The Time Traveler's Wife

Robert Schwentke, 2009 (8.2*)
This science fiction romance poses an interesting dilemna, how does a woman maintain a solid relationship with a man who pops into her life at various times, beginning in childhood, while he himself is various ages?

Rachel McAdams is the woman in adult age, who has to cope with husband Eric Bana (Munich) at times being near, at times being out time traveling beyond his control. He at least seems to pop in and out of his own timeline rather than zip all around the universe or world. One advantage to this phenomenon is that she knows ahead of time that this will the love of her life.

This is both an engrossing science fiction tale and a tender romance. Based on the Audrey Niffenegger novel, I have a feeling that like most novels set to film that her book is likely deeper and more involved than this film, but it's still good entertainment, and far more interesting than the average romance, when the major problem seems to be how to work in 'business time' between all the self-centered interruptions of kids and relatives. This scenario thankfully avoids anything normal.

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Time Bandits

Dir: Terry Gilliam, 1981 (8.6*)

Terry Gilliam's most accessible and entertaining movie, produced by George Harrison's Dark Horse films. It begins with a small boy fantasizing about knights in his room, suddenly he is invaded from beyond the wall by a band of midgets, who, it turns out, have stolen God's map of the time portals and are using it to cavort through history. The boy gets gladly swept up into their adventure, and along their way meets Robin Hood (John Cleese), King Agamemnon (Sean Connery), and Napoleon (Ian Holm). We eventually meet Pure Evil itself, David Warner, and a peturbed but grandfatherly Creator, James Mason. In a funny recurring gag, whenever the dwarves fall into a new era in time, they always interrupt Shelley Duvall in a romantic interlude! A time travel classic for all ages.

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Peggy Sue Got Married

Dir: Francis Ford Coppola, 1986 (8.5*)

One of Coppola’s best, an underrated comedic fantasy. Kathleen Turner (Oscar nominated) has the title part, about an unhappily married woman, whose husband Nicholas Cage, her high school sweetheart, has turned out to be a less-than-stellar mate. At their 20-yr h.s. reunion, she falls and hits her head and apparently time travels back to high school, where she can make her important decisions again, like going out with that weird poet biker dude. Of course, all her friends now think she’s mental, as does Cage, because she has her memory of being "all grown up", so she’s pretty sarcastic and world-weary for a teenage girl. Cage is pretty funny in his part as well, kind of perpetually adolescent, and definitely goofy. It’s been compared to Capra for its homey virtures and simplicity. You’ll see Helen Hunt, Joan Allen, and Jim Carrey in small parts.

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12 Monkeys

Dir: Terry Gilliam, 1995 (8.2*)
A murky, disturbing sf apocalypse film. Bruce Willis plays a criminal routinely "reawakened" in order to be sent back into the past by a state-operated time travel operation that is attempting to find the cause of a worldwide virus that nearly exterminated all of mankind. Willis is told to find a group of activists called "12 Monkeys", who turn out to be led by Brad Pitt, in a definitely psychotic and interesting role. Surprisingly captivating and a pretty danged good story, Gilliam’s most accessible and "normal" film, if any Gilliam film (Brazil, Fisher King, Time Bandits, Baron von Munchausen) can be called that.
[Note: this film was inspired by the short bw photo-montage film of Chris Marker, La Jetee, from 1964]

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Back to the Future Trilogy

Dir: Robert Zemeckis, 1985 (8.8*)
Can you have any more fun in a sf film? The first film stood alone, but then the sequel was so long they split it into two parts, the 2nd now nothing more than an unfinished bridge to the third. Michael J. Fox is a high school kid in the 80’s who has a science professor friend, Christopher Lloyd in his best movie role, always experimenting with mind-blowing machinery. He luck out on one invention however and turns an old Delorian into a time traveling coupe, runnin on garbage or beer using his "flux capacitor". Very funny adventures ensue when Fox is hurtled back to 1955, crashes and meets his mom, Lea Thompson, who takes care of him and develops an immediate crush, jeopardizing her chances with his nerdy dad, Crispin Glover! What are the odds? In this trilogy, pretty good as Fox goes back and forth in the Delorian until he’s in the wild west in part 3… Thomas F. Wilson is perfect as arch-enemy Biff and all his relatives.
Quote: Why don't you make like a tree and get outta here. (Biff)

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