From hot tubs to DeLoreans
Looking for a good timeIt's not just the best thing to happen to movie titles since Snakes on a Plane; the new comedy Hot Tub Time Machine (opening Friday, March 26) is also the latest in a long line of time travel movies, stretching back from at least the 1940s into (we presume) the distant future.
The new film depicts a group of friends who are transported back to 1986 from the present day, thanks to their special hot tub. (We're still not sure how the physics work, exactly.) Here, the time travel is played for laughs, but in other time travel movies -- typically, science-fiction films -- the aim might be to scare, thrill, or provoke deep thought.
Of course, such films are not always successful. Below, we look at the best and worst movies featuring time travel, starting with the good.
The best time travel movies
The rules are simple: Where movies have Metascores, they must be listed in order from highest to lowest. If an older movie is not in Metacritic's database (and thus does not have a Metascore), we have slotted it where we feel it belongs. We are also forbidden from going back in time and murdering our own parents.
| Title | Netflix | Year | Metascore | Users | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Back to the Future | 1985 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A flux capacitor-equipped DeLorean |  |
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| Arguably the best time travel movie of them all is Robert Zemeckis' 1985 comedy about an eccentric scientist (Christopher Lloyd) who accidentally sends his young friend (Michael J. Fox) 30 years into the past. A perfect blend of humor and an interesting, self-contained story (naturally, there were two sequels), "Back to the Future" was 1985's highest-grossing film. | |||||
| 2 | The Terminator | 1984 | 84 | 8.7 | |
| Means of Travel: Time Displacement Sphere |  |
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| James Cameron's low-budget classic introduced one of the big screen's most iconic sci-fi characters. Future governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a cyborg assassin transported backward in time from a post-apocalyptic future to prevent the birth of a future rebel leader. | |||||
| 3 | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | 1986 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A Klingon Bird-of-Prey that slingshots around the Sun |  |
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| Remember, the even numbered "Star Trek" movies are the good ones (well, with one major exception), and this fourth installment was the second-best of the bunch. The funniest of all the Trek films, "Voyage Home" provided the one-time Enterprise crew with an unassailable reason to travel back in time to 20th century Earth: to save the whales. | |||||
| 4 | The Time Machine [1960] | 1960 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A time machine |  |
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| The best film adaptation of H.G. Wells' classic novel was this 1960 release from the UK, directed by George Pal. An Oscar-winner for its visual effects, "The Time Machine" traces the journey of a man from Victorian England as he visits three world wars (including a nuclear war in the late 1960s) before reaching the very distant future. | |||||
| 5 | Time After Time | 1979 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A time machine |  |
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| Also inspired by H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine," the Nicholas Meyer-directed "Time After Time" cleverly uses Wells himself as the protagonist and imagines that the author was able to build a working time machine. But when Jack the Ripper uses the machine to escape to the future -- 1979 San Francisco -- Wells (Malcolm McDowell) follows to track down the killer. | |||||
| 6 | Star Trek | 2009 | 83 | 7.9 | |
| Means of Travel: A black hole propels two ships back in time |  |
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| J.J. Abrams' commercially-successful reboot of the Star Trek franchise used time travel as a way to reintroduce old characters without needing to adhere to canon. As a result of intervention from the future, a young Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the original series Enterprise crew will now follow a different timeline through what will no doubt be a number of sequels, including one coming in 2012. | |||||
| 7 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | 2004 | 81 | 6.6 | |
| Means of Travel: Time-turner |  |
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| While time travel movies generally fall under the heading "science fiction," this third installment in the Harry Potter series is one of a few examples of a fantasy dealing with such subject matter. Although time travel is not the major focus of the story, young Hermione does use a magical time-turner device both to attend extra classes (something we would not have done with our time machine, thank you) and to go back a few hours in time to save the day. | |||||
| 8 | 12 Monkeys | 1996 | 74 | 8.4 | |
| Means of Travel: A time machine |  |
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| Terry Gilliam's trippy thriller (based on the French short "La Jetée") is one of the more thought-provoking entries on this list, and time travel plays a major role in the film. Bruce Willis plays a criminal who is transported back in time from a post-apocalyptic future in an attempt to prevent the outbreak of a virus that wipes out most of the world's population. | |||||
| 9 | Peggy Sue Got Married | 1986 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A fainting spell |  |
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| A woman (the Oscar-nominated Kathleen Turner) faints at her 25-year high school reunion, only to wake up back in 1960, during her senior year of high school. A rare 1980s hit for director Francis Ford Coppola, this sweet-natured comedy also starred an odd-voiced Nicolas Cage and a very young Jim Carrey. | |||||
| 10 | Time Bandits | 1981 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A map of space and time |  |
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| The second entry for Terry Gilliam on this list was co-written by the director with fellow Monty Python alumnus Michael Palin. The PG-rated fantasy follows the fantastical adventures of an 11-year-old boy who, along with a group of dwarves, travels through time and space, visiting such figures as Robin Hood and Napoleon and battling an evil force known as Evil. John Cleese and Sean Connery are among the stars. | |||||
| 11 | Donnie Darko | 2001 | 71 | 9.2 | |
| Means of Travel: It's complicated |  |
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| For a movie that references a (fictional) book called "Philosophy of Time Travel," there isn't a whole lot of actual time traveling actually done by the film's characters. Still, Richard Kelly's confusing cult classic (which is complicated further by the release of an alternate version) is set into motion by the arrival of a falling jet engine from the future. Or is it? | |||||
| 12 | Star Trek: First Contact | 1996 | 70 | 9.0 | |
| Means of Travel: A Borg-created temporal vortex |  |
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| The only decent Star Trek film to feature the "Next Generation" characters, "First Contact" finds the crew of the Enterprise-E visiting Earth in the distant past (2063) in order to prevent the Borg from changing human history at a key moment in time: Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight. | |||||
| 13 | Terminator 2: Judgment Day | 1991 | 69 | 9.5 | |
| Means of Travel: Time Displacement Sphere |  |
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| Not one but two cyborgs are sent back in time from the future in James Cameron's wildly successful sequel. The catch, of course, is that this time, the Arnold Schwarzenegger model is the good guy, sent by resistance leader John Connor to protect his younger self from assassination by a shapeshifting T-1000. | |||||
| 14 | Back to the Future Part III | 1990 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A flux capacitor-equipped DeLorean plus a flux capacitor-equipped locomotive |  |
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| "Back to the Future" didn't really need a sequel, so of course, it got two. Of the pair, "Part III" is easily the more entertaining (and the one with the better reviews), ditching the back-and-forth action of the second film to settle down 100 years in the past, in the Old West. | |||||
| 15 | Primer | 2004 | 68 | 7.3 | |
| Means of Travel: A time machine (aka "the box") |  |
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| This no-budget sci-fi thriller wowed audiences at Sundance (where it won the Grand Jury Prize) with its thought-provoking and original look at the consequences of time travel. Although too complex for some viewers, the film examines how the lives of two engineers change (changed? will change?) when they accidentally invent a machine that allows them to travel into the not-too-distant past. | |||||
| 16 | Timecrimes (Los Cronocrímenes) | 2008 | 68 | 8.0 | |
| Means of Travel: A liquid-filled time machine |  |
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| This low-budget, character-driven Spanish thriller pleased many critics with its intriguing (and refreshingly easy-to-follow) story about a man who travels a few hours back in time and encounters himself. | |||||
| 17 | Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure | 1989 | 44 | 10.0 | |
| Means of Travel: A phone booth |  |
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| Only a 44? Now that's bogus. Partly attributable to the fact that we only have a few reviews in our database, and partly because critics didn't fully appreciate its excellence, this classic comedy does indeed have a low score, but it's not representative of the film's goofy likability and enduring popularity. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter play two slackers who travel through time to get help with their high school history presentation. | |||||
| 18 | Escape from the Planet of the Apes | 1971 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A repaired spaceship propelled through time by the shockwave of future Earth's nuclear destruction |  |
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| Generally regarded as the best of all the "Planet of the Apes" sequels, this third installment is also the most thought-provoking of the bunch, dealing not only with time travel but also a number of social issues, from women's rights to matters of race and class. The film works almost as a reverse of the original, with three apes from the future crash-landing on the human-inhabited past Earth of 1973. | |||||
| 19 | Timecop | 1994 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A time machine |  |
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| Okay, so it might not qualify as a good movie -- at least, according to conventional notions of good and bad. But on the Jean-Claude Van Damme scale, this story of a federal agent working for the Time Enforcement Commission (which is charged with preventing the use of time travel for personal gain) is actually quite entertaining, and ranks as the actor's biggest worldwide hit. The film doesn't make any attempt at scientific plausibility, but it does provide a nice preview of what the world will be like in 2004. | |||||
| 20 | Hot Tub Time Machine | 2010 | xx | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A hot tub |  |
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| It's too early to tell if "Hot Tub Time Machine" really belongs on this list -- we reserve the right in the future to go back to the past and adjust its ranking -- but we certainly want to like any movie that has the title "Hot Tub Time Machine." | |||||
The worst of the bunch
If we really did have a time machine, we'd use it to travel back in time and warn everyone to avoid the films on our next list: the worst time travel movies Hollywood has created so far. (The list only includes films from the past.)
