What is the first thing that you would do if you were sent back in time? Maybe you'd try to find yourself and explain some poor decisions that you've made so that you won't do them again. Or maybe you'd try to go to another place to get a different perspective on a certain event. Or maybe you'd do something ridiculous, like play tricks on your significant other. I vote for the latter.

Timecrimes is the story of one man who gets sent back in time and has to deal with the circumstances of that event. The main theme that the film focuses on is the question of free will. Even if you are sent back in time, does time still progress in a linear fashion no matter how much you do not want it to? You can call this "fate" if you want, but this is not how Timecrimes handles this question.

To get into this further would delve into spoilers, so before we hit the spoilers (of which I have some major gripes with the film), let's talk about some general points. The plot and writing overall is serviceable. At first, I found myself very frustrated with the film, but the end makes up for it. It is not enough to make it a great movie but enough to make it not terrible. Again, we'll save more for the spoilers.

You can tell that Timecrimes was done on a budget, but this is not a bad thing. Everything still looks nice and is handled well. In fact, this is a good comparison to last week's review of Punch-Drunk Love. That movie had a cheap looking feel to it because it felt like the director had no idea what he was doing. Timecrimes looks "cheap" in the sense that you can tell they don't have a ton of money. The quality doesn't suffer from this and they still make the best of what they have. Overall, it is still well executed.

The acting was pretty solid, despite the unrealistic characters in this film. They're working with some pretty unrealistic situations and events. Even though the characters don't really react in realistic ways (as realistic as time travel can be), they actors do they best they can to sell it. You can't blame them for the awkward situations that the writer/director has placed them in.

But now, to the heart of my issue with the movie. SPOILERS START HERE!

We need to talk about Hector 2. Here's what I don't understand at all. Hector 2 just experienced time travel for the first time and doesn't really understand what's going on. Yet as the events unfold, he realizes he is creating all of the events for Hector 1. But my question is why does Hector 2 go so far out of his way to recreate the events to push Hector 1 towards the machine?

At this point, Hector 2 has no real reason to make Hector 1 go towards the time travel machine. In fact, somewhere along the way, you would think that he would realize all of the terrible things that are happening and try and do something different. He could change the course of history by not leading on Hector 1. I mean, you're talking about a guy who threatens a woman with a pair of scissors to take off her shirt. Why go that far to push "yourself" to do something that hasn't really panned out that well in the first place?

To be fair, the movie ends in a "happy" place, with the wife not dying. But still, you've got that poor girl getting screwed over. All of this wouldn't have happened if Hector 2 didn't push Hector 1 to get into the time machine. Problem solved. It seems that the only real reason that Hector 2 pushes along Hector 1 is because you wouldn't really have a story without it. In fact, this is what a lot of the character motivations in the film feel like. Actions just to move the story along.

END SPOILERS!

Overall, Timecrimes is definitely an interesting watch, but it is by no means one of the best movies out there. Although to be fair, it does handle the concept of time travel better than other Sci-Fi movies. Which speaking of, even though Timecrimes involves time travel, it doesn't really feel like a Sci-Fi movie at all. It's worth a watch if the concept of time travel interests you, but if not, you might just want to pass on this one.

Punch-Drunk Love is a romantic comedy without much romance... or comedy for that matter. It's a movie that doesn't really know what it is. More than anything else, Punch-Drunk Love is a very postmodern movie. It doesn't have an identity, instead it takes from many different genres to make something all its own. But the problem with this is that the film never feels solid in that identity and loses any sort of strong personality.

This is perhaps one of the biggest noticeable things with Punch-Drunk Love. It's less like watching a movie than it is watching a bunch of clips strung together. You never feel like you quite know what you are watching. It's too weird to be an enjoyable watch. Now don't get me wrong. I love me some weird and offbeat movies. But for some reason, it just doesn't click in Punch-Drunk Love. It feels like it's being weird just for the sake of being weird. It doesn't really have any meaning behind it.

For example, one of the most annoying parts of this film is the musical score. The music is often distracting, overbearing, and clashes with the action on screen. Things often become so cacophonous that it makes it hard to even concentrate on what's happening. But this it just the music. Everything in this film seems to be handled this way. I feel like when I spend 90% of my time watching a movie and am distracting by any editing choice whatsoever, that it's not really that good of a movie. It's artsy for the sake of being artsy.

Take the main characters for example. In any movie involving a romance, that audience is usually given a clue into what drives those people into falling in love. In this film, the romance is contrived. It exists for the sake of advancing the plot. Nothing about the romance or the attraction feels real. The motivations are artificial and forced. In fact, they don't even make any sense. It's just something that exists in the backdrop of all of the quirky editing and cinematography.

And speaking of the cinematography, I need to say this. Punch-Drunk Love looks a lot like a movie that I filmed and produced in my sophomore year of college. This is not a compliment. I remember during the course of making that movie that we shot so many things because we thought they would be "cool" or look "artistic." The story took a back seat for trying to make sure everything looked deep and meaningful. It was everything a student film usually is. This is the general feeling that I get when I watch Punch-Drunk Love.

I feel like I am watching someone's student film.

I went to go look at Rotten Tomatoes to see what others thought of the film and it ranks around 80%. Most of the positive comments tend to build up to something along the lines of, "it's so different and offbeat and is quirky in its own way." But you know what is not mentioned in any of those reviews? A compelling story that is gripping and moving. And isn't that what cinema is all about? It's not about making things look pretty. It's about being told a story that entertains and grips you. This is apparently something Punch-Drunk Love forgot to plan for. It proves the old adage true: Substance is always more important than style.

If you've seen Zombieland, then you understand the title and the rules. If not, well... you lose. But before we get into a review of the movie, we need to talk about something very important. And I mean important.

We need to talk about Jesse Eisenberg. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a great actor, but I'm pretty sure that Jesse Eisenberg and Michael Cera are the exact same person. I mean, look at these guys. And plus, have you ever seen these two act in a movie? They both play the same type of characters: socially awkward and in search of their first female love. Extra emphasis on the socially awkward. Although if we were going to be totally accurate, you'd probably have to say that Jesse Eisenberg is a mixture of Andy Samberg and Michael Cera.

Okay, now that this important matter is out of the way, we can talk about the movie. Before getting to the title of the post, let's talk about how visually stunning it is. This film has a great and unique visual style. Sometimes movies are quirky for the sake of being quirky, but this film nails it. From every popup text (the rules) to the visual flair of the action, Zombieland sticks to its guns. It's a straightforward action/comedy.

But don't let the action and comedy fool you. There are a lot of heartfelt moments in the film. One of the greatest things this movie is able to do is showcase the growing relationship between all of the characters. Watching these characters grow closer and trust each other more and more is perhaps one of the most rewarding parts of the film. All of the relationships feel authentic and do not border on being forced. For a post-apocalyptic zombie world, the way that they interact makes sense.

One of the great things that Zombieland does is it takes its world by the horns. Sometimes films are too cautious about getting into the world of their movie or feel like they have to provide vast amounts of backdrop for it to make sense. Zombieland is not a college course on the causes of zombies. Instead, it tells you enough (if anything) about the world and lets you discover the world as our characters deal with their surroundings. This is probably one of the best ways to deal with a foreign setting.

But while the movie is a blast to watch, there is one thing that is a major pitfall of the film. It's the rule referred to in the post, the voiceover. Zombieland is steeped in voiceover by the main character. At times, the voiceover is more distracting than it is helpful to character development or the the aesthetics of a scene. Many of the times I wanted the voiceover to stop and return to the regular interaction between the characters. It's said that voiceover is a crutch in screenwriting and this is the case in Zombieland. There is too much voiceover and not enough interaction between the characters.

But overall, Zombieland is a very enjoyable watch. It's entertaining all the way through (even with the massive amounts of voiceover) and there are even a number of heartfelt moments that sneak up on you as the film progresses. It's definitely worth seeking out to watch. 4.5 out of 5.