Timeline

TIMELINE (2003) - June 10, 2005
Uggh. Yet another film in a long line of lousy Crichton adaptations, and quite possibly the worst yet (which is no small feat, considering that other Crichton adaptations include Sphere and Congo). I just don't get it. All they have to do is adapt the story without changing it too much. Why is that so difficult? Why do they have to make it so... well, stupid. For one thing, the screenplay was absolutely terrible, and featured some of the worst dialogue I've heard in a while. And then there were the performances, which were at about the same level as a straight-to-video movie (which, I suppose, went well with the dialogue). Paul Walker and Francis O'Connor were both particularly bad. Paul Walker is normally a lousy but passable actor -- not here. He has absolutely no charisma and stumbles through his lines like he's reading them for the first time. O'Connor is equally bad. Gerard Butler is the only person here able to give something resembling a decent performance, but even he isn't all that great (though that's probably the script's fault -- there's only so much an actor can do when the material is this bad). Then the movie ends with a long battle scene that seems to go on forever, and boy was I bored. If Michael Crichton were dead he'd be rolling around in his grave. But I guess instead he's swimming around in his money bin. *1/2