| Title | Netflix | Year | Metascore | Users | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Masters of the Universe | 1987 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: Cosmic key (sometimes mistaken for a Japanese synthesizer) | |||||
Yes, that is "Masters of the Universe" as in "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe." Brilliantly released after people no longer cared about the toys, this live-action fantasy-adventure was a critical and commercial failure ... though it stands today as the only film in which you can see both Billy Barty and Courteney Cox.
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| 2 | Time Chasers | 1994 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A Commodore 64-equipped airplane |  |
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| It's a simple rule: If a film appears on Mystery Science Theater 3000, it's officially terrible. (The episode of MST3K, by the way, is a great one.) This low-budget film travels (by small plane!) into the future and the past -- including the American Revolution -- to warn about the perils of evil corporations. When the time machine is destroyed at the end, it means that many of the film's events never took place. If only there were some way for viewers to get those 90 minutes of their lives back. | |||||
| 3 | A Sound of Thunder | 2005 | 24 | 2.8 | |
| Means of Travel: A wormhole |  |
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| Based on a short story by Ray Bradbury, Peter Hyams' film focuses on a group of time tourists who go on a prehistoric hunting expedition, only to interfere with history. The film is even dumber than that Metascore would suggest, had terrible special effects, and was a major flop to boot; reportedly made for close to $80 million, it grossed under $2 million in the U.S. | |||||
| 4 | Pokemon 4Ever | 2002 | 25 | 6.6 | |
| Means of Travel: Magic! |  |
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| Known in Japan by the much catchier title "Pocket Monsters the Movie: Celebi A Timeless Encounter," this fourth Pokemon film centers on the newest Pokemon creature (Celebi), who has the power to travel through time. Trust us when we say that it's for diehard fans only. | |||||
| 5 | Time Changer | 2002 | 26 | 5.3 | |
| Means of Travel: A time machine |  |
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| After a disagreement with a colleague, a Bible professor travels from the 1890s to the early 21st century, where he is shocked to discover that people get divorced and use bad language. Not even "The Love Boat's" Gavin MacLeod can save the film. | |||||
| 6 | Timeline | 2003 | 28 | 3.6 | |
| Means of Travel: A wormhole |  |
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| Based on the novel by Michael Crichton, "Timeline" follows a group of students who travel back in time (thanks to a mysterious corporate invention) to 1357 France to rescue their professor. The dialogue is laughably bad (assuming that you don't fall asleep first), and the movie bombed at the box office. | |||||
| 7 | Millennium | 1989 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A time machine known as "the Gate" |  |
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| Like the far superior Children of Men, Millennium depicts a bleak future where humankind is no longer able to reproduce. Humanity's solution? Go into the past to abduct fresh humans to repopulate the future. Throw in a romance and a plane disaster, add Kris Kristofferson and Cheryl Ladd, and mix with some of the most laughably bad effects, dialogue, and performances you could ask for, and the result is an agreeably campy B-movie. | |||||
| 8 | Star Trek Generations | 1994 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: An "energy ribbon" known as the "Nexus" |  |
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| It's bad enough they killed off Kirk. But to do so in such a lackluster movie was an insult to Trekkies everywhere. Thanks to the magic of time travel, members of the original cast (but not Spock or Bones) and the Next Generation crew were able to appear in the same film, including a few non-riveting cooking and horse riding scenes shared by Enterprise captains Kirk and Picard. | |||||
| 9 | Freejack | 1991 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: Time machines |  |
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| A cyberpunk movie that stars Emilio Estevez, Mick Jagger, and Anthony Hopkins? What could go wrong? Critics hated this sci-fi thriller about "bonejackers" from a future world who traveled back in time to steal bodies for their rich clients seeking immortality. | |||||
| 10 | Somewhere in Time | 1980 | 29 | 8.6 | |
| Means of Travel: Self-hypnosis |  |
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| Actually much more liked now than that Metascore (and the film's box office performance) would indicate, this romance follows a playwright (Christopher Reeve) who wills himself back in time to the year 1912, where he woos an actress (Jane Seymour). | |||||
| 11 | The Butterfly Effect | 2004 | 30 | 7.4 | |
| Means of Travel: Reading a diary |  |
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| Critics panned this Ashton Kutcher thriller upon its release, but "The Butterfly Effect" performed well at the box office and has a number of fans to this day. The film depicts a college student who is able to travel back to his own past and alter events that happened to him, although at a considerable cost. | |||||
| 12 | Black Knight | 2001 | 32 | 6.5 | |
| Means of Travel: A magical moat |  |
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| Let's start by saying it's a Martin Lawrence movie. And we'll finish by saying it's a Martin Lawrence movie that finds the comedian transported from a present day medieval-themed amusement park to the actual Middle Ages. As New York Daily News' Jami Bernard writes, it "makes 'Big Momma's House' look like 'Citizen Kane.'" | |||||
| 13 | Returner | 2003 | 36 | 7.2 | |
| Means of Travel: A time portal |  |
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| This poorly-reviewed Japanese sci-fi title follows a female soldier sent back in time from 2084 to prevent an alien invasion in the early 21st century. Though the film liberally (and obviously) borrows from many better movies, it does feature some decent action sequences. | |||||
| 14 | Just Visiting | 2001 | 38 | 9.0 | |
| Means of Travel: A wizard's magical potion |  |
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| A remake of the 1993 French comedy "Les Visiteurs," "Just Visiting" finds a 12th century French count (Jean Reno) transported to present-day Chicago. But he must find a way back to his own time to ensure that Christina Applegate is born. If you want to watch this kind of thing, stick with the far superior French original. | |||||
| 15 | The Time Machine [2002] | 2002 | 42 | 6.1 | |
| Means of Travel: A time machine |  |
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| Although it's not completely terrible, this 2002 adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel falls far short of the 1960 film version. Among other changes to the original story, the film sets the opening scenes in American rather than England, even though the protagonist is played by Guy Pearce. | |||||
| 16 | Lost in Space | 1998 | 42 | 8.0 | |
| Means of Travel: A man-made time bubble |  |
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| William Hurt and Mimi Rogers star in this big-screen adaptation of the 1960s sci-fi TV series. Heavy on effects but short on imagination, charm, or a coherent story (which, yes, includes a detour into time travel), the film performed poorly enough that a planned sequel was nixed. | |||||
| 17 | Southland Tales | 2007 | 44 | 6.1 | |
| Means of Travel: A hole in the fabric of space and time caused by "Fluid Karma" (we think) |  |
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| A frequently (but not always) reviled film from Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly, this muddled mess of a movie (It's a comedy! It's a drama! It's a musical! It's a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller!) was doomed from the start, since its cast features not only Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Sarah Michelle Gellar, but also Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake (although he does get to sing), and Bai Ling. | |||||
| 18 | Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann | 1982 | n/a | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A maser velocity acceleration field |  |
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| Written by Michael Nesmith of Monkees fame, "Timerider" sends a dirt bike racer back in time to the year 1877, where he battles a gang of criminals and becomes his own great-great-grandfather. Although the film has a following, there are few fans of the DVD version, which swaps out the original bloody finale with something tamer. | |||||
| 19 | Kate & Leopold | 2001 | 44 | 6.7 | |
| Means of Travel: A time portal |  |
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| James Mangold's romantic comedy stars Hugh Jackman as a 19th century duke who winds up in 21st century New York, where he falls for Meg Ryan. Despite the time travel twist, critics found the film all too conventional. | |||||
| 20 | Back to the Future Part II | 1989 | xx | n/a | |
| Means of Travel: A flux capacitor-equipped DeLorean |  |
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| Anyone who thought that the first "Back to the Future" didn't have enough time travel may have been pleased with this sequel, which jumps ahead to 2015 and back again to 1955 (with a stop at an alternate version of 1985 for good measure). There's way too much convoluted story and way too little charm and Crispin Glover, although one of those flaws would be rectified in the third and final film. | |||||
But wait, there's more
Which time travel films didn't make the cut for best or worst? We round up a few of the remainders below, and look at some related films that play with time but don't quite depict time travel.
