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Traveta reviews
Dreamworks Pictures
- Cert: PG-13
- Cat.no: 89972
- Running time: 110 minutes
- Year: 2001
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
- Chapters: 20
- Languages: English, Dolby Surround only: French, Spanish
- Subtitles: Spanish
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: $29.98
- Extras: Creating the Time Machine, Creating the Morlocks, animatedsequence with storyboards, audio commentary, a deleted scene, visualeffects featurette, stunt fight choreography, archives, productionnotes, filmographies, and theatrical trailers.
Director:
- Simon Wells
Screenplay:
- David Duncan and John Logan
Cast:
- Alexander Hartdegen: Guy Pearce
David Philby: Mark Addy
Mrs. Watchit: Phyllida Law
Emma: Sienna Guillory
Vox: Orlando Jones
Mara: Samantha Mumba
Toren: Yancey Arias
Uber Morlock: Jeremy Irons
Time is easily our greatest enemy as a society.It seems to move so fast lately as days fade to weeks, minutes to hours. It seems just likeyesterday that it was May and everyone was talking aboutStar Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and now, it’s August already. That’scrazy. And if it was socially acceptable to be openly paranoid I wouldsay that the government is speeding up the clocks… well probablynot. Anyway, time was this film’s greatest enemy as well. Not only is inthe title but it was victim to bad timing. Dreamworks pushed it backfrom December to March and it didn’t do as good as they expected.Personally, I would have released it sometime in June just beforethe big guns of Men in Black II. But I’m not in charge of how it worksso I’ll just review the movie.
The Time Machine is a remake of the classic sci-fi flick ofyesteryear. The key word is classic.Rollerballwas just a joke (that’sprobably why I found it entertaining) and now they’re going to remakeGeorge Romero’sDawn of the Dead!When will it end? When will Hollywood learn to leave movies alone. Probablynever but this gets a few marks over the old version.
The film tells the story of a brilliant professor namedAlexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce) who becomes obsessed with the idea ofbuilding a time machine to save his fiance (Sienna Guillory) who waskilled shortly after he proposed to her. He eventually builds it (Istill don’t see how it would only take four years but, hey, this isHollywood) and goes back to that fateful night and does everything toavoid it but no matter what he does she dies every time. Depressed andlooking for an answer, Alexander climbs into the time machine andtravels far into the future until he reaches 2030 and up until he windsup in an apocalyptic world where the moon has fallen and two racesexist: he humans and the morlocks.
This was one of the worst movies I saw all year. I think maybeit was because I was expecting too much but having a chance to watch itat home and now know what to expect, I actually cared for it. It’s notanywhere near the original but still mildly entertaining. The bestscenes in the whole movie involve the Morlocks (created by Stan Winston)and those are the first hunt and the end chase. I’d reccommend it justfor those two scenes.
Into the disc. The video is a little suprising, especialy from astudio like Dreamworks. Letterboxed at 2.35:1, it looked a little mattedor maybe my eyes were just playing tricks on me. I noticed a lot ofcompression artifacts in the interior scenes and the backs of jackets,mostly just the solid colors. Outdoor scenes, except for the ones atnight, are done great but the artifacts are evident. I think maybe thedisc was overloaded with material.
The sound is great though. It has everything, seven audio tracks(!)including commentary and DTS options. What more could you want?
The extras are truly plentiful. Even though it didn’t do that great atthe box office. Everything from making the machine to the Morlocks. Forsome reason there is only one deleted scene and it is an intro that runs7 minutes. Very extensive. My only gripe are the menus. When viewing thespecial features you have to highlight an empty space for the option toappear. At least it’s not as bad as the recent Harry Potter DVD (don’tget me started about disc 2) but kind of annoying.
Overall, Time Machine is a decent flick if you try not to compare itto the great original. It does have it’s flaws but the Morlock scenesmake up for it, too bad they’re very close to the end of the film.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.