The Sticky Fingers of Time

I saw this film two or three years ago at one of the San Francisco film festivals. I loved it. I told everyone about it, and have had to wait this long time before I found it on DVD.

It is expertly written and directed, a phenomenal film. It cloaks any budget constraints in a black-n white film noir look and feel, very convincing, all time periods feel authentic (good costume work - also good set designs). The time travel elements are well told, especially for such a complex underlying concept. There's nothing condescending or overbearing the way you found in Matrix (no endless monologues explaining everything). Rather, it's concise in it's storytelling, told visually and thematically and through action. Really nice, a fun romp through time, very catchy.

All actors were well above what I've come to expect, even - or maybe especially - from Hollywood. No one really let the ball fall. I recommend this to anyone who loves film noir or science fiction - thriller stories.

A low budget time travel thriller which partially feels Hal Hartley-esque due to some of the dialogue, score and a fairly meaty role for Hartley regular James Urbaniak, it starts very strongly but starts to flounder around the half way point. One of the actors the film centres around is unfortunately quite poor, and though Urbaniak's on form he can't save it from disappointing as it never delivers on the initial promise shown, and the ending is bland, all meaning that while I'd initially enjoyed it I ultimately felt pretty frustrated by it.

So I watched this on a late night TV broadcast some time ago. Surely it must have also been the right moment in life, or something, but it felt like a revelation. I remember I was grasping onto a feeling that I understood an important thing about life, time, decisions... Now it is all fuzzy. I did rewatched it, in a different context and felt like the major thing about it was... gone. So I guess you either love it, or just wonder what the blip you are looking at. You decide.

Started out fairly interesting, but at about 15 minutes into the film, a case of the low-budgets kicked in and killed the movie. I have nothing against low budgets, mind you, but you must have an interesting story, or characters you can care about in order to get really involved in a film. "El Mariachi" is a good example of what you can do with an ultra-low budget and still make a film that engages the audience.

Woeful acting and editing took me completely out of this film and made me acutely aware that I was watching a low-budget piece of garbage. A silly, nonsensical, "since-it's-science-fiction-I-can-say-whatever-stupid-mumbo-jumbo-I-want-an d-you-have-to-accept-it" story line was the capper on this crapper.

I came across this title when searching the extensive collections of sci-fi time travel films. I dare say that I was not initially impressed with the things I found, but the actual blurb won me over. I found this on DVD for £4.99 retail which was a bargain.

The film begins with what can be described as "sesame street Colouring". The camera was obviously low budget, so the colours all appear murky and bleed into each other. This would have been where I would have stopped watching which would have been a real mistake.

The premise of the film quickly takes hold, and you learn about the characters in a very alternative fashion. The film is separated into sections that have very little connectivity until the storyline takes hold. This is where the film comes into its own.

The film is part colour part black and white, giving the indication of which time period you are in. This is a really simple way of doing this but it is so effective. The slices of the film really come into place at the end and you realise what a masterpiece of direction this actually is. This really would have been excellent with a big screen budget if that could have been done without dumbing down the plot (probably not with the state of films today).

Give this film a chance, it is so cheap to buy, just slightly more than renting Navy Seals which would be a waste of good money. If you give the first 20 minutes a chance you should enjoy it. (don't get drunk before, you might miss out on the plot).

7/10 (10/10 storyline, 9/10 entertainment value, 5/10 production value). TWELVE MONKEYS WITHOUT THE MONEY BUT MORE PLOT.