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Unfunny Time Travel Movies

Had a three movie weekend–one quality, one lightweight and one awful. I knew that Timeline would be pretty bad, but I couldn’t resist. Why couldn’t I resist? Two reasons: Paul Walker and Paul Walker.

Just kidding.

In truth, I like time travel movies. I like all the quasi-science and discussions of corrupting the time continuum and all that bollocks. And, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a movie slut–I’ll pretty much see anything.

As I mentioned, this film was awful. The acting was wooden, the direction uninspired and the historical accuracy–well, I was surprised that a French knight didn’t threaten to ‘bust une cap’ in somebody’s derriere. The worst problem? It wasn’t funny, at all.

The best time travel movies are funny. They may be action films, but they still have some great time travel schtick. Others are comedies which, more or less, depend on, uh, chrono-humour, for their best bits. A short list of some funny time travel movies:

  • Back to the Future
  • Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
  • Groundhog Day

Yowza, that is a short list. Can anybody name any others?

Time travel is ripe for humor, so why not exploit it? Sadly, everybody in Timeline appeared to be struggling just to remember their lines and blocking simultaneously. Such was their acting talent.

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Published by dbarefoot

Darren Barefoot is an author, speaker and digital strategist. He’s the co-founder of Capulet Communications, and co-author of “Friends With Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook”.

4 comments

  1. I found Kate & Leopold to be charming and funny. Then again, I’m a sucker for Meg Ryan. There’s some interesting trivia with Kate & Leopold – the cut of the film that showed in the theatres was altered at the last minute because people noticed that in the Director’s Cut, Meg Ryan’s character ends up sleeping with her great-great-great-great-grandson, or something like that. I’ve only bothered to watch the Director’s Cut, where this is the case… one day I’ll watch the other version (both are on the DVD), but I bet it won’t be as good.

  2. Star Trek IV – The Voyage Home was probably the lightest of the cinematic franchise. Hearing Kirk curse someone with “double dumb-ass on you” is fairly memorable.

  3. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. A Knight’s Tale should also count, because although there isn’t any time travel, it does open with a song by Queen.

  4. It’s not really time travel, it’s more Body travel? BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, love this film. Has got to be the most original thing I’ve seen in eons…

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