Timeline | | Cast : | Paul Walker, Gerard Butler, Billy Connolly | | Director : | Richard Donner | | Studio : | Paramount Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | November 26, 2003 | | DVD Released Date : | December 29, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 04, 2005 | | Summary | A trip through history | Content
 | This movie is great. I enjoy it because I am 1) a history buff 2) a Gerard Butler fan and 3) I like the entertainment level. This movie looks corny from the previews but it is worth seeing it just to be entertained for two hours. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 15, 2005 | | Summary | Cheesier than pizza! | Content
| This movie was so cheesy! The writing was poor, the storyline was full of holes, and the dialogue was often unintentionally laughable. Some of the acting was really good, but much of it was awful, and Billy Connolly sounded positively sarcastic--I got the feeling he regretted signing up to do this one and was acting the part under sufference. Worst of all, though, this movie had me siding with the French in the big fight scene! Who the hell would ever WANT to take the side of the French in any fight? Sacre bleu!
This movie will never win any awards, except maybe a Raspberry. And yet, I didn't hate it, mostly because of the cool medieval fight scenes. The storming of the castle was amazing, and the 'Greek Fire', 'night arrows' and trebuchets were awesome! (If you're a weapons geek, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about!) The hail of fiery arrows was gorgeously coordinated and filmed, and the battle scenes on the castle ramparts were spine-tingling.
If you're looking for a great film then keep looking because this definitely isn't one. But if you're looking for a mildly entertaining movie for a quiet night in, if your expectations aren't at all high, and if you're also fond of medieval times, you might like to give this ago. It'll pass the time, if nothing else, and you probably won't regret it. (Not like Michael Crichton, who undoubtedly has a LOT of regrets about selling the film rights to the book this mediocre movie was based on!)
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| Rating | | | Date | July 05, 2005 | | Summary | WAY TOO PREDICTABLE - HARDLY ABOUT TIME TRAVEL!!! | Content
| Acting is standard, story is very predictable, the science is lame, cheap special effects. Crichton and Donner bombed on this one. Time for a "Westworld" remake, I think.
Buy "THE FINAL COUNTDOWN" instead, much better film! |
| Rating | | | Date | June 10, 2005 | | Summary | Okay...Book was way better | Content
| I originally saw Timeline on DVD before I read the book. However after reading the book the DVD is not all that great. I recently watched the movie again, and was sorely disapointed. Michael Crichton's book was amazing. There were several details that could have been left out of the movie, however the movie could have been so much better if they chose to follow the book. Timeline is worth renting if you haven't seen it, but I would not go out and buy it. Although the one thing I enjoyed was the Scottish accents, those were awesome to listen to. If you really want a good story read the book instead of watching the movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 05, 2005 | | Summary | Such a wasted opportunity | Content
| I wish I hadn't read Michael Crichton's Timeline novel so that I could simply say this is another bland action picture in a period setting from unimaginative storytellers which neither offends nor thrills. Unfortunately, having read the book, I know better. There was a lot of squandered potential which makes this film willfully bland and disappointing rather than accidentally so.
The basic story is about a group of archaeologists who travel back in time to the 1400's to rescue a fellow archaeologist who is stranded in time. That much of the story is the same as the novel. The problem is that the movie is poorly paced such that there is little drama and that the characters aren't sufficiently fleshed out to make you care if (or when) they die. The bulk of the story seems geared toward getting the heroes repeatedly captured and having them escape as well as to get to the battle scenes as quickly and as frequently as possible.
I'm not one of those people who feel that a novel should be slavishly adhered to at a movie's expense. Books clearly needed to be adapted but they should always lose detail or have the story restructured to the benefit of a movie, not to its detriment as was the case here. For instance, the means by which the characters time travel is altered and greatly simplified compared to the book and that was a good idea.
However, some of the best visual scenes in the book are simply not used in the movie for no reason that I can think of rather than being overly cheap. The opening scene is an excellent example. (Spoiler) When a person repeatedly travels in the story, there are alignment errors which creep into their reconstituted form. In the book, this is shown by a man whose face, body, and even clothing appear to be out of alignment. Instead of doing a little makeup and sewing to show this, a fellow is X-rayed and we're shown microscopic details of this misalignment. As an opening scene, the impact of a slightly and weirdly deformed man mysteriously showing up would have made for much better drama and suspense than the opening scene of the movie. (end spoiler)
It's disappointing that such an interesting book was made into such a boring movie. I hope Michael Crichton sold as many books for this novel as he'd hoped to already because the fact that the movie is so weak is sure to turn people off to the book. |
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