Tempus fugit

I recently saw this film at a showing at The Festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester, England.What a truly magical movie! It is similar in genre to Amelie and equally as unique. You MUST see this film It yet again proves that a $100 million Hollywood film does not alone make for a fantastic story!! It contains nothing to offend and yet everything to recommend it.The story is original and the fact that time travel is used without leaving the viewer confused and dazed is genius. All the different strands of time travel are neatly threaded together by the end. This is a brilliant feel good film, go and see it!!

Timetravelling, the apocalypse and true love - sounds promising? Well, it isn't. First of all: the concept of time travel is used without any sense in the film, which annoys me, but maybe not everybody will find this disturbing. The movie is full of clichés, normal guy needs to save the world, but is really a hero, love seems doomed, but turns out stronger even than the apocalypse! Hooray. Even bystanders applaud when the two main characters find each other with a passionate kiss that seems to come out of the blue, how original. The time travel clichés are also present: a little change can make events develop totally differently (yeah, yeah, we know that by now). The clumsiness of the main character is too much, too stereotypical, and a mere attempt to imitate other films with similar anti-heroes. The situation in which somebody from the future who never had any alcohol goes totally drunk after one beer is also really-just-not-new. I'm being honest, I like movies, and nothing in this one seems to be original, it's an accumulation of poor copies of concepts that we have encountered in many films before.

So aren't there any good things in this movie? Well, there are, some. Some dialogs (but not many) are quite funny, and the setting in Barcelona is warm and nice, the photography is quite all right though not exceptional. I wouldn't recommend anyone to go and see this movie at all.

Adorable. Charming. Smart. Clever. Funny. Warm-hearted. Quirky. Delightfully tongue-in- cheek. If this movie was made for TV, why isn't American TV this good?

Ramon is a shy guy in Spain, who has a terrible crush on Angie. A time traveler from the future enlists Ramon's help to save the world, and many comical and surprising missteps ensue. As they mess with the timeline, an unintended consequence occurs: Ramon and Angie fall in love. Will Ramon be able to save the world? Will saving the world require a change in the timeline that will erase their new love? Is saving the world really worth the effort if Madrid is going to beat Barcelona in the soccer championship?

If you're ever lucky enough to have a chance, go see this movie!

(Seen at the Port Townsend Film Festival, Port Townsend, Washington, USA, Sept. 2005)

I'm delighted to announce that Tempus Fugit was named best non-UK independent feature at the 15th Festival of Fantastic Films, held in Manchester, England, on 20-22 August 2004. A worthy winner.

The FFF is held annually by the Society of Fantastic Films, and guests have included Roger Corman, Brian Clements, Robert Fuest, Norman J Warren, Pete Walker, Sarah Karloff, Mel Welles, Freddie Francis, Anne Robinson, Francis Matthews, Andrew Keir, Val Guest and Ingrid Pitt.

This year's event was held at the Manchester Conference Centre, with winners announced at the closing ceremony. The best UK independent feature was named as Voodoo London.

It's a fun and creative movie. Although 'a timetraveller tells a nerd to save the world' sounds like heavy stuff, this movie is rather small. It could easily be played on stage! The use of pills to travel through time is brilliant and it brings us a couple of weird and funny situations. I loved it. But the smallness also makes it easy to forget this film...

I should also mention that this story takes place in Barcelona. Therefor the language is not Spanish but Catalunian (?). And therefor the soccer club Fc Barcelona plays a funny part in it... Before I commit spoiling, I will stop now. Just go see it!