creativeben

22 May 2012

An enjoyable, not too hard or easy sci-fi action film with substance!

"Source Code" deals with interesting issues and themes for which if ireveal them then it could be seen as a spoiler alert, so i guess you'llhave to see it for yourself to see if you can highlight them, but whati can say is that with an exceptional cast and a clever plot which iseasy to follow, "Source Code" keeps you watching to see if you can seewhere the twists and turns will be coming from. Jake Gyllenhaal bringssubstance to his character and the film and is a great actor in thisfilm. His co-star Michelle who played in "Eagle Eye" (2008) plays asimilar role for which she does really well and both of them togetherhave a great chemistry. There's not much more to say except that it hasa great cast, cool and original plot with cool twists and turns comingyour way!

Bruce Bennett

22 May 2012

Travels back in time and borrows liberally from the vaults of Rod Serling, and does justice to his legacy.

21 May 2012

Quantum Realities

This review is from: Source Code (DVD) This was an excellent movie. I would have to classify it as a psychological thriller within the SciFI genre. It's loosely based on the concept of parallel universes, in that if they're infinite, then our realities would repeat themselves.The story deals with the government's effort to thwart terrorism in their own reality by locating and identifying the terrorists in another reality. To do so, they make use of an unwilling soldier, forcing him into these other realities.The acting was excellent, and my attention never wavered.

Brandon Blackwell

20 May 2012

"Every second counts"

An action thriller centered on a soldier who wakes up in the body of anunknown man and discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber ofa Chicago commuter train.Watching the preview on the big screen, this looked like one of thosecheesy wanna-be movies. But boy was I wrong! The movie has twists thatkeep turning until you find out the bomber. The movie also towards theend has this romantic type style; I can't complain. This film really issomething to see, just look at the reviews. The one thing thatcompletely made me love this movie is the thrilling twists and turnsthat the viewer can even feel, it will keep you at the edge of yourseat, making you want more and more and I can't complain about theending except I would've knocked out the last 5 minutes. But nothingreally to complain about there, still great. The suspense level goeshigh when we finally do see who the bomber is. The reason I knocked offtwo stars for this great modern science-fiction tale is because thecheesiness and the ending. Yes, I know, bad points but the experienceCOULD have been a little better. But 9 is a great score otherwise.8/10.

Ty Burr

19 May 2012

I'm still not sure what "source code'' means here. I suspect the actors, the director, and the screenwriter haven't a clue either. But the thing keeps you watching.

19 May 2012

Pleasantly Surprised

This review is from: Source Code (Amazon Instant Video) I was spending a lazy Saturday at home and decided to rent Source Code as it hasn't come out on Netflix yet. It was really quite good. Nice story line, not at all predictable, and great special effects. Highly recommend!

Gary Wolcott

18 May 2012

Whether you are a fan of science fiction or not, this is a great movie and is - ironically - the best offering in the genre since director Duncan Jones' 2009 masterpiece Moon.

18 May 2012

Makes no sense but I rather liked it.

Mysterious agent - Jake Glyllenhall, has to repeatedly go back in time to relive the last minutes of a commuter train before it is destroyed in an explosion. The time window he can go back is limited. When he returns to the present he gives all the information he has deduced to his handlers. All trips back in time begin with him talking to an acquaintance - Michelle Monaghan. The charm factor of the two leads is quite high and probably what makes this movie go down so well. Good thrills and heart felt tragedy as well.Fans of reality based thrillers - please note - the laws of physics, thermodynamics, time, and common sense are rudely violated along the way.

barry_rapchick

17 May 2012

Dull and just plain ordinary

Even though it is clearly derivative of movies like 12 Monkeys,Groundhog Day and Deja-Vu, Source Code is the sort of movie that isjust up my alley. I'm willing to overlook unoriginality in many cases,if the movie is thought provoking, suspenseful and engaging. Going intothis, I hoped for a Hitchcockian flavour, with plenty ofedge-of-your-seat tension and red herrings. What I got wasexceptionally dull and ordinary.Duncan Jones, director of the overrated Moon, fails here, but the realproblem is the terrible bare-bones screenplay, which doesn't even tryto trick you into thinking it has depth. An effective thriller of thistype, the sci-fi puzzle-box, allows the audience to contemplate themystery along with the protagonist, experiencing the clues in much thesame way as the characters we are invested in. But here, out of ourlist of suspects, all but one are just average Joes at best. We learnnothing about them, and have absolutely no reason to suspect them.There is hardly any subtlety or suspense in Source Code. Ourprotagonists method for catching the bomber is nothing moresophisticated than accosting and accusing them and trying to wrestleaway their bags. Each time bounce should bring us deeper into themystery, but with each iteration only two things happen. Firstly, heengages in more chit-chat with his female companion, and then secondlyhe goes off and, without a shred of evidence, accuses another randompassenger. Utter rubbish.There is little to recommend here. As a supposed riveting sci-fithriller, Source Code is a dismal failure and gets a generous 4 out of10.

