Source Code

Three words: Jake Fuckin’ Gyllenhaal. Finally, this handsome man didn't remind me of a steamed chicken, but his subtle charisma pulled the film in both genre positions. As a "mental" detective, he has the necessary energy, like a lover who has his scary softened eyes for eight minutes of love-making. Duncan Jones may not have had the strongest script to work with, but he caught on to the themes that fascinated him back in Moon, making the otherwise fairly ordinary sci-fi thriller into a very chilling spectacle. The hero, isolated and deceived even by the almost Verhoeven-Cronenberg motif of his exploited body - at the end all of this beautifully blew the wind into my sails, turning that rather austere and quickly exhausting story of a return to the past (or the appearance of the past) into a really powerful and quirky film that has no competition this year. If it weren't for the sometimes stupid dialogues and sometimes cheaper visuals, I'd have gone to euphoric heights. (12/04/2011)

Why have I put off the day watching this movie so much? Really interesting subject matter and I have to say that Jake Gyllenhaal surprised me greatly with his performance. A sophisticated script and details that leave you spellbound. I'm giving 5 stars mainly because I'm so confused that as far as I know I could have been in the movie too. I must also point out the brilliant music, which went nicely hand in hand with the plot. The only thing missing was a more elaborate ending. (03/05/2011)

An intelligent, fast-moving genre movie that trips itself up with the concluding emotionless, logic-lacking (the “rules" of virtual realities versus the “rules" of parallel realities) and a five-minute race with no climax. Whether this comes from Jones’ head or a concession from the producers, this is exactly the type of ending that buries any positive impressions. Although the feeling fades over time, but in any case the after-taste remains with you. (03/05/2011)

If I wrote a short story called Source Code and sent it to the contest I submit something to every year, the judges would surely praise me for a fairly original idea and the repetition of the eight-minute scenes on the train, which always brings something new and is imaginatively interspersed with cool metaphorical interludes in the capsule. I'm sure they'd like the characters (I'd try to describe the main character in a way that's as Jake Gyllenhaal-like as possible), and I'm sure they'd be impressed by the absolutely beautiful, gorgeous scene when the world stopped. However, the judges would have a huge problem with what happens in Source Code after this scene. None of them would probably be able to digest the multitude of not only unexplained, but above all unexplainable question marks. And it's all the sadder that such an ending was not necessary at all. The director and screenwriters just wanted to act for a moment that they were making an important film with a big impact, but they forgot that they are not Nolan, who can get away with such excesses. Three and a half. (31/08/2011)

Jake Gyllenhaal is cool, the film has a brisk pace, but my god! In science fiction you can use any crazy idea you want, but it has to stand on sufficiently firm laws, which isn’t the case here. This fictional universe is haphazard from the get go, and let’s not talk about the ending. Taken together, Source Code doesn’t have any climax. The last fifteen minutes could have turned into either an utterly irrelevant and uninteresting filler, or in nonsense, and unfortunately it was the latter. I was really thrilled with Jones’ previous film, Moon, but this is one is just a popcorn movie that squanders a very good premise, which if more refined could have resulted in a sci-fi gem. PS: Before the screening I was almost certain I wouldn’t be disappointed. I’m sorry about the rating. PPS (Spoiler): This film would make a little sense only if I were to accept the hypothesis that the device that works according to clearly explained laws, will work according to completely different laws, and completely differently, and that it will manage generate pure chance, and that by pure chance it will work spontaneously, regardless of the instructions of its creators, who still control it according to the laws they believe it abides to, but actually doesn’t… and I won’t do that :-D (22/04/2011)