Saturday, November 23, 2013

Weekend Weigh-in: What's Your Favorite Time Travel Movie?

Happy Day of the Doctor, everyone!

Between this week's video and a certain 50th anniversary celebration today, time travel is on the minds of everyone worldwide. So what are some of your favorites and why? Be creative, otherwise it's going to be a lot of Primer this and Back to the Future III that.

25 comments:

  1. One of my favorite time travel movies is Time After Time, the 1979 film directed by Nicholas Meyer. HG Wells chasing Jack the Ripper in modern-day San Francisco is high-concept to the max, but Meyer makes it work. Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen have genuine chemistry (I believe they got together during the making of this movie), and David Warner is suitably chilling as the RIpper.

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  2. The Final Countdown (1980), no I will go with 12 Monkeys (1995).

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  3. Forgetting the obvious for a second, how about Groundhog Day? That movie contains time travel elements, and it's great! Beyond that, I'll give props to The Time Machine (1960), 12 Monkeys, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and The Terminator. I guess there's my top 5.

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    1. Top 5 that doesn't include BttF, that is. That's obviously #1.

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    2. I always count Groundhog Day as a time travel movie. It's just very restricted as to how much time he can travel in.

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  4. My favorite time travel movie is Back to the Future, uncreative an answer as that may be. I also have to give some love to Star Trek IV, not only because it's a huge pile of fun but also because it's the movie that solidified my love for Star Trek. My grandma took me to see Star Trek III when it came out, but I was 8 and the Klingons and Genesis Planet worm-thingies scared me so much I held my Cabbage Patch Kid in front of my face for most of the movie. Trek IV, by being a time-travel comedy was a much more accessible and less terrifying way to make me a lifelong fan. It also gave us "a double dumbass on you," for which I will be eternally grateful. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to the reboot crew inevitably having a time-travel adventure that brings them to the 21st century, but I'm certain I'll give it a chance.

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  5. Los Cronocrimenes(Timecrimes) (2007), Triangle (2009), Timecop (1994) and of course Looper (2012).

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    1. Love the heck out of TIMECRIMES. I still need to watch it the requisite 2-3 more times after the initial time to understand it better, though.

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  6. Aside from some of the obvious answers, I'm going to go with Deja Vu (2006) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).

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  7. I have never seen an episode of Dr. Whatshisname but I sure do love me some time travelling movies - Back to the Future, 12 Monkeys and a couple Terminators (guess which!) are some of my favourite movies period. Bill & Ted, Looper and Start Trek: First Contact are pretty rad too. Maybe I should give The Doctor a chance...

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  8. Richard Donner's "Timeline". (I'm kidding, it's the goddamn worst).

    Why do so many of the best directors plummet so hard at the end of their careers? This movie is worse than amateurish.

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  9. There is a Korean Action movie called 2009 Lost Memories, that starts off as an alternative history story, and ends up as a time travel movie in the last 10 minutes or so (spoilers for 2009 Lost Memories) It's not the greatest, but it's not the worst either.

    And there is a French movie called Les Visiteurs, staring Jean Reno. I saw it when Just Visiting (the American remake) was coming out. It's relatively funny, but not mind shatteringly so, as far as I remember.

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  10. My favorite is surprise surprise Back to the Future. It just has all the great moments (1.21 Jigowatts! This is heavy duty doc etc.) as well as being lots of fun and teaching all of us awkward guys "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything", it also helps if you have a time machine.

    My favorite of the last couple years would have to be Looper though with Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon Leavitt. If you haven't seen it yet I won't spoil anything but Looper is the one movie of the last couple years that has kept me from giving up on Bruce Willis completely.

    As for the worst time travel movie while my instant reaction actually is TMNT 3 pictured above I'm actually going to go with The Time Machine (2002). I havent seen it in years but my memory of the movie is terrible fx along with an odd performance by Guy Pierce. Also he works for years creating a time machine to save his fiancee and she ends up getting killed a second time and he gives up on her. I'm not saying we needed a 10 minute montage of him going back in time and watching her die a hundred different ways but it may have helped if maybe he tried one more time to fix things, because in the movie it comes off as " Aw man I came back a second time and she 's still dead, well guess I can't try a 3rd time, five years of work down the drain". In all fairness to the movie I'm sure there are worst time travel movies but that's the one I wish I could either get in my delorean and erase from existence or get nude and have unexplained lightning take me back.

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    1. At least TMNT 3 was better than Secret of the Ooze.

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  11. Where's the love for Hot Tub Time Machine? I wasn't expecting much from the trailers but it actually was a surprisingly good comedy that got a lot of laughs out of 80's pop culture. Craig Robinson's phone call to an "old" friend almost gave me a heart attack.

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  12. It's not my favorite but, I've always had a lot of affection for Time Bandits.
    Any movie with a toaster full of evil has to be good.

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  13. There is NO answer for no. 1 beyond Back to the Future (one of the very rare and very special "pretty much perfect" movies), but my second would be Time After Time. I suppose third is The Terminator. Not particularly original, but whatcha gonna do?

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  14. Since I lack an original after the listings before me, La Jetée will have to be my choice. Interesting how a short film of only still images can tell a good story. Enough of a story to inspire an entire film! (12 Monkeys) It's been ages since I've seen 12 Monkeys, so I cannot comment on the adaptation, but since La Jetée is available for free on Youtube or Vimeo, there's no reason not to check it out. (~27 min)

    Donnie Darko is good but time travel is a pretty minor part of the movie. (and maybe a spoiler!) Agree with other choices. Groundhog Day, Terminator, Back to the Future, and all the rest.

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  16. Ok so my favourites are The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Kate and Leopald and Just Visiting... Joke, joke, I actually made my way through two of those unfortunately and I have seen only the trailer of Santa Clause 3, which was enough for me.

    As my real favourites would be boring I will mention a few that I find interesting:

    Midnight in Paris: I find the way Allen examines the way he uses nostalgia really interesting. An admiration of the past is wonderful, but obsession can lead to you taking the present for granted. Gill needs to go back even further from his dream time, to Adriana's, to realise this. At the end of the film he is able to appreciate the present as well as still hang onto a love for the past.

    2009: Lost Memories: Even though this is flawed, for a blockbuster style movie I think it has a lot to say for itself, with its strong political themes and exploration of South Korean identity.

    The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: There are really likable characters, delightful sequences such as the first time leap and the simply drawn characters work well against some beautiful drawings of the city and environment.

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    1. I didn't think of Midnight in Paris...great call.

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  17. I love the movie Back to the Future. This is my favorite film.

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  18. I like different travel movies because I like to travel to different countries. And comfortable transport plays an important role for me. That's why I booked business class flights to Dubrovnik, Croatia when I was suddenly offered to visit this country. I bought round trip tickets for a good price and my flight was comfortable.

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