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Movies / On DVD / Timecrimes
Timecrimes

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Timecrimes (2008)

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Reviews Counted:63

Fresh:55

Rotten:8

Average Rating:6.9/10

Consensus: Timecrimes is a low-budget thriller that's well-crafted and loaded with dark humor and bizarre twists.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for nudity and language.

Runtime: 89 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Dec 12, 2008 Limited

Synopsis: In the early evening, Hector figures he deserves a little break from moving into his new house and retires to his lawn chair in the backyard. He won't have traveled more than a mile from this spot... In the early evening, Hector figures he deserves a little break from moving into his new house and retires to his lawn chair in the backyard. He won't have traveled more than a mile from this spot before he falls into a spinning wheel of existentialist dread--a stunning nightmare that pushes RASHOMON-style multiple-perspective storytelling so far past its outer limits that it flips into its very inverse. Through his binoculars, Hector spies something in the nearby trees--it appears to be a woman undressing. Hector's inevitable investigation results in a bizarre but fleeting encounter with a terrifying figure wrapped in pink head bandages, followed by an intense escape that takes him to a strange silo which houses a mysterious machine. The events that "follow," to use a term loosely, make for what might be the most flawless time-travel story in the history of movies. Where BACK TO THE FUTURE, TERMINATOR, and most other beloved time-tampering films are accepted only because they fudge the implications of causality in an entertainingly forgivable way, the Spanish-language TIMECRIMES does no fudging; it simply hurtles its audience into an unnerving thought experiment and, from there, never submits to a significant break in logic. Propelled by mesmerizing déjà vu, twisted yet camouflaged tragicomedy, and a low-key sense of queasy dread, this TWILIGHT ZONE-ready tale effortlessly transforms its rather mundane setting into a disturbingly surreal landscape. There is nothing out-of-the-ordinary about the grassy yards in which the movie takes place; it's just that they're lit by the kind of natural twilight of dusk--at once familiar and strange--that makes everything seem as if it's playing out in the mind's soundstage. Through its subtle, uncommon characterization, TIMECRIMES deftly reconciles its temporal-mind meditations with an eerie account of a loving man who acts in spite of himself. [More]

Starring: Karra Elejalde, Nacho Vigalondo, Candela Fernandez, Barbara Goenaga

Starring: Karra Elejalde, Nacho Vigalondo, Candela Fernandez, Barbara Goenaga

Director: Nacho Vigalondo

Director: Nacho Vigalondo
Screenwriter: Nacho Vigalondo
Producer: Esteban Ibarretxe, Eduardo Carneros, Javier Ibarretxe
Composer: Chucky Namanera
Studio: Magnet Pictures

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Release:

Mar 31, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • A man being pursued by a murderer stumbles into a mysterious lab and accidentally travels back in time. A naked girl in the midst of the forest. A cloaked stranger with his face covered by in bandages. A disquieting mansion on the top of a hill. All of them pieces of an unpredictable jigsaw puzzle where terror, drama and suspense will lead to an unthinkable sort of crime. Who’s the murderer? Who’s the victim?
  •  
     
     
     

    Reviews for Timecrimes

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    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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    That rarest of rare things: an intelligent time-travel movie that actually holds together on closer examination.

    Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
    09/22/09
    Ken Hanke
    Ken Hanke
    Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

    While I enjoyed the film a great deal, I honestly wonder if there'd be this amount of hoopla if the picture, say, starred a yamhead like Val Kilmer and was set in New Jersey.

    Full Review Source: UGO | comment Comment
    08/13/09
    Jordan Hoffman
    Jordan Hoffman
    UGO

    A smart, occasionally thrilling science fiction tale...

    Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | comment Comment
    06/12/09
    David Nusair
    David Nusair
    Reel Film Reviews
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
    04/23/09
    Peter Keough
    Peter Keough
    Boston Phoenix

    A tight little movie where every setup is paid off

    Full Review Source: Movie Habit | comment Comment
    04/21/09
    Marty Mapes
    Marty Mapes
    Movie Habit

    As a director, Vigalondo sweeps you up into his tale and keeps you running at what seems like full speed toward the finish line.