| Title | Year | Metascore | Users |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines | 2003 | 66 | 6.5 |
| Austin Powers in Goldmember | 2002 | 62 | 6.6 |
| Meet the Robinsons | 2007 | 61 | 6.6 |
| Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey | 1991 | 60 | 8.3 |
| Happy Accidents | 2001 | 60 | 8.8 |
| Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me | 1999 | 59 | 7.1 |
| Deja Vu | 2006 | 59 | 4.7 |
| The Last Mimzy | 2007 | 59 | 5.5 |
| A time-traveling stuffed animal comes from the future to save the world | |||
| Army of Darkness | 1993 | 57 | 9.6 |
| Sam Raimi's horror-comedy -- the third Evil Dead movie -- is a cult classic | |||
| The Forbidden Kingdom | 2008 | 57 | 7.7 |
| The Lake House | 2006 | 52 | 7.7 |
| Planet of the Apes [2001] | 2001 | 50 | 5.3 |
| Tim Burton's remake makes major changes to the story (including the twist ending), and also features more time travel, caused here by electromagnetic storms. | |||
| The Time Traveler's Wife | 2009 | 47 | 7.0 |
| Click | 2006 | 45 | 7.1 |
| Disney's The Kid | 2000 | 45 | 5.0 |
| The Jacket | 2005 | 44 | 7.6 |
| Additional films not in Metacritic's database: | |||
| A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court | 1949 | n/a | n/a |
| One of several adaptations of Mark Twain's time travel novel, this is the only one that's a Bing Crosby musical | |||
| The Final Countdown | 1980 | n/a | n/a |
| An aircraft carrier travels back in time from 1980 to the attack on Pearl Harbor | |||
| Flight of the Navigator | 1986 | n/a | n/a |
| In this Disney adventure, a young boy is abducted by an alien spaceship and travels through time and space with a robot that sounds like Pee-Wee Herman | |||
| My Science Project | 1985 | n/a | n/a |
| A kid uses the engine from an alien spacecraft as his science project to impress teacher Dennis Hopper, warping time in the process | |||
| The Philadelphia Experiment | 1984 | n/a | n/a |
| Two Navy sailors are subjected to an experiment which actually sends them 41 years into the future | |||
| Spirit of '76 | 1990 | n/a | n/a |
| "Sprit of '76" is to the 1970s what "Hot Tub Time Machine" is to the 1980s: a silly time travel comedy filled with period-specific jokes | |||
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III | 1993 | n/a | n/a |
| Definitely a candidate for our worst time travel movies list, the third TMNT film features a lot of time travel in its convoluted plot | |||
| Timescape [aka Grand Tour: Disaster in Time] | 1992 | n/a | n/a |
| A small-town widower encounters a group of tourists from the future who like to visit disasters | |||
| Trancers | 1985 | n/a | n/a |
| So semi-popular that it spawned many direct-to-video sequels, this sci-fi film depicts a world where a drug allows people to travel back in time to inhabit the body of an ancestor | |||
| Unidentified Flying Oddball [aka The Spaceman and King Arthur] | 1979 | n/a | n/a |
| Disney's kid-friendly adaptation of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" makes the hero an astronaut, and gives him an android companion | |||
| Warlock | 1989 | n/a | n/a |
| There's no time machine here; instead, Satan enables the evil Warlock to escape from 1691 to 20th century Los Angeles | |||
| Title | Year | Metascore | Users |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superman: The Movie | 1978 | 88 | 7.2 |
| Superman undoes a few minutes of time by flying really fast around the Earth | |||
| Groundhog Day | 1993 | 72 | 9.7 |
| Bill Murray's cranky weatherman doesn't travel in time, but he does re-live the same day over and over again, much to our benefit | |||
| Pleasantville | 1998 | 71 | 8.6 |
| Two teens are magically transported not to the real 1950s, but to TV's version of them | |||
| Galaxy Quest | 1999 | 70 | 8.1 |
| In this surprisingly good Star Trek spoof, a device transports the entire universe back in time by precisely 13 seconds. | |||
| Frequency | 2000 | 67 | 8.2 |
| No one travels through time in this clever thriller, but a ham radio allows communications between a son in 1999 and his father in 1969, and, in the process, the future is changed | |||
| Idiocracy | 2006 | 64 | 7.6 |
| Suspended animation -- not time travel -- is the reason that two average people suddenly find themselves 500 years into an incredibly stupid future | |||
| 13 Going on 30 | 2004 | 57 | 6.1 |
| A teenage girl doesn't travel through time, precisely -- but she suddenly wakes up as a 30-year-old woman. Think of it as "Freaky Friday" without the second swap | |||
| Clockstoppers | 2002 | 40 | 5.1 |
| A group of kids use "Hypertime" technology to stop time, not travel through it | |||
| Additional films not in Metacritic's database: | |||
| Planet of the Apes | 1968 | n/a | n/a |
| While it's set in the distant future, the travel is through space, not time; the astronauts find themselves in 3978 because of the effects of moving at near-light speed | |||
What do you think?
What are your favorite and least favorite time travel movies? Let us know in the comments section below.
