT: A scientist who doesn't like to wear bowler hats like everyone else in his day, creates a machine to travel back through time in order to change a certain occurrence, which took a loved one away from him. Once caught up in the machine, the poor bastard is taken to a place that he never imagined, and unfortunately for the audience, takes us with him. CRITIQUE: Whatta friggin' mess! I'm really not the type of person to knock movies just for the hell of it (I generally always find something nice to say about any film), but what the hell is going on this year? It feels as though it's turning into the dumping year of the crappy movies. Here's another film that was delayed from the fall of 2001, and given what I saw on the screen this morning, they should have kept this puppy under wraps for a lot longer than that (I only wish I could use the contraption to travel back in time and get my money back!) What the hell happened here? The movie starts off pretty good, with a good setup via a romance, authentic old-time settings and Guy Pearce looking a lot like Tom Cruise in VANILLA SKY, while still coming through as per his usual style, but as soon as the man gets into that gleaming time machine...the movie careens into shitsville and makes no pit-stops to wipe. Wow, what a letdown! And what exactly are the film's many, many problems? Well, let me count the ways. First of all, the film loses its motivation. Pearce's character starts off on a journey to reinvigorate someone who was lost to him in the past, but it doesn't take long for him to land on some "monkey island", on which he inexplicably forgets all about his previous years of hard work, dedication and passion, and decides that getting involved in the lives of some jungle-people, who he only met for one evening, is suddenly the greater priority. Needless to say, the rest of the movie is spent on "monkey island" (I know it's not an island but it just reminded me of another crappy flick, THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU), and little ol' scientist guy somehow turns into action-hero dude with the hots for a jungle-maiden with firm breasts (dude, they were nice tits but how about trying to follow up on those ambitions which you laid out for us in the first half hour of the movie?) Which leads to the film's second big mistake and that is not knowing what kind of movie it wants to be. It starts off in the romance arena, downshifts into a sci-fi flick, which was cool and to be expected, but it isn't long before monsters are scattering about, trying to cage humans (perhaps they thought they were shooting a sequel to PLANET OF THE APES?) and all of a sudden, it's a plain ol' action/horror movie, with little originality, enthusiasm or involvement for the audience (CONGO anyone?). So you don't care about the main character because he apparently gives up on the dream, you don't care about the people living on "monkey island" because they barely speak English and you don't know much about them, and to top it off, the film slaps plot holes the size of my ass into the game, and it isn't long before you realize that you're watching an actual cinematic debacle materialize on screen. Add to that, an overbearing score, which the director likes to overuse to emphasize non-impressive moments in the film (oh wow, matte paintings in the sky and hammocks hanging off the side of a cliff...bombast that music!!), Jeremy Irons continuing to work hard at destroying his once-burgeoning acting career while turning into the king of goofy over-the-top parts (he plays the leader of the monkey-people in this film, or at least that's what I understood from his lame explanation scene), and one of the most obvious plot device characters (i.e. superfluous) that I have ever seen in any film, played by Orlando Jones, whose computer generated character was somehow (get ready for this!) able to survive 800,000 years of change on earth, and still function as an all-knowing computer (even though everyone is living in huts and electricity is nowhere to be seen). Yikes! Again I ask...what the hell were they thinking? These jokers might've gotten together for drinks with the crew from ROLLERBALL and bet each other as to which production can drown a good premise faster first. It's no wonder that director Simon Wells fell out of this production with about 18 days left in shooting due to "extreme exhaustion" and THE MEXICAN's Gore Verbinski replaced him the rest of the way. Wells probably realized what a dud he had and no matter what was done to it (the film also seems to be missing patches here and there, and barely runs for 90 minutes), he was going down for the count. Jumbled, plot points left open, inexplicable motivations, so-so effects (although the changes over time were cool) and monsters who seemed to be auditioning for parts in the next LOTR flick, this movie disappointed me in many ways but most of all, it just plain sucked on an entertainment level. BTW, I haven't read the book, so I could really give a rat's ass if it was like the book or not...either way, the movie blew! Where's JoBlo coming from? Congo (5/10) - Lost in Space (6/10) - The Fellowship of the Ring (7/10) - Frequency (8/10) - Kate & Leopold (6/10) - Lost Highway (10/10) - The One (6/10) - Planet of the Apes (7/10) - Vanilla Sky (9/10) Review Date: March 4, 2002 Director: Simon Wells Writer: John Logan Producers: David Valdes, Walter Parkes Actors: Guy Pearce as Alexander Hartdegen Orlando Jones as Vox Jeremy Irons as Uber-Morlock Genre: Science-Fiction Year of Release: 2002 ------------------------------------ JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com/ ------------------------------------ (c) 2002 Berge Garabedian ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31227 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293018 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 573 X-RT-AuthorID: 1021 X-RT-RatingText: 3/10 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 20 16:13:47 2002 From: Susan Granger Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2002 21:51:12 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31235 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293029 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 742 X-RT-AuthorID: 1274 X-RT-RatingText: 7/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #31235 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 35 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.sics.se!uab.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!luth.se!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!204.71.34.15!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed1.cidera.com!Cidera!telocity-west!TELOCITY!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3097 rec.arts.sf.reviews:218 Susan Granger's review of "THE TIME MACHINE" (DreamWorks) Director Simon Wells ("The Prince of Egypt") puts a new spin on his great-grandfather H.G. Wells' visionary time-travel novel that George Pal adapted for the movies in 1960. Writing in 1895, Wells predicted aerial combat, atomic warfare and the negative effect of technology on humanity. This adventure begins - not in London - but in Manhattan in 1899, when the adored fiancée (Sienna Guillory) of an obsessive physics professor, Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce), is brutally killed. Distraught yet determined, he invents a machine to travel back in time to change her fate. And when that doesn't work, he inadvertently catapults 800,000 years into the future, where he's rescued by Mara (Irish R&B singer Samantha Mumba) of a gentle, primitive humanoid race called the Eloi, who dwell in translucent, cliff-side pods to escape capture by cannibalistic subterranean Morlocks. Undoubtedly, sci-fi purists will find fault with screenwriter John Logan's tinkering with the sci-fi source material. Yet one of his best inventions is Vox (Orlando Jones), an amusingly caustic hologram containing the New York Public Library's information database. And the elegant production values and digital-effects shots cleverly create concurrent realities in parallel universes: past, present and future. But at 96 minutes, the film is too short. I wanted more of Wells' philosophical socio-political class conflict as embodied by the scary Uber-Morlock (Jeremy Irons), whose monstrous evolution is the result of a 21st-century lunar catastrophe, and who astutely notes that we all have our own time machines: our memories take us back and our dreams project us forward. