...the rare time travel movie that does nothing interesting or clever with modern humans in an ancient setting...
Timeline (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:132
Fresh:15
Rotten:117
Average Rating:3.7/10
Consensus: This incoherently plotted addition to the time-travel genre looks and sounds cheesy.
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: In the heart of the beautiful and historically rich Dordogne Valley of France, a team of archaeology students and their professor diligently work to uncover the ruins of a 14th-century castle. For... In the heart of the beautiful and historically rich Dordogne Valley of France, a team of archaeology students and their professor diligently work to uncover the ruins of a 14th-century castle. For Professor Edward Johnson (Billy Connolly), the project is the culmination of a lifelong dream. Aided by assistant professor Andre Marek (Gerard Butler), his son Chris (Paul Walker) and students Kate (Frances O'Connor), Stern (Ethan Embry) and Francois (Rossif Sutherland), Johnston has made major strides in unearthing not only La Roque Castle but also a monastery and structures from the surrounding village of Castelgard. But things are about to go haywire... Suspicious of the dig's benefactor, International Technology Corporation (ITC) and the man who runs it, Robert Doniger (David Thewlis), Professor Johnston heads to ITC headquarters in New Mexico to get some answers, and while he's away, his students discover a chamber that has been sealed for more than 600 years. Marek and Kate descend into the unstable room, and just before a near disastrous cave-in, they make two startling discoveries -- a bifocal lens, which couldn't have been invented before the chamber was sealed, and even more intriguing, a handwritten plea for help dated April 2, 1357 ... from Professor Johnston! Determined to solve the mystery, the students head for ITC headquarters, where they are stunned to learn of Doniger's new invention -- a machine that can actually transmit three-dimensional objects through space. He meant for the device to revolutionize shipping. Doniger inadvertently opened a worm hole that leads directly to the 14th century, and Professor Johnston, who had insisted on experiencing the discovery himself, is now trapped in a vicious French vs. English feudal war! Can Johnston's loyal students survive one of the most violent battles in world history ... and make it back to the 21st century alive? -- © Paramount Pictures [More]
Starring: Paul Walker, Frances O'Connor, Gerard Butler, Billy Connolly
Starring: Paul Walker, Frances O'Connor, Gerard Butler, Billy Connolly, Ethan Embry, David Thewlis, Anna Friel, Neal McDonough
Director: Richard Donner
Director: Richard Donner
Screenwriter: Jeff Maguire, Robert Nolfi
Producer: Lauren Shuler Donner, Jim Van Wyck, Richard Donner
Composer: Brian Tyler
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Reviews for Timeline
In the end, keeping score of most of the ensuing cross-cultural mayhem is about as involving as Xeroxing for two hours.
Viewers of Timeline will wish they could go back in time themselves and avoid buying tickets in the first place.
A big, dumb action fantasy that could be easily digestible and provide some rollicking Saturday matinee entertainment. Outside of the big and dumb part, it fails on almost every other level.
Director Richard Donner is in good form here, and he patches up the holes in the script by keeping the action moving lickety-split.
All the zoiksy illogic and spinning plot points give Timeline a strange energy.
Couldn't be sillier if Monty Python's knights who say "Ni!" turned up for an extended cameo.
What with all the holiday hubbub, you certainly don’t have time for “Timeline,” a lackluster sci-fi flick that would have been more at home as a television original.
Here is a movie in which even the arrows are loud. If it was an attempt to drown out the dialogue and obscure the plot, it didn't succeed.
...a cocky and contrived contraption which gingerly dances around its Medieval-themed mediocrity...[an] overwrought costume drama
A cartoonish, ludicrous and (unintentionally) hilarious piece of action fluff that wouldn't fool a 10-year-old.
While I enjoyed Timeline on a purely brainless level, I couldn't get it out of my head that there was something stupid going on.
C'est la 'B'! Timeline is crudely written, haphazardly acted, and improbably fun.
Time-travel tale is a so-so action flick that plays like Jurassic Park ... but without the dinosaurs. Or stars. Or excitement.
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November 05, 2008:
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