Peter Keough

16 May 2012

At the very least, the film exceeds by several magnitudes the emotional and philosophical intensity of such similar metaphysical amusements as Avatar and Inception.

jukkasa

16 May 2012

A decent thriller... until the last 10 minutes

Source Code is a strange movie. It's not really a whodunit, it's notreally a sci-fi flick, and it's not really a love story either.The whodunit part was merely filler - the mystery is solved after thevery first steps. Where is the bomb? Is it here? Oh.. it was. Well,who's the villain then? Is it, perhaps, this guy? It was? Uh, okay.The love story is equally unconvincing. Remember, we're talking about aromance that develops a total of eight minutes. There's no real reasonfor them to fall in love either. Colter apparently started liking herjust because they sat opposite to each other. The love story is thusalso a sideshow.The sci-fi parts are unconvincing and worse, illogical. If Colter isviewing another man's experiences, wouldn't he only know what the manalso knew? How can he step outside the train? The "Source Code" itselfis explained shruggingly through "quantum mechanics". You know, sciencystuff. Also, computers. Cue sci-fi fans rolling their eyes.If you can suspend disbelief enough and somehow look past the glaringplot holes, Source Code could have been an average 7/10-star sci-fithriller.. if not for the bizarre ending. In the last 10 minutes, allof the logic and rules that the movie has been building up so far getcompletely thrown out the window for no good reason whatsoever.Instead of letting Colter have his last moments of peace before aninevitable death (effectively making a point that we all must diesomeday, so you might as well make your last moments beautiful andworth dying for), the movie takes an absurd leap into nonsense.Apparently this ending - though beautiful and powerful - would've beentoo dark, so instead Colter somehow jumps to an alternate universe,where he takes over the body of another man (effectively killing him inthe process, but the movie ignores this moral dilemma) and somehownothing bad actually happened.Somehow Colter was right all along and you *can* alter the laws andtimelines of the universe with the love of an imagined 8-minuteromance, and to top it all off, he sends an e-mail from his dream to areal cell phone in an alternate universe.What point is the movie trying to make here, exactly?Nothing makes any sense. I'm betting this movie was pre-screened to atest audience who thought the ending was too dark, so they quicklypieced together a happy ending at any cost. One that completelydestroys any point and/or sense the movie was trying to make.Without the last 10 minutes this film would've been an average 7/10. Asit is now, I give it a 4/10 due to internal inconsistencies usuallyseen in cheap daytime TV-productions.

rogerdarlington

16 May 2012

Exciting and entertaining - but don't think too much

Inevitably, "Source Code" will be compared with "Groundhog Day" sinceboth deploy the same plot device of repeating the identical time periodwith slight but important differences. However, whereas "Groundhog Day"obviously replays a 24-hour slot and is a whimsical comedy, "SourceCode" revisits an eight-minute slice and is a sci-fi thriller.At the heart of "Source Code" and rarely off the screen is the verywatchable Jake Gyllenhaal as US Army captain Colter Stevens whose taskis to prevent a dirty bomb exploding in Chicago. On either side of thecode are two women: mission controller Captain Colleen Goodwin, playedby Vera Farmiga (who was so good in "Up In The Air"), and fellow trainpassenger Christina Warren, portrayed by Michelle Monaghan (whom I lastsaw in "Mission: Impossible III").Writer Ben Ripley has come up with an intelligent and intriguingscript, although - like so many sci-fi movies located in our world - itdoes not pay to analyse it too much, while British director DuncanJones (who once went by the name Zowie Bowie) has translated this intoa taut tale that is both exciting and entertaining.

Mick LaSalle

13 May 2012

A thriller that takes a science fiction premise and uses it, not for the sake of splashy effects, but as a doorway into the human soul.

