TIMELINE (2003) 2 stars out of 4. Starring Paul Walker, Frances O'Connor, Gerard Butler, Billy Connolly, Anna Friel, Neal McDonough and Ethan Embry. Director of photography, Caleb Deschanel. Based on the novel by Michael Crichton. Screenplay by Jeff Maguire and George Nolfi. Directed by Richard Donner. Rated PG-13. Running time: Approx. 115 mins.
Director Richard Donner knows his way around an action film.
The veteran filmmaker responsible for the first (and best) Superman film as well as the Lethal Weapon series utilizes most of his skills in Timeline, adapted from the novel by Michael Crichton.
However, Donner only succeeds partially, mainly because the film fails to adequately create a sense of place and danger.
As you can gather from its title, Timeline creates a science fiction milieu with a story dealing with time travel -- or more appropriately people being faxed into the past.
A group of archaeologists and scientists are sent back to 1357 France, during the midst of the Hundred Years War, to rescue a fellow archaeologist who failed to return from an earlier voyage.
Donner, along with screenwriters Jeff Maguire and George Nolfi, cannot raise the appropriate sense of time and locale. The 14th century villages, castle and monastery have the cheesy look and dressing of movie sets, not lived-in locales.
And Canada makes a poor substitute for France. For some reason Donner cannot capture the essence of the Middle Ages. It all seems too sanitized, too cinematic.
Donner keeps the action moving at a fast clip, but doing so costs the film any palatable aura of menace. At times it seems like one of the re-enactment Renaissance fairs gone terribly amok.
It's also all too easy to figure out who's going to be killed and who's going to survive.
Timeline lacks an air of suspense. No matter how many situations the main protagonists find themselves in, you're confident of their escape.
It also hurts that the supposed star of the film, Paul Walker is very bland and is constantly overshadowed by his supporting cast, most notably Gerard Butler as Andre Marek, a archaeologist who finds his true nature while in the past, and Frances O'Connor as Kate, the eager young scientist whose sense of awe about her predicament is supposed to mirror that of the audience.
Timeline fails to grab you and sustain any feeling of wonder. The time travel is treated so matter of factly by the characters and the filmmakers, that it, too, cannot stir the imagination.
Donner stages the various flights and battles with his usual professionalism, and that is the movie's saving grace.
Overall, Timeline lacks impact and fails to make any deep impression. It's merely an OK time filler. It's not a waste of time, nor is it a feature you will want to rush out and make time to see.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bbloom@journalandcourier.com or at bobbloom@iquest.net. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on movies. Bloom's reviews also appear on the Web at the Rottentomatoes Web site, www.rottentomatoes.com and at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
========== X-RAMR-ID: 36398 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1222453 X-RT-TitleID: 1127659 X-RT-SourceID: 872 X-RT-AuthorID: 1363 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews