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The Time Machine

The Time Machine

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A LOT better than the original
Review: ...The fact of the matter is that it's a lot better than the original in every way. Let's start with the beginning. The original film's first act, yes, the first HALF HOUR is set in a sitting room...with a bunch of people talking. Be careful not to doze off here. Also there is a flashback here, put in for apparently no reason. The scientist, who is never given a name, just wants to see if time travel is possible, that's his only real motivation. Then we are treated to some REALLY godzilla-like special effects and hokey Star Trek: The Original Series sets. When he finds the girl, she has 50s styled hair, speaks perfect english with no explanation whatsoever, and is dumb as a stump. The plot hole here are numerous. Check this out "You mean you have no government?" "No". "You don't work?" "No". If they don't do these things, how the heck do they know what he's talking about? Then the morlocks come bounding out. Remember that old bad monster flick with the guy in the gorilla suit and the deep sea helmet? These aren't far off. Now let's talk about the new movie. Aside from the really annoying "quirk" Guy Pierce comes up with, hanging his mouth open for the entire first act, I liked it. He now has an impotace to change the past, then a motivation to go forth into the future. I loved the broken moon thing, much more interesting than a nuclear attack that sets off a volcano in New York. The Eloi are no longer Star Trek extras, but a real culture. They don't just meander around like zombies but have real tasks to do. When the Morlocks show up, It gets pretty intense. The notion of 3 different kinds was cool. I also liked that Jeremy Irons justifies their behavior. The ending was much better, more fun, and wasn't just some geek professor turning into Rambo and punching out white gorillas.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A LOT better than the original
Review: Ok, I'm really getting sick of hearing people flog this movie. The fact of the matter is that it's a lot better than the original in every way. Let's start with the beginning. The original film's first act, yes, the first HALF HOUR is set in a sitting room...with a bunch of people talking. Be careful not to doze off here. Also there is a flashback here, put in for apparently no reason. The scientist, who is never given a name, just wants to see if time travel is possible, that's his only real motivation. Then we are treated to some REALLY godzilla-like special effects and hokey Star Trek: The Original Series sets. When he finds the girl, she has 50s styled hair, speaks perfect english with no explanation whatsoever, and is dumb as a stump. The plot hole here are numerous. Check this out "You mean you have no government?" "No". "You don't work?" "No". If they don't do these things, how the heck do they know what he's talking about? Then the morlocks come bounding out. Remember that old bad monster flick with the guy in the gorilla suit and the deep sea helmet? These aren't far off. Now let's talk about the new movie. Aside from the really annoying "quirk" Guy Pierce comes up with, hanging his mouth open for the entire first act, I liked it. He now has an impotace to change the past, then a motivation to go forth into the future. I loved the broken moon thing, much more interesting than a nuclear attack that sets off a volcano in New York. The Eloi are no longer Star Trek extras, but a real culture. They don't just meander around like zombies but have real tasks to do. When the Morlocks show up, It gets pretty intense. The notion of 3 different kinds was cool. I also liked that Jeremy Irons justifies their behavior. The ending was much better, more fun, and wasn't just some geek professor turning into Rambo and punching out white gorillas.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: "Love...Love, Love... makes you do foolish things"
Review: Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce)is a turn of the Century (20th) physicist and an all around nose in a book, scribbling numbers on a blackboard, slightly befuddled youngish egg-head; crazy in love with Emma (Sienna Guillory) and very interested in gadgets of all kinds and in time travel in particular.
One night while on a stroll through New York's Central Park, Guy proposes to Emma and presents her with a ring... a moonstone. Within seconds, Emma and Alexander are mugged and when Alexander decides to get rough with the mugger, Emma is shot and killed with a bullet meant for Alex.
Alex is devasted to say the least . But instead of going off to a sanitairum for a rest cure he works all day and night and manufactures a time travel machine: with the hope that by going back in time he can change the past and be reunited with Emma.
Up to this point we are very much taken by the fantasy and redemptive love angle and by Guy Pearce's performance.
Alex travels into the past and realizes that no matter what he does, Emma is doomed to die: whether it be by a gun shot wound or by a wayward taxi cab. He is flummoxed, to say the least and decides to travel way into the future for some kind of an answer whose question is not apparent to any of us in the audience.
The first third of this film is fun and the effects are first rate but the last two-thirds is muddled, dumb witted and slightly evil-minded. Guy Pearce does his level-headed best to keep everything on an even keel... but the script is preposterous. Now preposterous can be attributed to many successfully realized films: "Star Wars," "Aliens," and "Dumb and Dumber" to name a few. What these films have that "Time Machine" doesn't is a clear-headed appreciation for and love of the Absurd and Fantastical.
Though much of the physical production is effective and Guy Pearce does a good job of making Alexander sympathetic, "Time Machine" fails because it takes itself too serious; thus turning what could have been a fun-filled romp into a big, bloated mass of goo.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: COOL TWIST BUT NOT LIKE THE ORIGINAL
Review: I SAW THIS MOVIE THE DAY AFTER IT'S DEBUT. THE MOVIE WAS PRETTY COOL THOUGH HAVING READ THE BOOK IT'S APPARENT THE DIRECTOR HAD TAKEN A FEW...NO A LOT OF LIBERTIES WITH THE STORY. KINDA REMINDS ME OF WHAT THEY DID WITH PLANET OF THE APES. THOUGH THE CHANGES THEY HAVE MADE WERE REAL INTRESTING. IT MADE THE STORY BLEND IN MUCH BETTER EXCEPT FOR ONE PART. WHERE THE MORLOCKS ARE ABLE TO WALK IN THE SUN LIGHT AND IT DOESN'T EXPLAIN THE SIMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ELOI AND THE MORLOCKS. HOW THE MORLOCKS PROVIDED THE FOOD AND CLOTHING FOR THE ELOI AND IN RETURN THE ELOI WERE THE THEIR FOOD. IN THE MOVIE THE ELOI WERE SELF SUFFICIENT. PLUS I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND NOR DID IT EXPLAIN HOW HE PULLED HIS LITTLE STUNT IN THE END. SORRY FOR BEING VAGUE BUT I JUST DON'T WANT TO SPOIL THE ENDING. YOU'LL UNDERSTAND WHEN YOU SEE IT. SO TO SUMMERIZE THE VISUAL EFFECTS WERE COOL, THE ACTING WAS LAME, THE STORY WAS COOL INCLUDING THE CHANGES THEY ADDED EXCEPT FOR THE ENDING. THEY SHOULD HAVE STUCK TO THE ORIGINAL ENDING AND CONCEPT BUT STILL ADD THE WHOLE MORLOCK LEADER CASTE THING. I THOUGHT THAT WAS A COOL CONCEPT. I SAY IT'S WORTH SEEING ATLEAST ONCE.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: the time machine updated
Review: i am a huge fan of the 1960's version of the time machine...so at first going to see the new movie i was at first disappointed....i saw it at a special screening late at night and was probably a little bit expecting to meet or beat the original..but after the 2nd time i saw it i picked up things i missed the first time and actually finding myself liking it more the second time..it has a love story...great special effects..a good soundtrack..but a weaker 2nd half. look for ALAN YOUNG in a cameo role as the florist shop worker. like rod taylor...i thought guy pierce's performance was very good. although this movie is not the original it still has the heart of the first and the 3rd time i saw it i liked it even more..so give it a chance..if you loved the original you will feel the heart is also in this version.....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Time has come today ... TIME!
Review: There was for me one disturbing failing of the film. In the scene where our hero (Guy Pearce) asks Vox (a futuristic librarian) about the time machine, Vox immediately directs him to science fiction. Guy's immediate response is to say, "No, no, I mean practical applications." Well, as any Über-geek knows, the term science fiction didn't exist in the Victorian era, and even before it was called SciFi, it was called "speculative fiction". Geez, what a major faux paux! :)