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Time Machine" is a fun if elusive 7. Visually, it's a suspenseful, mind-bending thrill-ride, sheer escapist entertainment. ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31235 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293029 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 742 X-RT-AuthorID: 1274 X-RT-RatingText: 7/10 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 20 16:13:48 2002 From: Rose 'Bams' Cooper Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 19:33:11 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31263 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293788 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 447 X-RT-AuthorID: 3672 Summary: r.a.m.r. #31263 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 123 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!erinews.ericsson.se!uab.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!luth.se!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!171.64.14.106!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3103 rec.arts.sf.reviews:219 '3BlackChicks Review...' THE TIME MACHINE (2002) Rated PG-13; running time 96 minutes Studios: DreamWorks/Warner Brothers Genre: Science Fiction Seen at: Celebration Cinema (Lansing, Michigan) Official site: http://www.countingdown.com/timemachine/ IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0268695 Written by: John Logan, Simon Wells (based on the book by H.G. Wells) Directed by: Simon Wells Cast: Guy Pearce, Samantha Mumba, Orlando Jones, Jeremy Irons, Mark Addy, Omero Mumba, Sienna Guillory, Phyllida Law Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002 Review URL: http://www.3blackchicks.com/2002reviews/bamstime.html I wish I were a pitch writer for movies. I have a few that I'd offer up for this one... THE TIME MACHINE: The Land That [You Wish] Time Forgot! THE TIME MACHINE: It's Your Time; Let Us Waste It! THE TIME MACHINE: Trashing A Good Actor's Career In Triple Speed! THE TIME MACHINE: Bet You Wish You Were Watching MEMENTO Now, Huh? THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**) Professor Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce) has a beautiful mind that he doesn't wish to be wasted under a conforming bowler hat. Hartdegen, a scientist and inventor, Thinks Different, and is surprised that the rest of the world doesn't move to his rapid pace. His pace is so rapid, in fact, that he almost forgets to pop the question to his girlfriend Emma (Sienna Guillory). But wouldn't you know it: Tragedy Ensues, plunging Hartdegen into a four-year funk from which not even his best friend and colleague Dr. Philby (Mark Addy) or his housekeeper, Mrs. Watchit (Phyllida Law), can rouse him. Hartdegen builds a time machine so that he can change the events of the recent past, but somehow concludes that his answer lies elsewhere, prompting him to go back to the future: the way-ether time of 800,000+AD. There, he meets Raquel Welch...I mean, Mara (Samantha Mumba), mouthpiece for the Peaceful Enoi tribe of creatures who haven't really evolved much in the 800,000+ years since his time. And where there's a Peaceful tribe, there's gotta be a dark side, right? Riiiiight. THE UPSHOT You ever go out to see a new flick, and wish you had just gone to Blockbuster instead? If you're anything like me, THE TIME MACHINE will make you wish just that. TIME AFTER TIME - the much better, though only slightly related - version of H.G. Wells' time-travel story, kept popping in my head after Hartdegen landed in the way-ether time of 800,000+AD. I found TIME AFTER TIME much more enjoyable than THE TIME MACHINE, even though the first movie steered far clear of pere Wells' Morlocks and Enoi. Maybe even *because* the first movie steered far clear of them. THE TIME MACHINE started out fine, lulling the viewer into an accepting state with its sad (at first) story of a lost soul and decent (at first) CG and special effects. Had it spent most of its time in the past and the near-future, telling us more about what made Hartdegen tick, I might have found this movie a pleasant, non-threatening diversion. But my head started to spin as I watched the veil get slowly drawn back, asking me to accept inanity after patronizing inanity, with plot holes big enough to drive a Humvee through. H.G.'s great-grandson Simon's vision of the future got progressively more silly, culminating in the laughingly doofiest SuperBad Tough Guy (Jeremy Irons) since John Travolta in BATTLEFIELD: EARTH - and it *still* managed to get worse from there, as if it was in a contest to see just how bad a movie can evolve into before the closing credits. As the Neo-Primitives, Samantha Mumba (Alexander's probable New Squeeze, Mara), her real-life brother Omero (Mara's brother Kalen) and the other Peaceful Eloi tribe, reminded me of that STAR TREK episode where Kirk comes down and saves its version of backwards natives from a mean ol' Godzilla-looking stone statue demigod. By the looks of things, Simon Wells watched that episode, too. Poor Simon; I guess 96 minutes just wasn't enough time for him to include Pretty Pictures *and* a coherent story. I felt the most sorry for Guy Pearce; after he and his brilliantly mind-bending MEMENTO were so badly robbed at Oscar(R) nominations time, I was hoping that the next movie I'd see him in would set the screen a'fire. Alas, it was this movie that most deserved to go up in a blaze. I guess there's one consolation: at least Orlando Jones (A.I. Vox) didn't play the customary Clown. Small comfort, though, when the movie around him was a joke. BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE I wish I could go back in time and erase any memory I have of watching this goofy flick. Next time I get a hankerin' for some H.G. Wells, I think I'll head for the video store and rent TIME AFTER TIME instead. Where's Cyndi Lauper when you need her? THE TIME MACHINE rating: flashing redlight Rose "Bams" Cooper Webchick and Editor, 3BlackChicks Review Entertainment Reviews With Flava! Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002 EMAIL: bams@3blackchicks.com http://www.3blackchicks.com/ ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31263 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293788 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 447 X-RT-AuthorID: 3672 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 20 16:13:48 2002 From: Laura Clifford Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 19:36:04 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31265 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293742 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 386 X-RT-AuthorID: 1487 X-RT-RatingText: C+ Summary: r.a.m.r. #31265 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 88 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!erinews.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!luth.se!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!headwall.