Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

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.

Time Machine, The reviews
42
6.0 User Score:

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.

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...

75

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 >
75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

For the most part, it's imaginatively staged and consistently entertaining.

Read Full Review >
70

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

Delivers a thoughtful what-if for the heart as well as the mind.

Read Full Review >
63

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 >
60

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 >
60

Salon.com Charles Taylor

The Time Machine is, for the most part, a handsome, pleasant entertainment.

Read Full Review >
60

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Amazingly stilted before accelerating into its exciting finish.

Read Full Review >
60

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 >
50

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 >
50

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 >
50

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 >
50

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 >
50

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 >
50

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 >
50

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 >
50

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 >
50

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Weirdly disjointed and uncertain as to tone.

Read Full Review >
50

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 >
50

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 >
50

Slate David Edelstein

The film has no spirit of inquiry -- no spirit at all, really.

Read Full Review >
40

TV Guide Frank Lovece

They STILL didn't get it right this TIME.

Read Full Review >
40

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 >
40

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 >
40

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 >
38

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 >
38

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 >
38

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 >
38

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 >
33

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

While there are some glittery bits in it, the film is frustrating, cluttered, inelegant and garish.

Read Full Review >
30

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Joyless and largely witless sci-fi fantasy.

25

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

If you want a movie time trip, the 1960 version is a far smoother ride.

Read Full Review >
20

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 >
10

Film Threat Chris Gore

I’m 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.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use