The movie was great. That is not to say it was completely accurate to H.G. Well's original, nor to the George Pal movie of the 1960's. In fact none of these items are "accurate" with respect to one another, so the various "purists" can go take a flying leap, IMHO. The movie stands on its own merits. It had action, drama, humor and in my mind, the rather fantastical elements of the time machine, mainly what motivated its construction and why Guy didn't use it to screw around with history, were all neatly addressed. In fact, I feel this movie was better thought out than both the 1960's movie and the original book.

Besides, the original book was a veiled elitist diatribe by Mr. Wells against the working classes, in support of the existing hierarchy. Basically, he said you had to keep the workers under thumb or else they'd rise up and eat you. I'm not at all upset when someone updates a classic, if that classic's message is so archaic.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Was "Just" Slightly Better Than OK....
Review: I thought that this was an ok movie, but I'm one of those people that likes to think. My favorite part of the movie is when the moon breaks up. Very cool. I felt like the movie had a good story up until he starts shifting through time, and then the movie went to fast. The pace changed in a way that I don't like. It was at a nice slow pace then sped up and because an action only movie with no brains. Anyway, it IS worth seeing, but its just another movie based on one that is better.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must see
Review: This movie blew me away. I never expected this movie to be this good! It has to be added to my library of classics.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Time Machine is Great Sci-Fi movie
Review: ...I elected to go see a movie that would take me away to another place and let my imagination go along for the ride. I was pleasantly given that ride and I must say all my expectations were met. There were many tremendous and intriguing special effects, and plenty of moments that make you wonder in awe about the amazement of Planet Earth. You get a really spectacular point of view on how our next few thousand years go. There are one or two "gimmies" where you may not believe a certain thing could happen, but you gotta let it slide to make the story work. Definitely go see it if you are the type of person who can "give in" to a movie, and let it take you for your own ride...into time. Enjoy!
Your Pal Chad Ashley

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great beginning but digresses
Review: The basic conflict in this movie is that Guy Pearce's character wants to go back in time to undo the death of his fiance. Okay great, so let's see how he does it. He gets in his time machine, we have some nice special effects, a visit to the past and a couple to the future and then Guy Pearce forgets about his fiance (and so do we). Unfortunately, this seemed to be the whole point of the movie, so I lost interest in what happens in the end. The attempts to be profound also failed, in my opinion. Perhaps the book does a better job.


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