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3104 rec.arts.sf.reviews:220 THE TIME MACHINE ---------------- In turn of the century New York City, absent minded professor Alexander Hartdegan (Guy Pearce, "The Count of Monte Cristo") is spruced up by his housekeeper Mrs. Wachit (Phyllida Law, "The Winter Guest") before he goes to propose to Emma (Jessica Lange lookalike Sienna Guillory). But tragedy strikes and the bereft Hartdegan is determined to undo what has been done and so he spends years using his intellect and correspondence with a patent clerk named Einstein to create "The Time Machine." Based on the H.G. Wells science fiction story that George Pal first brought to the screen in the 60's, "The Time Machine" is directed this time around by the author's great grandson Simon Wells ("Prince of Egypt"). While forty years of special effects development take the cheese factor out of this version's visuals, overall the effort is a disappointment. The film's first major problem is its ham-handed handling of its motivational tragedy. When Hartdegan succeeds in returning to the time before his fiance's death, he soon learns that it is an event he can't alter. The second death scene shouldn't inspire titters, however, and this one does. A carriage accident may as well have been replaced by the proverbial 2000-pound weight. The man who spent years going back in time gives up on his endeavor after one try and decides instead to go future hopping to find out why he couldn't prevent Emma's death. Hartdegan boards his machine for a longer journey and we're treated to changing seasons and the botanical growth and shrivellings that creep across the conservatory glass in retro stop-motion spurts. In 2030, he finds a new addition to the story inside the city's library. Vox (Orlando Jones, "Evolution") is a database hologram with attitude who frustrates Alexander's demand for time travel schematics with information on H.G. Wells and Pal's earlier film. When Hartdegan attempts to jump forward, he's halted a mere 7 years later to find the earth being destroyed by a fragmenting moon. He barely escapes arrest, but is knocked out clambering into his vehicle which progresses forward for 800,000 years. He awakens to find himself being cared for by Mara (Irish pop star Samantha Mumba) within a colony of cliff hugging pod dwellings. His puzzlement over where the older Elois have gone is answered one day in a horrific attack by the Morlocks, which hunt down Elois as food and take Mara to their underground dwelling. Hartdegan travels into the underground Morlock mining community to find Mara in the clutches of Uber-Morlock (Jeremy Irons, "Reversal of Fortune"), an intellectually evolved being who controls the hellish society. While Vox is an inspired addition, this adaptation by Josh Logan ("Gladiator") is curiously lacking in time travel and doesn't generate any excitement until the last journey's already been taken. The final segment, with its powerful and fast moving Morlocks, offers some thrills, but logic isn't its strong suit. The 'stone language' taught amidst New York tablets inscribed with Brooklyn Bridge and Tiffany and Co. smacks of "Planet of the Apes" while the hideous, human hunting miners recall "Battlefield Earth." It makes little sense why the Elois need to live dangerously suspended along cliffs when we're shown that Morlocks have no problem climbing. Guy Pearce's stilted performance does little to distract the audience from the film's problems. He gives his character no humor or warmth and seems incapable of projecting wonder, something a time traveler should have in good supply. Thankfully Orlando Jones perks things up in the few scenes he's in and Samantha Mumba has nice presence as Mara. Phyllida Law is underutilized as Mrs. Watchit yet still injects some much needed character into the Victorian segments which find Mark Addy ("The Full Monty") adrift as Hartdegan's friend Philby. Samantha Mumba's young brother Omera plays Mara's younger brother Kalen like the feral boy of "The Road Warrior." That Jeremy Irons' character should set one to thinking of "Battlefield Earth's" Travolta is not a good thing. The wall to wall chalkboards of Hartdegan's laboratory were configured by a mathematician to ensure accuracy, but this "The Time Machine" needed more time at the drawing board. C+ For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com laura@reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31265 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293742 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 386 X-RT-AuthorID: 1487 X-RT-RatingText: C+ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 20 16:13:48 2002 From: Dennis Schwartz Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 19:37:52 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31267 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293958 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 873 X-RT-AuthorID: 1315 X-RT-RatingText: C Summary: r.a.m.r. #31267 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 86 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!newsfeed1.swip.net!swipnet!news.stealth.net!news.stealth.net!newsstand.cit.cornell.edu!lnsnews.lns.cornell.edu!paradoxa.ogoense.net!sn-xit-04!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3110 rec.arts.sf.reviews:221 TIME MACHINE, THE (director: Simon Wells; screenwriters: John Logan, based on the novel by H. G. Wells; cinematographer: Donald M. McAlpine; editor: Wayne Wahrman; music: Klaus Badelt; cast: Guy Pearce (Alexander Hartdegen), Samantha Mumba (Mara), Jeremy Irons (Über-Morlock), Orlando Jones (Vox), Mark Addy (David Philby), Sienna Guillory (Emma), Phyllida Law (Mrs. Watchit), Omero Mumba (Kalen), Alan Young (Flower Store Worker); Runtime: 96; DreamWorks Pictures; 2001-Australia) Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz "The Time Machine" is a strangely unaffecting telling of the H.G. Wells novel from 1895. It is told in a different manner than the novel and in a different setting. There's some fun to be had in its second half, which reminds me of an old-fashioned clean as a whistle adventure/romance story. The film takes place in Manhattan instead of London. It stars Guy Pearce as the brilliant young mathematician and Columbia professor, Alexander Hartdegen, who hopes to use the unknown patent clerk Einstein's early science theories to build a time machine. Alex is in love with the beautiful blonde Emma (Sienna Guillory), but on the very night when he proposes marriage in Central Park, a mugger kills her, and he plans for the next four years to travel back in time in his new machine and alter history. His close friend David Philby sighs with disapproval that his eccentric and curious mate can't stop feeling sorry for himself and get out more. Alex's fusspot loyal housekeeper, Mrs. Watchit, agrees with Philby. She will later wonder when her master disappears, what became of that silly lad. At least, this sci-fi film is more devilish than the 1960 George Pal version. The director, Simon Wells--he's the great-grandson of H.G., and is recognized for his animation work--keeps things moving by being silly when the story finally gets rolling and does a nice job using computer-graphics for the film's visual effects. As for John Logan's script, it never seems to evoke emotion from the characters and allows the film to fall prey as a mostly visual effects film. Attractive pop singer Samantha Mumba, who is part Irish and Zambian, plays the Eloi heroine Mara the star will fall in love with; while her young brother Omero Mumba plays Kalen. He's her son in the film. The time machine is made up of whirling spheres enclosing a Victorian club chair. Golden brass gauges spin to record the current date. A joystick controls speed and direction. The time machine is also uniquely designed so that it will always land near Times Square. There Alex gets out of his shiny golden contraption in the years 2030 and 2037 and no one stares, except for him gaping at the incredulous NYC of the near future. Not much of a fantasy so far, and he can't change things that happened in the past. But that changes on his next trip to some 800,000 years into the distant future. Alex lands in the same NYC place, but it is devastated because the moon fell off the earth. The pacifist jungle-clad Eloi, the evolution of the new homo sapiens, are tan-skinned in complexion due to years of racial mixing. They dwell in pods affixed to mountains, which they get to by climbing up high rope ladders (New Yorkers always seem to find the oddest places to live in). The Eloi suffer as prey to the giant cannibalistic monsters called Morlocks, led by the Über-Morlock (Jeremy Irons), who come up from the underground to hunt them down for food. Alex fights back when his love interest Mara is kidnapped by them and taken to their underground fortress, where she's imprisoned for breeding purposes. Irons gives the film some flashes of life as he plays the über- creature with some despotic panache. Other than his lively villain, this film offers no other appealing performances. But There's a cute bit about a holographic figure played by Orlando Jones. He is a fountain of information, as he's "a compendium of all human knowledge" in the 2030 library -- a bouquet thrown to the merits of artificial intelligence. But this flick is sanitized without Wells' warning to the gods of science that they don't have all the answers or his socialist messages to the capitalists about the unequal society they have created. REVIEWED ON 3/14/2002 GRADE: C Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" http://www.sover.net/~ozus ozus@sover.net © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31267 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293958 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 873 X-RT-AuthorID: 1315 X-RT-RatingText: C From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 20 16:13:49 2002 From: Mark R. Leeper Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 19:49:43 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31273 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293963 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-AuthorID: 1309 X-RT-RatingText: 6/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #31273 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 137 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!netnews.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3117 rec.arts.sf.reviews:223 THE TIME MACHINE (2002) (a film review by Mark R. Leeper) CAPSULE: Not a remake. Not a sequel. The new film THE TIME MACHINE is a comment and a play on the ideas of the 1960 film and on the novel. The movie seems a little slight and rushed, but it is not at all bad as a short science fiction story. Guy Pearce was the wrong actor to cast as the Time Traveler, however. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), high +1 (-4 to +4) THE TIME MACHINE has already had one reasonably accurate film adaptation. George Pal's 1960 version made some modifications of the plot of the Wells story, but they were relatively small. The film caught much of the spirit of the book. Any plans at this point to remake THE TIME MACHINE would probably have been a mistake. It would be tough to compete with happy memories of the earlier version. Happily, though few critics seem to have noted it, a remake is something that the new film THE TIME MACHINE is not. It does not make any attempt to tell the same story. In fact, there are references in the dialog to both the novel and the George Pal film, indicating that it takes place in our world. It is our world that the film assumes is destined to have a future much along the lines that Wells predicted. This sort of thing is not uncommon in written science fiction, but rare in a film. [In fact I just recently read THE SPACE MACHINE by Christopher Priest, which is not a sequel but plays with ideas from both THE TIME MACHINE and WAR OF THE WORLDS.] In this new film a late 19th century American scientist, Alexander Hartdegen (played by Guy Pearce), suffers a great personal loss by chance and devotes four years to inventing a machine that will take him back in time to change the past. He only partially succeeds. To his frustration he finds that he can change the past only in minor ways. In frustration he decides to visit the future. There he finds that future man has made a huge blunder destroying civilization as we know it. Knocked unconscious as he is escaping further into the future he overshoots his destination and finds himself in 802,701 A.D. and as Wells predicted, humanity has split into Eloi and Morlocks. This film inherits the ideas of Wells legitimately. It is directed by Simon Wells, a great- grandson of H. G. Wells and who prior to this film has directed only animated films like BALTO and PRINCE OF EGYPT. Guy Pearce, our Time Traveler, has been in some interesting films including LA CONFIDENTIAL, MEMENTO, and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, but he is not the most expressive actor. After a promising start in which he plays the curious scientist to the hit, his face goes impassive and he just does not convey much emotion to the viewer. In the 1960 film the Time Traveler was played by Rod Taylor who was much better at showing his emotions. Taylor's Time Traveler was on an emotional quest: he had the passion to escape to a better future free from war. After the promising start Pearce plays his role as coldly intellectual and his quest is to answer a technical question: why cannot he change the past? That is bound to be less engaging to an audience. The viewer never really cares a lot about what happens to him. The film has several small tributes to its origins. In the Time Traveler's house is a photo of H. G. Wells as a young man. If one looks quick one can catch Alan Young, Philby in the 1960 film, as a florist. The Time Traveler watches the mannequins change in a store window as he moves through time much as he did in the 1960 film. The real star of any visual version of THE TIME MACHINE has got to be the title device itself. The machine has to be complex enough that it looks like it might work but not too complex to be assimilated by the eye or too threatening. An instant Hollywood icon was the mechanism created for George Pal and the 1960 version with its spinning dish and its antique chair. [Recommended is the documentary on DVD of THE TIME MACHINE that tells how the 1960 film's machine was created.] This film obviously borrows from that design. It replaces the one dish with three. Two dishes are behind and above the cockpit, spinning in opposite directions. One is in front and below. The dishes look like Fresnel lighthouse lenses. The antique chair is there much as in the 1960 film as is the control panel with the crystal lever. The new control panel has a nice dial display on brass rods looking like something out of a century old calculating machine. The one thing that looks a little strange is some steam guages. Somehow I am not sure the world is ready for a steam-powered time machine. ("I stopped the machine at 205,356 AD and got out to stoke the boiler.") But the machine has a sort of 1800s "steampunk" feel. Then there are the inhabitants of the future. Wells described the Eloi as fair-skinned. These Eloi are light brown as if all races had blended to one color as well they might over 800 millennia. The Morlocks when they attack come up right out of gravel pits, grab victims and drag them down into gravel pits. It is a fairly scary image borrowed from the 1956 horror film, THE MOLE PEOPLE. I am not sure it made sense in that film and it makes even less sense here. The implication is they are going to an underground cavern, but how the Morlocks can get there without the gravel spilling into the cavern I cannot imagine. The chief Morlock (called an Uber-Morlock) is played by Jeremy Irons looking like Elric of Melnibone. I was prepared not to like THE TIME MACHINE and found that if one is really interested in time travel stories, this new film is a pleasant surprise. It does not try to replace the original THE TIME MACHINE, it instead makes itself a companion piece. Add TIME AFTER TIME and you have a really good science fiction triple feature. I rate the new film 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. Open note to Roger Ebert (non-spoiler): You ask in your review why the Time Machine stays in one place rather than at a particular set of coordinates in space with the Earth flying away from under it. I had puzzled that one myself, but years ago decided it makes sense. The Time Machine is a physical device that creates a field in which funny things happen with time. Like most matter we see, it has been captured by Planet Earth and is carried with it. It is not immovable, it just is not moved relative to the earth. People do not move it because it moves through their time too fast for them to see. But the pull of gravity is instantaneous and binds it to the earth just the same way it binds us. In the 1960 film the machine even moves a little relative to the Earth when the traveler hits the brakes too suddenly. Then the forward movement in time gets dissipated into gyroscopic motion in three dimensions. The machine spins around and topples to its side. A plane moves forward in the sky, but it still maintains it momentum and travels pretty much with the Earth. (And thanks, by the way, for mentioning me on page 433 of your new book THE GREAT MOVIES.) Mark R. Leeper mleeper@optonline.net Copyright 2002 Mark R. Leeper ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31273 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293963 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-AuthorID: 1309 X-RT-RatingText: 6/10 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 20 16:13:49 2002 From: Shannon Patrick Sullivan Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 19:50:26 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31274 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293964 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 886 X-RT-AuthorID: 1699 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #31274 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 55 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.sics.se!uab.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!luth.se!out.nntp.be!propagator-SanJose!in.nntp.be!nntp-relay.ihug.net!ihug.co.nz!hub1.nntpserver.com!telocity-west!TELOCITY!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3120 rec.arts.sf.reviews:225 THE TIME MACHINE (2002) / ** Directed by Simon Wells. Screenplay by John Logan, from an earlier screenplay by David Duncan, based on the novel by HG Wells. Starring Guy Pearce, Samantha Mumba, Jeremy Irons. Running time: 96 minutes. Rated PG for frightening scenes by the MFCB. Reviewed on March 10th, 2002. By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN Synopsis: When his fiancee Emma (Sienna Guillory) dies tragically, Alexander Hartdegen (Pearce) spends four years creating a time machine so that he can alter the course of history. When he is still unable to save Emma, Hartdegen decides to travel forward in time, ending up eight hundred thousand years in the future. There he meets the lovely Mara (Mumba) whose people, the beautiful Eloi, are the prey of the monstrous subterranean Morlocks. Review: Much like Guy Pearce's previous film, "The Count Of Monte Cristo", "The Time Machine" wants to be nothing more than a fun action-adventure romp. Certainly, there is none of the 1960 George Pal version's atomic age allegory to be found here. But unlike "Monte Cristo", which carefully developed its exciting plot and characters, "The Time Machine" seems, paradoxically, to think itself short on time. Not only does it clock in at just an hour and a half in length, it's almost midway through that runtime before Hartdegen wakes up with the Eloi and we get to the main part of the story. This cinematic precipitancy is a shame, because the picture's introductory segments are quite well made. Hartdegen's odyssey through the twenty-first century is visually enthralling, especially the disaster which inadvertently propels him forward eight hundred thousand years. But thereafter, "The Time Machine" appears to be in a race to get to the end. The Eloi and Morlock cultures are barely fleshed out, a major plot point is inexplicably contradicted, and the whole thing appears to be little more than a "Planet Of The Apes" rip-off. In a way it's ironic that the director, Simon Wells, is the great-grandson of HG Wells: this adaptation of "The Time Machine", too, is about four generations removed from the original. For my time travel thrills, I'll stick with "Doctor Who". Copyright © 2002 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at The Popcorn Gallery, http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html | Shannon Patrick Sullivan | shannon@mun.ca | +---------------------------------+---------------------------------+ / Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) go.to/drwho-history \ \__ We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars __/ ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31274 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293964 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 886 X-RT-AuthorID: 1699 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 20 16:13:49 2002 From: Robin Clifford Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 19:55:50 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31278 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293840 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 386 X-RT-AuthorID: 1488 X-RT-RatingText: B- Summary: r.a.m.r. #31278 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 115 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.net.uni-c.dk!howland.erols.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3114 rec.arts.sf.reviews:222 "The Time Machine" Dr. Alexander Hartdegen is a brilliant inventor, mathematician and physicist and a little absent minded. But that does not mean that he isn't head over heels in love with his beloved fiancée. A tragic moment in time takes Emma's (Sienna Guillory) life and Alexander secludes himself to find a way to bring her back. Four years of effort pay off and the scientist invents a way to crack the time barrier in a new millennium interpretation of the classic H.G. Wells science fiction tale, "The Time Machine." Animation director Simon Wells (great-grandson of H.G. himself) make his break into live action with John Logan's adaptation of the 1960 screenplay (by David Duncan) in the George Pal classic version of "The Time Machine." There is a built-in audience of fans of the '60 flick that will bring us to the theater out of curiosity, alone. Comparison to Pal's film, rather than Well's original story, is a given and, as with last year's "Planet of the Apes," scrutiny of the modern retelling is bound to happen. Since I was one of those knocked out by '60 film when I was a kid, I, too, shall compare. The most endearing quality of Wells-the-younger's remake is the obvious and deeply felt homage to the George Pal classic. It does not achieve the level of complexity and depth that the great science fiction director-producer accomplished back when F/X were crafted rather than computed. Nice little touches that will mean something to us devotees to the original are sprinkled throughout the film even as it tries to cut new ground. Watch for, briefly, the dress shop and for a very small cameo perf by Alan Young, who had a couple of roles in the Pal work. There is a quality in the story telling and social commentary in the 60 film - there is, for instance, a strong anti-Cold War statement about nuclear destruction in one of the more numerous stops the hero of that film (coincidentally another Australian, Rod Taylor) makes. Logan's script lacks the depth of its predecessor, making this "The Time Machine" (lite). The new "Machine" makes an effort to gain some distance from David Duncan's 50's-era script and introduces the love angle as Alexander's motivation to traverse time. It is set in the same era, the turn-of-the-19th century, but is transplanted from London to New York City, which fits, from a Hollywood viewpoint, since NYC would be a high-tech Mecca of the time. The scientist is motivated to solve the time travel enigma when Emma is slain by a thief. But, when he invents his machine and goes back in time to save her (and his) life, he realizes that he can't change the past as Emma is killed yet again (in the film most unintentional comic moments). Hartdegen takes his machine and heads into the future to find the answers to his question of "what if." Alexander takes a couple of timeouts on his journey into the future - once in 2030 with a brief follow-up a few years later - that are used to set up some of the plot devices that would be useful later in the story. One interesting bit of fun is the intro of Vox (Orlando Jones) as the holographic librarian that has all of the world's knowledge at the tips of his cyber fingers. The high tech look coupled with a sassy perf by Jones make for one of the film's several notable supporting performances. One or two more stopovers along the way in the inventor's journey into time would have helped flesh things out a bit more. The meat of the story, in both versions, is the hero's arrival 800000 years in the future. The Eloi are a cliff-dwelling people who wish to live in peace but, through many millennia of evolution, have become victim to the Morlock, underground dwellers that rely on the beautiful Eloi as their main dietary staple. When (and I really mean "when") the inventor arrives he is subjected to the chaos of one of the Morlock attacks on the helpless Eloi and witnesses the beautiful Mara (Irish pop star Samantha Mumba doing a solid job in her debut on film) taken by the ugly Morlock hunters - of course, the romance is duly set up before the attack to give our hero reason to go under ground to rescue the future Eve to his Adam. The screenplay does a solid job in interpreting the time travel paradox - if you went back in time to kill your grandmother to stop some heinous event then you would never be born to invent a time machine to go back in time to kill your grandmother.... Alexander heads into the future to get his answers and he sees that he must stop the cannibalistic attacks of the Morlocks and bring education, enlightenment and true freedom to the Eloi. Along the way in his quest, the doctor meets the Uber-Morlock (Jeremy Irons) a pasty faced subterranean dweller that has evolved to the top of the caste structured Morlock society. Irons has a commanding presence as the psychic leader that can give Alexander the answer he seeks. This role could well have been comical in a lesser actor's hands, but Iron's delivers a creepy perf that makes the skin crawl. What is unfortunate, and a problem that holds the film back, is star Guy Pearce. He is two-dimensional and evokes almost no empathy, which is a shame considering the good supporting cast. This is a sci-fi, high-tech F/X-driven drama and the makers deliver some interesting effects along the way. The time machine, itself, is a flashy update to the buggy that Rod Taylor rode and there are more flashing lights this time around. The fast motion time-passing sequence, as Alexander hurtles into the future, is visual eye candy. The worker/hunter Morlocks, developed by Stan Winston Studios, are nasty, ugly, fast moving creatures that are far more formidable than those in the Pal film. The filmmakers use the terrifying power of the Morlock race, and Alexander's need to destroy it, to come up with a very different solution from that of the original. "The Time Machine" does not have airs about being better than the original film and wear its admiration to the George Pal film prominently on its sleeve. It dares to be different by introducing dramatic angst into the sci-fi equation (though Guy Pearce is not involving as the hero/romantic figure) and providing a collection of three-dimensional supporting characters. And, it still captures the essence of H.G. Wells. I give it a B-. For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com laura@reelingreviews.com ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31278 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293840 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 386 X-RT-AuthorID: 1488 X-RT-RatingText: B- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 20 16:13:50 2002 From: Aleksandar Zambelli Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 18:47:09 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31287 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 294320 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 911 X-RT-AuthorID: 4512 X-RT-RatingText: 3/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #31287 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 110 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.net.uni-c.dk!uninett.no!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!24.226.1.12!feed.cgocable.net!hub1.nntpserver.com!peer1-sjc1.usenetserver.com!usenetserver.com!sn-xit-04!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3126 rec.arts.sf.reviews:226 Movie Review: "The Time Machine" Copyright (c) 2001 Aleksandar Zambelli Originally published in The Crimson, a Florida Tech student publication. Directed by Simon Wells Starring Guy Pierce, Samantha Mumba, Orlando Jones Genre: Sci-Fi / Adventure The most interesting thing about the new "Time Machine" movie is that it was directed by Simon Wells, the great-grandson of H.G. Wells, the author of the 1895 novel of the same name. Come to think of it, that is in fact the only interesting thing about "The Time Machine," perhaps even more interesting than the movie itself. In the 2002 adaptation of the classic Victorian sci-fi adventure novel, the story has been moved to New York (you remember Victorian New York, don't you?) where Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pierce - "Memento," "Count of Monte Cristo") is a young associate professor at a local university and a mad scientist in his free time. While he's not working on some revolutionary physics theory or corresponding with Einstein, Alexander spends time with his soon-to-be-fiancé Emma (Sienna Guillory). On the night that he is to propose to her, Emma is shot and killed by a clumsy mugger. Ridden with memory of his beloved Emma, Alexander becomes obsessed with the idea of time travel. Little do you know, 4 years later he constructs an actual time machine made of brass, glass, levers and pulleys. After an unsuccessful attempt to save Emma, he is accidentally transported 800,000 years into the future where civilization has once again been reduced to a primitive level. Eloi, the sun-tanned friendly tribal people of the surface, are being terrorized by Morlocks, the pig-faced nasty cannibals of the underground. When Morlocks kidnap Mara (Samantha Mumba), a particularly attractive Eloi woman who has a thing for 19th century time travelers, Alexander decides to go after the Morlocks and save her. The buzz is that Simon Wells ("The Prince of Egypt") got sick during the last weeks of shooting "The Time Machine" and was reported suffering from "extreme exhaustion." The studio had to hire another director, Gore Verbinski ("The Mexican," "Mouse Hunt") to finish the last 18 days of shooting. After watching "The Time Machine," one can hardly blame Simon Wells for getting sick. It was probably caused by his decision to read the script. Oh, where do I even start? This script behind this movie is easily one of the worst screenplays seen in recent years. It seems like the whole thing is made out entirely of plot holes, anachronisms and factual errors. The logic behind it makes "Back To the Future" look like a Ph.D. thesis. For a start, the time machine is able to travel not only through time but also through space, for it always lands on the same spot on the surface of the Earth, regardless of the landscape around it changing dramatically. Alexander Hartdegen never bothers to hide the machine or secure it, and yet he always manages to find it intact. The Eloi, although living 800,000 in the future, speak perfect English although its not their primary language and they learned it only from reading stone inscriptions (such as "Tiffany & Co."). Their grammar, syntax and pronunciation are flawless, although they never actually heard another human being speak English. That's truly amazing, considering the fact that the people at the nearby Chinese restaurant can barely take an order in English. The Eloi have also adopted 21st century customs, such as wearing pajamas at night. They suffer no cultural shock after meeting a man who is obviously better educated and at a higher technological level. A hologram projection (played by Orlando Jones) survives 800,000 of change and destruction on an unknown power source. Is it powered by Duracell or Energizer; I'd like to know. Why are the Eloi people beautiful, while the Morlocks have turned into scary beasts? Roger Ebert suggested in his review that "they are obviously the result of 800,000 years of ugly brides." The ending of the movie is especially terrible and lacks all reason, for the hero and his comrades escape sure death in a particularly inexplicable fashion. It's difficult to say what exactly went wrong with this screenplay. Considering that it was written by John Logan whose earlier works include respectable screenplays for "Gladiator" and "Any Given Sunday," it is only safe to conclude that he was trippin' on acid when he wrote this one. The acting talents of Guy Pierce and Jeremy Irons are completely wasted in this sci-fi disaster. While many have given up hope for Irons after his debacle in "Dungeons & Dragons," this will surely be the first big blemish on Pierce's previously clean record ("Memento," "L.A. Confidential," "Ravenous"). Simon Wells does a satisfactory job with directing this piece, although he loses momentum in the last 30 minutes of the film (perhaps those were the 18 days he missed). It can be argued that he is not the one to blame, but being the great-grandson of H.G. Wells the last thing he could've done was read the script before embarking on this project. Believe me, if you go see "The Time Machine" in the theaters, the only time travel of any interest to you will be traveling 90 minutes into the future to the end of this horrible film. Score: 3/10 -- ========================= ============= E-Mail: zambelli@posluh.hr WWW: http://fit.edu/~azambell ICQ: 7003861 AIM: AlexPython ========================= ============= ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31287 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 294320 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 911 X-RT-AuthorID: 4512 X-RT-RatingText: 3/10 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 20 16:13:50 2002 From: Homer Yen Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 18:49:29 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31304 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 294515 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-AuthorID: 1370 X-RT-RatingText: C Summary: r.a.m.r. #31304 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 104 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.sics.se!uab.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!luth.se!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!195.25.12.36!oleane.net!oleane!isdnet!sn-xit-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3143 rec.arts.sf.reviews:227 "The Time Machine" -- Goes Everywhere and Nowhere Note to the makers of this film: Stop taking this material so seriously! When Einstein thought about the possibility of time travel, he probably had a warehouse full of blackboards. And written upon them were endless numbers, letters, squiggly lines, and geometric shapes. Stare at something like that long enough, and you'll grow dizzy. This may be Einstein's playground, but how much fun are we going to have? Time travel for mere mortals like you and me consists of starships whipping around the sun while harnessing its gravitational field or speeding down a highway in a silver DeLorean. Now that's fun. Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce) follows Einstein's plan for fun and time travel. He's a brilliant mathematician who hopes to build a machine to travel not miles but years. He is fueled in this obsession as a result of personal tragedy that he suffers. Perhaps if he could travel back in time, the calamity could be avoided. So, he shuns his friends and colleagues and fills his blackboards with endless amounts of numbers, letters, squiggly lines, and geometric shapes. It's a recipe for his time machine, a quaint-looking one-seat contraption with brass knobs and dials with whirling spheres that shimmer with light. It's a must for every science museum exhibit. Relieved and awed, his success is but a fleeting event when he realizes that he is unable to affect the past. Why can't he change what has been done? He decides to travel to the future to find an answer to that question. The next 20 minutes features the best stuff about this film. It's primarily a barrage of whiz-bang effects that show the time machine moving forward through the years, centuries, and eons. Using an effect that mimics time lapse photography, we see the landscape change dramatically. Seasons come and go; buildings are erected and torn down; cities erupt all around. In the distant future, cataclysmic events reshape the topography as new foliage, mountains and canyons are formed. By the time he has stopped some 8,000 centuries in the future, he has seen a fusion-powered hologram named Vox (Orlando Jones), witnessed the moon break apart, and discovered that the human race has splintered into a race of malicious carnivores and sun-baked villagers who look suspiciously tasty. The predators, known as Morlocks, are an example of Darwinian evolution gone awry. The villagers, known as Eloi, are forced to live in well-protected villages that straddle the sides of gorges. Again, these visual renderings are stunningly beautiful. Alas, the wonderment of time travel stops here. And there's still 60 minutes of film left. The intrepid traveler finds himself trying to rescue the hapless Eloi from the jaws of the hungry Morlocks. It's a formidable task. But it's an unremarkable adventure. Other than watching Jeremy Irons gleefully ham it up as the Morlock leader, these grunting neo-Neanderthals might as well be writing endless numbers, letters, squiggly lines, and geometric shapes. "The Time Machine" is 50% ooh-check-out-these-special-effects while the other evolves into a banal boy-meets-girl, boy-saves-girl kind of story. It's ostensibly missing pathos. It's missing the expected sense of grand adventure that time travel should bring. At the very least, "The Time Machine" is missing a seat belt. That sure would come in handy as your whipping through the time-space continuum and speeding across the centuries. Consequently, this vehicle is a bumpy ride. Grade: C S: 0 out of 3 L: 0 out of 3 V: 2 out of 3 ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31304 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 294515 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-AuthorID: 1370 X-RT-RatingText: C From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Apr 3 14:36:48 2002 From: Ram Samudrala Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 20:34:57 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31380 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 298332 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 302 X-RT-AuthorID: 29 Summary: r.a.m.r. #31380 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 60 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.kth.se!uio.no!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sjc-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3212 rec.arts.sf.reviews:238 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Time Machine http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/the_time_machine.html /The Time Machine/ is a great story for the ideas it introduces, more than the plot. Here, Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce), deeply effected by the death of his girlfriend, invents a time machine to change the past. After realising the futility of changing the past, he travels into the future (stopping after having travelled 800,000 years) seeking answers. The primary theme in the film has to do with the circularity of time travel, as well as the future of humanity. In this regard, the film provokes some interesting thoughts: can a person invent a time machine and go back in time and affect the reason that caused them to invent the time machine? Will humanity ever over-specialise to a point where different tasks are done by different sets or "castes" of people? The first question is a pseudo-scientific and -philosophical one. The answer may be that it is indeed a paradox. Alternately, the Many Worlds interpretation of Everett's Relative-State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics would say that it is possible to have a time line where Alexander's wife dies and one where she doesn't, thanks to his intervention (this would only result in a pre-existing time machine). The second question tells something about the state of society today. People are compartmentalised and there are definite economic "castes". I don't see the trends getting better and only see them taking a turn for the worse. Still, if a catastrophic event that threatened the humans on this planet accord, I doubt that our evolutionary successors would move towards compartmentalisation. This is because our current system (of specialisation), and the system depicted in the /The Time Machine/, is highly inefficient. In nature, such systems eventually lead to stagnation since it creates bottlenecks--consider what happens in the film when our protagonist kills off the "mind" portion of the humanoid species. So I think our long term future is either our destruction or some sort of an individualist collective (like the bacterial population on this planet). /The Time Machine/ is a great movie to watch also for its spectacular visuals and imaginative use of special effects, including morphing scenes of humanity's progress and destruction. The actors all present solid performances. There are many plot holes in the story but nonetheless the film is worth watching on the big screen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- email@urls || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31380 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 298332 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 302 X-RT-AuthorID: 29 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jun 24 20:22:54 2002 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.ebone.net!news1.ebone.net!newsfeed.vmunix.org!netnews.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Karina Montgomery Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 18:34:38 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 32122 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 731161 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 755 X-RT-AuthorID: 3661 Summary: r.a.m.r. #32122 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 72 Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3941 rec.arts.sf.reviews:302 Time Machine, The Matinee Directed by the grandson of the book's author, H.G. Wells, this Time Machine is naturally benefited by the current technology both in presentation and in supposition. Guy Pearce looks like death warmed over in the scenes when he should be the most lovable, but besides that, I really enjoyed this film. If you don't know the story, maybe the title will give you a clue: a man invents a time machine and uses it. In the classic tale, however, he goes maybe 100 years ahead in our future and then, accidentally, 800,000 years into the future and discovers a new world right where jolly old England used to be. In it, humans have divided into extreme sub-species. Mayhem, etc. It's amazingly forward-thinking of Mr. Wells to have written this in 1899, and even more forward thinking to properly update it with modern technological know-how. Orlando Jones, as an our-near-future interactive library database, provides much of the audience touchstone for the film as well as summarizing the important plot points for the unread audiences. With one barnyard sound effect he sums up the whole Eloi/Morlock issue and gave me the most memorable moment in the film. He is obviously an artistic improvement on HG's 1899 edition, but I think that venerable old author would have loved him. Amusingly, the film apes its own origins with no shame, including making reference to itself in the library. Sexy Irish hip hop star Samantha Mumba (she has a song on the Legally Blonde soundtrack, bizarrely) plays one of the fetching Eloi. Normally reliable Jeremy Irons is head Morlock, and it is regrettably in his demesne that the film starts to break down for me. However, the effects are naturally spectacular. The beautiful cliff-dwellings of the Eloi and their Amazonian flavor lend them a more human, less stupid feel than that in the novel. The Morlocks are both more horrible and more recognizably human than they come across in the book, which I think serves the story well. The delicate issue of the time-space continuum is handled visually and neatly, and overall does not skip modern theory, using contemporary cinematic language cribbed from Star Trek but totally appropriate for the translation of this beloved Victorian work. Hey, whatever gets the kids reading, right? Pearce becomes more handsome as he becomes more alive when challenged in this brave new world; his departure from his 1899 life is welcome, so unpleasant a character as he was becoming. I won't lie to you and say that this is a totally faithful retelling; the ending is cleaned up a little bit, the Traveller makes a different choice at the end, and a few other minor details. But the spirit of the book (OK, except for the end choice made by the Traveler, thereby kind of blowing the theme off) is there. Check it out. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but just credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. reviews@cinerina.com Check out previous reviews at: http://www.cinerina.com http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/ - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource http://www.mediamotions.com and http://www.capitol-city.com ========== X-RAMR-ID: 32122 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 731161 X-RT-TitleID: 1112951 X-RT-SourceID: 755 X-RT-AuthorID: 3661