Release Date:
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Step right up for the movie with the most painstakingly unbelievable method for time travel since we caught Doc Brown cramming trash in his DeLorean! In Timeline, a team of archaeologists discovers its sponsor is only doling out cash because it has created a human fax machine that (after dialing nine, of course) transports users directly to the period the students are researching. When the sites leader (Billy Connolly) tests the machine and gets stuck in a 14th-century French feudal battle, teachs son (Paul Walker) leads the pupils through a host of errant faxes back in time. Thankfully, everyone in 14th-century France speaks English, and our students can alter history on a whimnew battles, new weapons, first soapwithout risk of repercussion. (If were not going to acknowledge the complexities of the space-time continuum, why are we going to the movies in the first place?) Plot holes, cheesy love interests, and Ethan Embry all further muddle the mildly amusing action scenes, rendering this whole exercise in time travel as enriching as a trip to modern-day France.