Mixed tape movies:Time machines

In the eighties it was the-thing-to-do to make a mixed tape (like an mp3 but touchable, always in need of a pencil and definitely cooler). On it you would make a little playlist of all the cool songs. Now the trick was to make each song correspond with the rest of the tape. In this post I will try to do the same with movies.

Every once in a while I will select a general topic and select movies to accompany it. As you can see the more child-friendly movies are at the start of the day, but  when night falls: ‘here be monsters’. Please feel free to give suggestions of other unknown movies.

One rule though: Auteur themes like ‘Shakespeare’ or ‘James Bond’ are not allowed. ‘Spy-movies’, naturally, are.

Theme: Time machines.

For this entry I wanted to focus on time travel by use of a time machine. Naturally there are a whole lot of time travel movies out there; but when you ask a person they usually can’t remember anything other than Back to the future (which I left out of this list). So here are several noteworthy time travel movies. 

08:00-10:00

The blue yonder: A boy wants to meet his grandfather and save him from an airplane disaster. A Disney feel good as only Disney can make them.  It’s very hard to find nowadays but if you do you will be rewarded with Peter Coyote at his absolute charming (for all the kids who hated the guy in E.T.).

10:00-12:00 
Bill and Ted’s excellent adventure: EXCELLENT. I always preferred the sequel. But that doesn’t mean that this first outing doesn’t has its charms. Just seeing those historical figures going wild in an ‘80s mall or old Abe Lincoln being awesome. It’s just so much silly fun.

12:00-14:00

Time bandits:I honestly believe that movies aimed at children are far more brutal than anything horror can deliver. Time bandits is the ultimate example with one of the strangest endings I ever had to witness. But apart from that this is one great adventure ride from beginning to (almost) end. 

14:00-16:00 

The time machine: The true classic. Based on the original book by H.G. Wells (and actually a rather accurate adaptation) it tells the ongoing tall of upper and lower classes. But there’s more: The Time machine uses various movie tricks to ‘speed up’ time. It’s an effects movie that actually still holds up today. Now let’s all just pretend that this movie was never remade –ever.

On the Dvd extras the original actors of this movie did a little scene set (obviously

– based on their age) several decades after the original movie.

It’s actually a rather fun scene that enriches the original movie. 

16:00-17:00

Time after time: Jack the Ripper versus H.G. Wells – that’s all you need to know.

Plus it features Mary Steenburgen – that woman has a soft spot for time travellers.

It is a charming little thriller of a man out of his dept/time trying to defeat an ruthless evil. The ending might be a bit convenient but that’s only one nitpick of a classily made good-guy chasing bad-guy routine.  

17:00-19:00

The Avengers: Season 5, Episode 3 Escape in Time:

I’m cheating with this one (Spoiler: no real time travel) but because this is my absolute favourite episode of the Avengers I’m putting it in. A crook sells other criminals the possibility to hide from the heat in the past. Once there those poor buggers get murdered by the forefathers of the crook. Steed and Peel go to investigate.

19:00-21:00

Primer:The modern-day classic and a great mindf*ck nmovie. Three men invent a time machine for their own financial gain. Soon they realize that the power they hold is more than they –or their friendship- can bear. 

21:00-23:00 

Timecop: The muscles from Brussels in one of his most charming roles. He actually gets to act a bit in this one which is nice. As always a good good versus bad movie depends on the leads. Jean Claude van Damme is wonderful as our ‘goody two shoes’ and Ron Silver is brilliant as the villain. A villain with one of the most memorable sociopathic quotes in movie history: "What's the big deal? Point it, pull the trigger... and, boom, somebody dies".

23:00-01:00
Twelve monkeys: Time travel bureaucracy. I always enjoyed how strange the powers that be are in this movie - as they sent poor Bruce Willis into the past.

Apart from Bruce and the (absolutely bonkers brilliant) Pitt it is also one of the few time travel movies that actually manages to slot into place. In the end you, the viewer, realize the bigger picture. It’s not something the director Terry Gilliam likes to do often but by doing so here he has managed to create his most accessible movie. 
 
01:00-03:00 
Time crimes: A nice little time travel movie that borrows heavily from the concept of ‘recurring events’. I like it a lot. Mainly because in the end it all fits so nicely (like Triangle does). A man goes to investage something he didn't quite see through his binoculars and then everything becomes strange.

Honorable mentions: 
Back to the future - Of course I have to mention this one. But since the trilogy is so well known (rightfully so)  I decided to go for the more obscure ones.