    Full Review Source: Cinefantastique | comment Comment
    04/01/09
    Steve Biodrowski
    Steve Biodrowski
    Cinefantastique

    Very cool.

    Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
    03/18/09
    Roger Moore
    Roger Moore
    Orlando Sentinel

    The key here is to keep things moving without letting the logical (or illogical) complications weigh down the action, and [director] Vigalondo does this well.

    Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
    03/13/09
    Tom Long
    Tom Long
    Detroit News
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Nacho Vigalondo's bleak time-travel thriller... [chronicles the travails of a] classic film noir schmuck: No matter what he does, sooner or later fate will stick out her foot and trip him up.

    Full Review Source: Miss FlickChick | comment Comment
    03/01/09
    Maitland McDonagh
    Maitland McDonagh
    Miss FlickChick

    His film is satisfying in its clever construction and vivid style.

    Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK) | comment Comment
    02/12/09
    Edward Porter
    Edward Porter
    Sunday Times (UK)

    The first feature by a promising young director who doesn't know how to recapture the hare he has let loose.

    Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
    02/12/09
    Philip French
    Philip French
    Observer [UK]

    A film that exemplifies the popular artistic notion of inescapable tragic destiny.

    Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | comment Comment
    02/11/09
    Robert Roten
    Robert Roten
    Laramie Movie Scope

    An enterprising Spanish time-travel thriller, that's light on DeLoreans and lightning bolts, but heavy on fiendish cross-currents of temporal interaction.

    Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
    02/06/09
    Andrew Pulver
    Andrew Pulver
    Guardian [UK]

    Meticulous plotting, breathless pacing, paradoxes aplenty, and some surprisingly human dilemmas, all make this low-key sci-fi thriller well worth going back over again and again. It is a Primer-like triumph of ideas over budget.

    Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment 1 Comment
    02/05/09
    Anton Bitel
    Anton Bitel
    Channel 4 Film

    Fiendishly convoluted and stylishly crafted, Time Crime is a low-budget sci-fi thriller from Spain that ably demonstrates the value of a neat idea, cleverly executed.

    Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
    02/05/09
    Wendy Ide
    Wendy Ide
    Times [UK]

    Enjoyable, smartly directed time travel thriller with strong performances and a genuinely creepy atmosphere, though the twists are a little predictable.

    Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
    02/05/09
    Matthew Turner
    Matthew Turner
    ViewLondon

    An invigoratingly imaginative and thrilling ride full of clever surprises and twists.

    Full Review Source: NYC Movie Guru | comment Comment
    01/31/09
    Avi Offer
    Avi Offer
    NYC Movie Guru

    The director operates his metaphysical contraption with enough wit to jolt away your skepticism.

    Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
    01/22/09
    Wesley Morris
    Wesley Morris
    Boston Globe
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    ...handles the paradox of traveling in time with intelligence and combines it with a solid thriller/mystery story.

    Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
    01/16/09
    Robin Clifford
    Robin Clifford
    Reeling Reviews

    Timecrimes is a tremendously entertaining bit of Kafka that whirlpools down into The Twilight Zone.

    Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
    01/16/09
    Marc Savlov
    Marc Savlov
    Austin Chronicle
     
     
    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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    Latest News for Timecrimes

    November 27, 2008: It should come as no surprise that Hollywood is going to mess it up, sorry, we mean remake it . . . Opens in new window
    More...

    November 27, 2008: It should come as no surprise that Hollywood is going to mess it up, sorry, we mean remake it . . . Opens in new window
    More...

    November 26, 2008: Trailer & Poster review Opens in new window
    More...

    August 28, 2008: A SciFi brainteaser with a noirish morality at its heart, Nacho Vigalondo's Time Crimes is a twisted, at times darkly comic tale of flawless construction. Opens in new window
    More...

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