RichardL

13 May 2012

Nice SciFi film

This film makes you think and has some twists and turns. Definitely recommended! Ending was unexpected. I don't think this was offensive to injured veterans like another reviewer mentioned. This is fiction.

13 May 2012

great fun movie for up and coming sci fi director

This review is from: Source Code [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray) Like an action version of "Ground Hog Day" Duncan Jones' "Source Code" offers action and suspense in a clever way. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone interested in sci-fi.

12 May 2012

One of the Few Movies I'd Give 5 Stars

I was skeptical at first, given Jake Gyllenhaal was the star of the movie, but I gave it a shot. Boy, am I glad I did. This movie is intelligently written, directed, acted in. What more could you ask for, in an age where special effects often take precedence over quality acting? Seriously, buy the movie already.

hfeldst

10 May 2012

Terrific Job by Jake G.

"Source Code" is a twisty action-thriller with elements of "Inception" and "Groundhog's Day". Directed by Duncan Jones, this is an exciting and suspenseful film that is anchored by a terrific Jake Gyllenhaal. His performance alone, sells the story. When Mr. Gyllenhaal wakes up on a commuter train, he is in the body of another man. Initially confused, he slowly remembers why he is there. Sitting across from him is Michelle Monaghan, who once again plays the pretty love interest in peril. She has become quite adept at these roles and here, performs admirably. Apparently Mr. Gyllenhaal is a soldier taking part in a Government experiment to stop a terrorist from blowing up a train. As the audience, we learn along with him as plot points are slowly revealed. Overseeing the experiment is Vera Farmiga as his "handler" and Jeffrey Wright as the creator of the "source code". There is a lot of sci-fi mumbo jumbo as to how the source code works but even if it goes over your head, you can sit back and enjoy the ride. Beyond the four leads, the rest of the cast is fairly unknown so that makes figuring out the identity of the bomber all the more fun. Usually a name actor will make it pretty obvious but that's not the case here which really helps propel the story. I can't say enough how natural and believable Mr. Gyllenhaal is in the role of Colter Stevens. He really makes you root for the character and believe the situation, even when it gets fairly unbelievable.

Brandon Fibbs

10 May 2012

Screenwriting teachers will tell you that if you don't hook your audience in the first 10 minutes, you've lost them for the full two hours. Director Duncan Jones and writer Ben Ripley have crafted a thriller that does it in only eight.

10 May 2012

Nice SciFi

This review is from: Source Code (Amazon Instant Video) This was a great movie that kept me interested and entertained the whole way through. I'm not going to go into deal as I'll let the plot do that when you watch it. The movies concept is original enough and the characters are well done. There are some nice things at the end of the movie that tickled a tear gland for me. I liked this flick.

DTKinetic

10 May 2012

Beautifully Exceeds Expectations

I walked in the theater expecting another Vantage Point...with justboring repetitions of the same crime scene, but the movie is fulfillingin so many other themes as well as having much more involvement that itwas a pleasant surprise to go see it.Okay...I will admit, that the first 3 scenes or so arereally...average. EXACTLY what you expect, even the explosion is donein a quick/rushed nondramatic and unconvincing manner. But one thing I enjoyed was that just about each time when Gyllenhaal'scharacter gets sent back into the train via the Source Code, how1)There's a different objective 2) There a subtle changes to pay attention to 3) Achieving that objective often plays out awkwardly and comically. Going back into the train felt like an I-Spy game or even likeGoosebumps books where you choose different endings. This part of themovie feels really free and loose, and Gyllenhaal really takesadvantage that he knows he can do just about ANYTHING in this reality,though knows he has a goal to pursue--which may be more challengingthan it seems.More predicaments, twists, character involvement and additional plotsoccur, too many of them do, so they're not all predictable. Also, thismovie was truly emotional towards the end. It delves into what it meansto live life to the fullest and to experience happiness.What I must admit also though...is that the ending took off the"perfect 10" star for me. A forceful moment in the storyline near theend was so perfect that you'll wish that was the ending, but instead,the story continues for an extra 5-10 minutes, in a fashion thatprovokes questions and confusion, and the real ending is definitely notas satisfying.BUT...the movie was still largely a great, and surprisinglyentertaining ride, and a nice runtime too. The end WILL suit you betterif you don't sit down and analyze it too hard. My theater, roommate andI all had fun.