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Timecrimes
EMAILPRINTMagnet Releasing (Magnolia Pictures)

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Adventure | Drama | Sci-fi | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Nacho Vigalongo
Directed by: Nacho Vigalongo
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 12, 2008
DVD: March 31, 2009
Running Time: 88 minutes, Color
Origin: Spain
Summary
RATING: R for nudity and language
Starring Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernandez, and Barbara Goenaga
Hector is relaxing on a lawn chair outside of his new country home, surveying the nearby hillside through a pair of binoculars, when he catches sight of what appears to be a nude woman amidst the trees. Hiking up to investigate, he is attacked by a sinister figure whose head is wrapped in a grotesque, pink bandage. Fleeing in terror, he takes refuge in a laboratory atop the hill, where a lone attendant ushers him in to a peculiar scientific contraption. He emerges what seems to be moments later, only to find that he has traveled back hours in time, setting in motion a brain-twisting, horrifying chain of events when he inadvertently runs into himself. (Magnolia Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Film Threat Merle Bertrand
When done well, they are scintillating cinematic brain teasers, and Timecrimes is one of the best time travel films to come along in, er, quite some time.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Timecrimes is a tremendously entertaining bit of Kafka that whirlpools down into "The Twilight Zone."
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Vigalondo is only partially capable of building suspense (the film's latter stages contain one knot too many); his achievement owes more to his imagination than his pop craftsmanship.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
According to rumors swirling on the Internet, an English-language remake is already in the works, possibly directed by David Cronenberg.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
Overall, it's a nice melding of sci-fi and a crime story.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Timecrimes is like a temporal chess game with nudity, voyeurism and violence, which makes it more boring than most chess games but less boring than a lot of movies.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Timecrimes doesn't end as well as it begins. Then again, writer-director Nacho Vigalondo deliberately fudges the beginning and endpoints of his premise, which involves one of those nutty causal loops so dear to writers and consumers of science fiction.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
Yet while it isn't that hard to stay a step or two ahead of Timecrimes, the movie is still a nifty little genre piece, an old-fashioned science-fiction mind-game with a healthy dollop of "Oh, the irony."
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Vigalondo explores it (time travel) just enough to keep this thriller moving, and Karra Elejalde is entirely convincing as the unwilling time traveler, who finds himself threatened by not only his past self but his future one as well.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
The Spanish writer and director Nacho Vigalondo has audacity to spare. Constructing a looping, economical plot and directing like a fire marshal in a flaming building, he conjures urgency and disorientation from the thinnest of air.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Neil Young
As a whole, the picture is, frustratingly, always much more about structure than substance.
Read Full Review >Variety Jonathan Holland
Timecrimes welds a B-movie plotline to precision-engineered writing and a down-to-earth style; add an engagingly sloppy, nonplussed hero, who remains unfazed by the time-bending scrape in which he finds himself, and the result is memorably offbeat.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
There's a dark and demented little psychodrama of self-inflicted madness beneath the narrative contrivances. Vigalondo's direction makes it work more like a waking nightmare than a genuine experience, and he gives it the quality of madness.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Gary Goldstein
Only half as clever as it thinks and even less entertaining.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jay H. gave it a7:
What imagination! Very offbeat Spanish film, with a plot that fascinates as well as bewilders. Interesting direction, excellent score. An admirable effort that is always compelling. Plenty of unexpected twists.
Rek H. gave it a10:
Fantastic film! Really worth a watch. Time travel premise with tons of suspense. The direction from Vigalondo and performance from Elejanlde are brilliant in my opinion and really put the viewer in the centre of the action. I loved the way the voyeurism/nudity wasn't gratified or over-indulged but used as a tool to entice the lead character and viewer, but then avoided when it wasn't necessary - it could easily have become distasteful and inappropriate, but doesn't and therefore adds a lot to the film. The plot twists and turns come thick and fast, and though you'll sometimes find yourself seemingly a step ahead, it never feels predictable. I'd recommend this film to all, though if you're a fan of time travel or suspense thrillers, you should certainly give this film a look.
