Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
64
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Time Machine, The
EMAILPRINTWarner Bros. /DreamWorks Distribution L.L.C.

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 34 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Sci-fi
Written by:
John Logan
David Duncan (earlier screenplay)
H.G. Wells (novel)
Directed by: Simon Wells
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 8, 2002
DVD: July 23, 2002
Running Time: 96 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence
Starring Guy Pearce, Mark Addy, Jeremy Irons, Yancey Arias, Philip Bosco, Phyllida Law, and Samantha Mumba
A film version of the visionary novel by H.G. Wells in which a man in the 1890's builds a time machine that sends him into the future.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
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...
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
The film, in its early going, also has a nice light humor about it, and an engaging, albeit tragic, love story.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
For the most part, it's imaginatively staged and consistently entertaining.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf
Delivers a thoughtful what-if for the heart as well as the mind.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
A revisiting of George Pal's 1960 adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel. Pal's take on the book was visually delightful and occasionally clever; this one is always workmanlike and mainly pedestrian.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Machine makes its look-to-the-future-not-the-past message as clear as a Grammy acceptance speech, but as an exploration of regret and the elusive quality of time, it falls well short of "Memento," another film starring a sad-eyed Pearce.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
The Time Machine is, for the most part, a handsome, pleasant entertainment.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Amazingly stilted before accelerating into its exciting finish.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
As old-fashioned movie fun, this isn't bad, even -- especially? -- when it skirts the edge of silliness, and it's better than the 1960 George Pal version.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Drab as it is, the movie is not impossible to endure -- in part because the concept has a timeless appeal.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Most of Wells' details are there, and so is the basic premise, but the soul of the thing -- the point -- is missing.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The Time Machine is stupid -- too stupid for the impressive special effects or the competently directed action sequences to wash away the bitter taste.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's a movie that robs the story of its politics and point and never really matches the charm of the '60s film.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
In the new film, it's personal tragedy that provokes the journey, not social upheaval or even scientific curiosity -- which, predictably, makes for a story that's at once more familiar and less interesting.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The last 40 minutes descend further and further into nonsense, until we're in an underground grotto where Jeremy Irons plays a furry, cannibalistic albino with psychic powers and super-strength.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
If Welles was unhappy at the prospect of the human race splitting in two, he probably wouldn't be too crazy with his great-grandson's movie splitting up in pretty much the same way.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Deliberately quaint and old-fashioned, a once-over-slightly exercise in nostalgic wonder directed by the British-born great-grandson of H.G. Wells, who treats the spirit of his ancestor's novel with literal-minded fealty.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
The best thing about the new film of H.G. Wells's The Time Machine is the machine.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
There's something wrong with a time-travel movie that allows an audience's interest to drift so that we have time to worry over where he's parked, and whether he remembered to take his key.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
The film has no spirit of inquiry -- no spirit at all, really.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
This uninviting and pallid version, starring Guy Pearce, is intent on grinding all the sharp edges off the original story, in effect making the movie childproof, so no one can get hurt touching it.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Breaks down when it gets to the distant future, which in this case isn't a good place to be stranded.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
The film's two saving graces are the time machine itself -- a gorgeous, whirling array of burnished copper and blazing light -- and the CGI-created rise and fall of New York City.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The movie gives us a time machine that resembles a twin-engined Mixmaster and a script that was tossed together inside one.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Wells' vision of the distant future is cartoonishly simplistic without the subtext of British class consciousness that informed the novel.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
So tedious it's almost worth watching to see just how bad acting, inadequate direction and most important, a criminally crass and unimaginative screenplay can make so little out of a proven idea.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A witless recycling of the H.G. Wells story from 1895, with the absurdity intact but the wonderment missing.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
While there are some glittery bits in it, the film is frustrating, cluttered, inelegant and garish.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Joyless and largely witless sci-fi fantasy.
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
If you want a movie time trip, the 1960 version is a far smoother ride.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Dennis Lim
If it's remembered at all, it will be as a time capsule of early-21st-century blockbuster cowardice and redundancy.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Chris Gore
Im getting fed up with classic films being remade or ruined by being turned into Special Editions that are less than special.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 34 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Pat C. gave it a2:
Took all the intrigue out of time travel.
cbd d. gave it a4:
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Fun to watch, but the acting was about the same quality as Barney, the kids' show, and the plot has holes that are miles wide. Some good effects. The last 1/3 is especially lame. Anybody know what Jeremey Irons said in the climax scene????? I replayed it 5 times and still couldn't understand him.
Steve gave it an 8:
I've watched this movie about 3 times now and I still enjoy it. It's fun, creative and has great special effects.
Wesley R. gave it a 10:
To a small part of humanity, a time machine could be sacred. The departure angle of the remake was stronger then the 1960's, not to mention that the machine looked so much more realistic with the spherical lighteffects and spinning lighthouse lenzes. What the 1960 lacks in effects, more then makes up with its charm, Rod's driven performance and Yvette's "Eloian" innocence. Both movies, were like Wells; ahead of their time. And both movies agree; if the world comes to an end; it' might be our own fault; that message is selden seen in others of its kind. Also, it was nice to see some Morlocks without a zipper running down their spine.
Draco B. gave it a 5:
Visually = 8 Screenplay = 4 Acting = 3 Watch it again? = 3
Benjamin C. gave it a 6:
This movie could have been a lot better. First the things I liked: Spcial effects, technical stuff. Guy Pierce was the only good actor of the main characters. The first time i saw it, I fell asleep to the menu of the DVD, and the music was wierd, I could hear it while I was still asleep. I liked that. The stuff I didn't like: Even though Orlando Jones was ok, I thought he shouldnt have been casted for the part. Truthfully, Orlando Jones was decent, but I couldnt stop thinking "Its the 7up guy!" All the actors that played characters in the year 800,000 sucked, except Irons, but that was a small part. The ending was stupid. Just the way he kills the morlocks was sort of stupid. its still worth seeing i guess.
Felicia N. gave it a 10:
Another great film of Pearce's. He is truly a great actor. He really knows how to keep his films together.The effects were great and I have to agree that the crumbling of the moon was a neat idea. The creatures were awesome as well.
