Source Code [DVD]

Sciene fiction is a well worn genre and with all the technology available to the general public these days, its hard to be excited by another not too distant future thriller. Where Source Code succeeds is in its simplicity. The concept is delivered quickly and firmly. The dead have an 8 minute window of memory which can be utilised by sending someone back through that parallel time (The Source Code) to see the sequence of events in the final moments of that persons life. The story involves going back over the same eight minutes on a train moments before a bomb explodes. What could have been a tedious and repetative experience was actually skillfully crafted. Once the bare bones of the situation has been established each segment starts with a quick flash of the same beats before the main character (Colter) jumps into action. The film works by not spoon feeding you details. It quickly moves from one beat to the next. Characters come and go and are mostly inconsequental, but all are relevant to building the mystery surrounding the explosion. Colter must use each segment to investigate a different passenger. Whilst the story rattles ahead we still get small moments of back story and revelations which brings the two protagonists to life. Their fate is already determined and held in the spirals of time, but there is still a nagging feeling that everything really will be okay. On this evidence Duncan Jones is fast becoming a director to watch. His previous effort was the smaller scale, but no less high concept, Moon. He has now proven that he has the action chops to enter the hollywood fray. This film proves that not all blockbusters need to be long and brainless. Whilst this wont really be taxing the grey matter too much, at a slim 90 minutes, you really wont care. An enjoyable, refreshing and fast paced thriller.

This is a film that requires a brain to fully enjoy.
Although I like the transporter movies and other brainless action films, every now and then a very good "brain" film comes along to do the impossible-i.e. wake up the brain cells;be entertaining; generate suspense.Some films try to do this and end up pretentious twaddle.But this one is successful.A heavily decorated former Army helicopter pilot who remembers flying his comrades into battle in the Afghan War,"wakes up" with a lurch on a commuter train in the USA.He is seated opposite a "girl next door" type of young woman who is talking to him as though she knows him.But he doesn't know who she is;where he is; and what the hell is going on.
He sees his reflection in the train's window briefly and gets a shock, causing him to go to the toilet to verify what he thinks he saw.Peeking into the mirror in the toilet he sees another man i.e. someone who does not look at all like he thinks he does.In his pockets he finds the man's picture and i.d. and these confirm that the individual on the i.d. is not him.What is going on?
Gradually, as the girl chitchats wondering if he is feeling ok,he looks at his new environment which is soon rocked by a gigantic explosion killing the passengers on the train.
But he "wakes up" in an altogether different place talking to a military officer who questions him about the bomb on the train.As things are slowly revealed, he is told that he is being "sent" onto the train to find out and neutralise the bomber who is threatening an even bigger explosion with a nuclear device in a major city.The train bomb is just the distraction for the more important device.His mission is to find the bomber and prevent the second device from ever being used even it means sacrificing the train.But, he only has an 8 minute window to achieve this before the train bomb blows.Every time he tries he finds out something more until inevitably the bomb goes off.

But they are able to send him back for a few tries.Of course he is also trying to find out why him?The story is very good and challenging.Some clues are dropped in here and there,and there are twists and shocks about who he is and how he got to be doing this which he eventually discovers.
This is not like other films, and it merits close attention.

Source Code is an excellent film; inventive, well paced, and well acted. It is obviously fairly low budget (as betrayed by some slightly ropey CGI in places), but despite this it is more entertaining than many Hollywood blockbusters that must have cost millions more. Ordinarily, it would be a four star film for me, but I am reviewing not just the film here, but the Blu-Ray disc release, and I have a major gripe with this release that leads me to dock a star...

Optimum releases used to include trailers for their other releases in the extras menu. I have no problem with this, as it gives the user the choice as to whether they want to watch these trailers or not. Recently though, I have noted a trend towards movie trailers being included which play before the main menu, with skip/forward options being disabled. This is annoying but I guess I can just about tolerate it. What I cannot tolerate however, is the presence of product advertising (in this case chocolate and chewing gum) at the start of the disc, again with the skip options being disabled. I paid a lot of money for this disc, and I really really object that Optimum thinks it is acceptable to make me pay to watch product adverts. It is shameless corporate greed, and I will boycott their products in future if they do not change their ideas.