Having watched the original Time Machine, probably more than eleven times growing up, on WGN’s Family Classics, I was really looking forward to seeing this remake. I loved the first one and I thought there was no reason that this one shouldn’t be better. Wrong. I did enjoy it, it just seemed to lack a certain spirit and it wasn’t as fun. The director Simon Wells, could have possibly used a modern Time Machine to help himself out; it’s called a VCR. Simply insert the magnetic tape and you’re transported back to 1960, when the first film came out. He would have found a much better ending, where Alexander’s good friend Filby, puts together all the pieces of a mysterious puzzle and realizes that Alex is not insane and much happier in the future. He would have also found, that in the distant future, humans, at least, look and act a little differently; funny languages just don’t cut it. And lets face it, Samantha Mumba doesn’t hold a candle to Yvette Mimieux.

See this movie for some real cool special effects, for Guy Pearce’s chiseled cheekbones, and for a comic revelation on the laws of Destiny. Otherwise, stick to the original; it’s a classic.