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Actors: Frances O' Connor, Paul Walker, Gerard Butler, Billy Connolly
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Timeline |
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The plot of this movie is basically one in which four friends, including three archeologists and one student, seek to find the student's father, another archeologist, who has gone through a wormhole in time back to France in the Middle Ages. Compounding the plot is the fact that the scientists who sent the older man back in time, want no one to come back alive to expose their glitches in their time machine; the machine supposedly rearranges and destroys the molecules in every human tissue upon repeated re-entries. The problem is deepened by the fact that the four friends are accompanyied by henchman of a paid assassin of the scientists; furthermore, the four are sent back in time to a wartime state of France in a ploace known as Castlegard.
Along the way two characers grow together in a more romantic nature, and one other finds the object of his archeological lust in a French woman who is part of the insurgent force fighting against the English occupation.
--Betsy, Resident Scholar
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An archaelogist disappears and leaves a message for help dated 1357. His son and a group of others discover that the professor is stuck in a wormhole in 1357 right in the middle of the French and English war. They then travel to 1357 to try and rescue him, but end up just trying to survive, because they become caught up in the war.
--Jack Bauer, Resident Scholar
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Chris Hughes (Paul Walker) is stunned to find out that his father, a highly respected archaeologist, has mysteriously written a message in 1357 AD. Professor Hughes went to get some answers from ITC, the corporate sponsor for his latest dig, and never came back. After Chris confronts ITC, he discovers that his father was sent back in time through a wormhole that was accidentally discovered linking Castlegard, France in 1357 AD and the present day. But something went wrong and the professor's companion was killed. Unsure of what happened to Chris' father, ITC is ready to send back a small group of archaeology students to rescue him and to try and discover why the wormhole exists at all.
Chris sets out to find his father with a security expert sent to kill someone in the past, two bodyguards, who end up dead shortly after the shift, Kate Erickson (Frances O'Connor), whom he is in love with, Andre Marek (Gerard Butler), and another French archaeology student. Much to their chagrin, the students have arrived on the same day as a horrific battle between the English and the French over the Castlegard fortress. They all know the history, but find themselves unwittingly changing the past as they get involved in the lives of those who lived at that time...
This was a decent movie, nothing spectacular, but not one of those movies that you cannot admit that you paid money to see. Paul Walker definitely didn't fit into the film and there was no real effort to explain his mannerisms and accent other than the fact that he spent a year in Kentucky - hello? do they think that a California surfer dude accent is similar? Anyway, Walker did fine in the film aside from a few awkward moments and looking pretty silly in those baggy hose that they favored in the middle ages, but Gerard Butler really stole the show. He was perfect for his role and really outshone his costars. The action sequences were pretty good, but nothing outstanding. Really, that could be the summation of the whole film: good, but nothing outstanding. Wait for it to come out on DVD, its cheaper that way.
--Debbie, Resident Scholar
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Yet another Michael Crichton book has been shamefully misrepresented. Though the movie has VERY GENERAL similarities to the book it lacks both the integral character development found in the book as well as the correct use and explanation of the technology. The characters simply agree to go back in time to save the professor before ever even asking about the dangers. This, combined with the non-existent multiverse theory found in the book will undoubtedly make any avid Crichton fan miss the good old days of the Andromeda Strain, Congo, and Sphere, before Paramount ever fooled with the very plot of Jurassic Park or the Lost World.
--William Stoffel, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Timeline |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 50%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzle - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10%
**Fantasy or Science Fiction?**
- science fiction story
Time Travel:
- primarily to the past
Time Travel Story?
Yes
To what time period?
- Really long ago
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- student
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- blonde
Hair type
- (man) short/medium curly
Body type
- average (man)
Events of movie makes character more...
- tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- brunette (Black)
Hair style
- (man) short/standard wavy
Body type
- muscular (man)
How much in movie?
- 80%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
- British
Main Adversary
Identity:
- a fight for survival
Ethnicity
- White
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Setting
Earth setting:
- 20th century (1970's to Present)
- 17th century
- middle ages
Takes place on Earth?
Yes
Forests?
Yes
Misc settings
- fort/castle
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Tone of movie
- upbeat
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
Is this movie based on a
- book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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