PROJECT ALMANAC

Starring: Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D'Elia, Sam Lerner
Writers: Andrew Deutschman & Jason Pagan
Director: Dean Israelite

Synopsis: Teen science genius David Raskin (Weston) discovers his deceased dad's plans to build a time machine and he constructs one with the help of his friends. Will their temporal distortion experiments somehow go awry? What do you think? As I sat there watching this, two distinct sides of my personality were definitely in conflict, so I'll turn this review over to Science Geek Deej (SGD) and Movie Fan Deej (MFD)...

SGD: Right, I'd like to see how you're going to defend this tosh.

MFD: Oh, come on. It's hardly a rigorous study of the possibilities of time travel, it's just a nifty idea with some surprisingly amusing dialogue and you just have to suspend your disbelief.

SGD: Nifty idea? Like there have never been any other movies about time travel. And you can only suspend disbelief so much. This movie has plot holes so large you could drive a bus through them, leave the bus in the plot hole and then park several more buses next to it in the same plot hole. And still have room for more buses.

MFD: Okay, give me an example.

SGD: Right. The main guy and his sister find a camera in the attic that's been there for at least ten years. It switches on immediately. That's some battery life.

MFD: What were they going to do, have a sequence where they wait for it to charge up?

SGD: Yes.

MFD: You'd slow the movie down just to show them charging a battery.

SGD: Yes. Cut to them charging the battery, cut to them switching the camera back on when it's charged sufficiently.

MFD: Remind me never to give you any money to make a thriller.

SGD: Remind me never to give you any money for scientific research. Oh, and how come when there's multiple instances of the main characters travelling back to various places that no one seems to notice? Not one person walks past and thinks "Hold on, I just saw those guys at the other end of the corridor and they didn't pass me".

MFD: They were keeping an eye out for the other versions of themselves, that's why they made the rule that they should all jump back in time together.

SGD: So in the sequence where the guy keeps having to do the same presentation there'd be like half a dozen versions of themselves all waiting outside the same room. Surely they'd see each other.

MFD: It's just a funny moment.

SGD: A funny moment which doesn't adhere to the rules it's only just established.

MFD: I bet you're great fun at parties.

SGD: And that thing about what happens if you run into yourself when you've gone back in time? One person goes a bit blurry and flickery, one person vanishes altogether. The blurry, flickery person was in much closer proximity to themselves than the one who vanished and they were in the same space for about the same length of time. What's that about?

MFD: Whoa, *** SPOILER ***. You idiot.

SGD: Says the guy who completely empties his head and lets all those ridiculous plot developments pass him by.

MFD: Didn't you enjoy it for what it was?

SGD: Not when it keeps breaking its own rules. Some guy goes to Lollapalooza and messes something up. So he goes back to the exact same point in time. He sees all of the other characters there but not himself, who should also be there about to mess up. He'd run into himself and vanish, yet the previous version of himself isn't even there. Explain.

MFD: Er...

SGD: And that whole Lollapalooza sequence goes on way too long anyway.

MFD: With you there. And how did he get the band to dedicate the song to that girl?

SGD: Now you're starting to sound like someone with a brain.

MFD: No, hold on. Yes, the film does have a lot of flaws. Yes, the science doesn't really hold up. But it does pose some quite interesting questions as to what people would do if they could travel back in time and it shows that there are consequences to changing the outcomes of previous events. And it does those things in an engaging way.

SGD: Again, like no other movie has covered that ground. It's sci-fi for people who watch MTV. Quite literally, as one of the production companies involved is MTV Films.

MFD: So you're going to dismiss the entire enterprise just because some eminent scientist hasn't approved the script?

SGD: Yes.

MFD: Look, it's by no means a classic but I enjoyed it a whole lot more that I thought I would. I liked the characters...

SGD: Wouldn't you have gone back in time just to wipe out that Quinn guy?

MFD: Harsh.

SGD: And endangering everything just to get off with some girl? Considering the main guy's supposed to consider all the negative effects of time travel he goes off the rails pretty quickly just because he fancies someone.

MFD: Yeah, like you wouldn't destroy the fabric of space and time if you had the chance to end up with Bernadette from The Big Bang Theory.

SGD: That is a disgraceful thing to say.

MFD: Look, we'll agree to disagree here. It's far from a masterpiece but I've seen far worse movies at the cinema. Yes, it's nonsense but it's entertaining nonsense.

SGD: No, it's just nonsense. Don't listen to this moron.

MFD: It's certainly watchable.

SGD: It certainly isn't.