Timeline 2003

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A cross between Jurassic Park and those traveling Renaissance fairs where gnawing on turkey legs and peering at the padded bosoms of college kids pretending to be wenches is supposed to make us feel medieval. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Gives Gigli serious competition for worst film of the year honors. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It's like Back to the Future without the laughs. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: An accidental comedy trapped in sci-fi/action garb, like those actors swathed in their medieval tunics, stumbling and lurching along. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Most of the time, it's fun to watch. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Suggests a particularly wretched episode of Star Trek tricked out with fancy fireworks and weighed down with a score that grinds away like a cement mixer. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This big-budget adventure is based on a recent Michael Crichton thriller, though its premise is too stale to instill the sense of wonder critical to great sci-fi. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: As fantasy-adventures go, Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy makes this one look like a Hobbit belch. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It's long, sloppy, and -- to both the quantum-physics ignorant and informed -- steadily implausible, never exciting in either its skill or its ludicrousness. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: By turns risibly puerile and purely risible, the screenplay groans under the weight of its multiple platitudes. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Where are the Knights Who Say 'Ni!' when we need them? Read more

Scott Brown, Entertainment Weekly: Lacking both will and budget, the filmmakers have done the honorable thing and given us a sweetly stupid, mercifully brisk bad movie. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Plays out like a 1950s B-movie with a fat special-effects budget. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Despite choppy, clunky moments, it leaves you with a smile. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: A not-so-excellent Bill & Ted adventure. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Whatever provocative notions this concept carried are smothered over by dissonance and contrivance. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It looks like cheesy '60s television, with paper-thin characters and crummy special effects that wouldn't even have made it in the last season of Star Trek. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: An instant contender for cult status on the midnight-movie circuit, where lines like 'Do we look like quantum wormhole specialists?' will be given the respect they deserve. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Bad history. Bad science. Bad acting. Bad movie. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This movie is in desperate need of a pulse. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Just once I'd like to see a time-travel movie inspired by true curiosity about the past, instead of by a desire to use it as a setting for action scenes. Read more

Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle: The direction by Richard Donner ... is usually a beat or two off, and the dialogue seems clumsily ad-libbed. Read more

Bryan Curtis, Slate: Here [Walker] has been given the heart-rending role of, uh, Paul Walker, and I'm sad to report he's not up to the task. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: There's a lot of action and nifty special effects in a climactic battle scene. But the movie pays only fleeting attention to other matters, including character development. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Curiously lacking in energy, which may be the result of an obviously cut-rate production budget that skimps on the sci-fi sizzle. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: Yet another case of making time travel a messy ordeal rather than a load of fun, Timeline lacks the consistent tone, pace and point of view for either a science fiction thriller or medieval war adventure. Read more

Ed Park, Village Voice: C'est la 'B'! Timeline is crudely written, haphazardly acted, and improbably fun. Read more