A List of Great Time Travel Movies - Part 2

I'm such a time travel movie freak that I have watched almost all decent time travel flicks. The ones that I have not watched are very few and include Pleasantville, Returner, Prince of Persia and Austin Powers series. And I have not included movies like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban because time travel is not a key part of the plot of that movie and certain other great movies where time travel is used only as a passing reference.


Make sure you read part 1 of this post here before you proceed with the Part 2.


11) Deja vu (2006)

Denzel Washington is a great actor, no doubt, but time and again he plays the lead in some riveting edge-of-the-seat thrillers. Deja vu is a perfect example. It's sad that I could not fit it at the to ten in my list but is equally as good as any movie that list of ten. In this movie, an ATF agent (Denzel Washington) travels back in time to save a woman (Paula Patton) from being murdered, falling in love with her during the process. The beauty of time travel paradoxes is subtly shown in the last scene. Guaranteed entertainment!


12) If Only (2004)

How many times have you felt that you love someone a lot but never knew how to express it? This movie tells you to show your love, to appreciate your partner NOW! After his impetuous musician girlfriend, Samantha (Jennifer Love Hewitt), dies in an accident shortly after they had a fight (and nearly broke up), a grief-stricken British businessman, Ian Wyndham (Paul Nicholls), living in London gets a chance to relive the day all over again, in the hope of changing the events that led up to her getting killed. This is one of those very under appreciated but beautiful movies. It is a romantic movie but its not cuddling or crying all the way. The movie has decent humor to sustain your interest throughout the length of it. Suitable for a warm afternoon watch with your partner.


13) Happy Accidents (2000)

Things are going great in the love life of Ruby (Marisa Tomei) and Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio ) till one day,Sam tells her that he is from the future - 2470 to be exact, traveling back in time to avoid prosecution for his sister's death, and to find Ruby, whose photo he saw back home. Sounds interesting doesn't it. The movie has a lot of humorous scenes to sustain your interest and never in the run time of 2 hours do you feel bored. Scenes involving Ruby and her girlfriends are absolute fun to watch for its comedy. Make sure you watch this one..


14. Somewhere in Time (1970)



I stumbled upon this one by chance and loved it very much. In this movie, a Chicago playwright (Christopher Reeve) uses self-hypnosis to find the actress (Jane Seymour) whose vintage portrait hangs in a grand hotel.Self hypnosis for time travel can sound like an absurd idea bu kudos to the director for making it look believable. If you have the patience to watch this 41 year old movie, you would be rewarded with a heart rending climax.


15. Time After Time (1979)

 I was seriously impressed by this movie. Made almost 32 years ago, the fact that it sustained my interest till the climax deserves special mention. There are certain plot holes but in one can be excused for overlooking them because the movie moves at a brisk pace. The plotline is that H.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to the 20th Century when the serial murderer uses the future writer's time machine to escape his time period.Such a storyline offers plenty of scope for fun that only a time travel movie can provide and the movie does exactly that!


16. Source Code (2011)

Lets face it. This movie, if you strip it off its racy screenplay, would melt down to nothing. But what made it interesting was the time-travel touch to it and the human factor involved. And also, honestly, I haven't watched a better screenplay in Hollywood this year than this. The climax is a bit of a dampener though. A lot of things were not properly explained and left much to be assumed. Watch the trailer and you'd know what I am talking about, when I say 'gripping'.. If you haven't watched it yet, well, what are you waiting for?


17. The Time Machine (1960)

It would be unfair to not include this movie in this list, purely because H.G.Wells was the man who made the dream of time travel reach to millions through his works.And to not include his work in this list would be nothing short of sacrilege! Not just that, this movie has a decent story and is very well directed and considering that it is more than 50 years old, that itself is an achievement. You a time travel freak? Then, don't miss out on this movie!


18) Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

 If you haven't heard of this movie, you'd surely surprised when you watch it to find Keanu Reeves (yes, the 'Neo' of Matrix fame) play a dumb Ted along with his also idiotic best friend Alex Winter play Bill. The best thing about this movie is its tongue in cheek humor and i doesn't mind make fun of itself. There's no question of logic here. Time travel is used to its creative best level, especially in the last half an hour. Surely, it is one 'excellent' movie to watch with your family and friends and laugh out loud.


19. Hot Tub Time Machine

A 'Hangover' type guys' movie. Lot of crude jokes and sexual dialog combined with time travel madness and mayhem gives you 'Hot Tub Time Machine'. Other than that, it follows the path of all other time travel movies: people travel to the past with an opportunity to change their pasts; whether they do or not, is the only point where all time travel movies differ. Not that it is bad, but because it could have been much better, I rate it only 19th in my list.I felt that someoe like John Cusack had been wasted in the role.Otherwise, you ca always watch it for boyish fun!


20. Kate & Leopold
 

If you like either Hugh Jackman or Meg Ryan, you would love this movie, because both are at their charming best here. But if you don't like them both, you may get bored here. In fact, the time travel element is the only interesting point of this movie. The story is the same old traditional time travel stuff where guy from past comes to the present and falls in love with a woman there. What happens after that is fairly predictable. Watch it if you have nothing else to do..




The ones that missed out:


The Final Countdown

Because it has a disappointing climax!


 The Philadelphia Experiment 

Because it tries to be too smart!


Donnie Darko


Because it is toooo complicated!

 Primer

Because I ended up with a headache after watching it!

The Time Machine (2002) :


Because the 1960 version itself was way better!