Tick Tock

Uh, oh. Time is running out. Is it running out on Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), a combat veteran in the 2011 movie Source Code, who finds himself involved in some governmental experiment in which he loops through time in order to discover who bombed a commuter train? Well, yes. But it's also running out on me, who must get an entry up about all the movies I watched this year before I can post the end-of-the-year summary. I had intended to put Source Code into a Shorties entry, because there isn't that much to say about it, but 2015 is rapidly coming to a close, so here we are.

In a twisted version of Groundhog Day, Stevens keeps reliving the eight minutes before a bomb is detonated on a train, and is tasked by the agent (Vera Farmiga) communicating with him through...methods with discovering the identity of the bomber. The majority of the rest of the movie is him doing just that, and also having to balance the interactions with the other passengers, from a rude stand-up comic to the pretty woman (Michelle Monaghan) flirting with the guy whose body he's inhabiting to carry out his mission.



It's not a bad little thriller, though parts of it are woefully overwritten. Why not just make the movie about time travel, and not wedge in needless romances and conspiratorial scientists? Why build in a silly and unnecessary twist ending? If you're stuck at home on a rainy afternoon, and are looking for something to watch, I suppose you could do a lot worse than this. That said, my official stance on this movie that's supposed to be heart-poundingly exciting is an indifferent shrug.

Source Code: B-