Staff Picks

A 21st Century New York City detective finds himself experiencing a surreal blast from the past when he's struck by a speeding car and transported back to 1973 in this ABC series inspired by the popular British television series of the same name. 2008: Detective Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) is in hot pursuit of a dangerous criminal when he's suddenly run down right in the middle of the street. Subsequently awakening in the same city circa 1973, Detective Tyler is forced to police the streets of a city locked in the cold grip of chaos. The Vietnam War is raging halfway around the world, the Watergate scandal is making headlines across the country, criminals are running the streets, and more than half of the police force is on the take. To make matters even worse, cell phones haven't been invented yet, desktop typewriters have yet to be replaced by the personal computer, and no one has ever heard of such a thing as an MP3 player. Devoid of his high-tech crime fighting equipment and forced to operate under a shady new moral code, Detective Tyler constantly clashes with his new boss at the 125th Precinct. Lieutenant Gene Hunt (Harvey Keitel) is the kind of cop that values brawn over brains, and the other members of the 1-2-5 are just as tough. Detective Ray Carling (Michael Imperioli) may ask few questions, but he's definitely the right guy to have in your corner when the going gets tough. And despite the fact that the women of the police force are still woefully underused, Police Women's Bureau member Annie Norris (Gretchen Mol) is often the smartest person in the room. Annie dreams of the day she'll become a real cop, but the prevailing sexism of the era is preventing that from happening for the time being. Even so, she's the only person that Detective Tyler can turn to as he attempts to regain his bearings and find a way back home. Meanwhile, fresh-faced rookie Detective Chris Skelton (Jonathan Murphy) may clash constantly with Lieutenant Hunt and Detective Carling, yet he proves a valuable ally for Detective Tyler. If Detective Tyler could only find a way back to 2008, he could tell his true love Maya Daniels (Lisa Bonet) about how Annie's workplace battles back in 1973 opened the doors that would allow Maya to become an official member of the force nearly four decades later. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An ordinary guy takes an extraordinary step through time in this science fiction thriller. Hector (Karra Elejalde) is spending a few days in the countryside with his girlfriend, Clara (Candela Fernández), when he sees something that catches his attention while playing with his binoculars. Looking at a nearby house near a wooded area, Hector spies a beautiful woman taking her clothes off, and decides to take a stroll and give her a closer look. However, when he arrives at the house several minutes later, the woman is lying in the grass and appears to either be dead or passed out. As Hector examines her, he's attacked by a strange man and flees on foot. Hector seeks refuge in a building that turns out to be a research facility owned by a mysterious scientist (Nacho Vigalondo), who gives him a place to hide inside a futuristic closet. However, Hector realizes it was actually a time-travel machine when he emerges a few minutes later and looks out the window to see himself standing over the unconscious woman in the distance. Los Cronocrimenes (aka Timecrimes) was the first feature film from writer and director Nacho Vigalondo, who also appears as the scientist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Directing his first film since 1998's Lethal Weapon 4, Richard Donner helmed this big-budget adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel of the same name. Featuring a script by first-time screenwriter George Nolfi, Timeline begins in France in the near future. A group of students from Yale are there studying a medieval site, when their professor, played by Billy Connolly, mysteriously goes missing. To make matters more enigmatic, the students are then taken back to the United States by a shadowy technology company called ITC, led by Robert Doniger (David Thewlis). The eccentric Doniger explains that because of a machine that his company built, their professor is trapped in 14th century France. In order to rescue him, two of the students, Chris Hughes (Paul Walker) and Kate Erickson (Frances O'Connor), along with Andre Marek (Gerard Butler), an archeological site manager, must travel to France, circa 1357, amid archaic war, deadly diseases, and other unexpected pitfalls. Meanwhile, David Stern (Ethan Embry), a third student, stays behind to keep an eye on the shady Doniger. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

The classic science fiction novel by H.G. Wells becomes this big-budget adventure directed by the author's great-grandson Simon Wells. Guy Pearce stars as Alexander Hartdegen, a scientist, professor, and inventor in 1895 New York City who believes that time travel is possible. The sudden and unexpected death of his fiancée spurs Alexander to build a time machine, which he hopes to use in an effort to change the past. When he is unable to change the past, Alexander hurls himself more than 800,000 years into the future, seeking answers about the nature of time, but instead encountering a dystopian world where humanity has divided up into two races, the peaceful Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks. Befriending the beautiful Eloi woman Mara (pop singer Samantha Mumba), Alexander must set out to save her from the underground world of the Morlocks when she is captured by them. Along the way, he is aided by Vox (Orlando Jones), a bio-mechanical being from the 21st century. Ultimately, Alexander makes a shocking discovery about the true nature of the Eloi and Morlocks and decides that the only way to change the future is to alter the present. Due to exhaustion, director Wells was briefly replaced during the last few weeks of production by Gore Verbinski, director of The Mexican (2001). The Time Machine co-stars Jeremy Irons and Mark Addy. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

With only a few days before their high-school graduation, it looks like airheaded rock star wannabes Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are doomed to flunk all their finals. The boys' long-suffering teacher (Bernie Casey) gives them one more chance. If they can ace an oral exam on the topic of how a famous historical personality might react to modern times, they will be allowed to pass. If not, Ted's dad will plunk the boy into military school, thereby breaking up the boys' garage band permanently. Bill and Ted receive unexpected aid from a very unexpected source: Rufus (George Carlin), an Emissary from the Future. It seems that in Rufus' time, Bill and Ted's rock music is the basis of all society-and if their band is aborted, Rufus' world will no longer exist. Thus, Bill and Ted are whisked off in a time machine (actually a telephone booth) to retrieve a few historical characters--including Joan of Arc, Abe Lincoln, Napoleon and Beethoven--as "eyewitnesses" for their crucial oral exam. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure inspired both a sequel (Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey) and a Saturday morning cartoon series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide