Timecrimes (DVD)

Starting off like Rear Window, taking a turn in the direction of Primer and ending up somewhere entirely of its own, Los Cronocrímenes (Timecrimes) is a low-budget film with wholly high-budget ambitions. Nacho Vigalondo's 2007 debut feature is a captivating thriller that takes on questions of predestination and paradox familiar to its time-tripping genre, but does so with style and intelligence that makes it stand out from the field. Set amid the verdant woodland of Cantabria, Timecrimes follows two extraordinary hours in the life of Hector, who has just moved into a new house with his wife, Clara. Taking a break from packing, Hector is reclining in his garden ...  Read the complete review

I don't know where to start with Los cronocrímenes (aka Time crimes) I watched it last night, and I need to watch it again to understand it, except if I do I think my brain will explode. Let's get the basics out of the way, it's Spanish, it was made in 2007 by Nacho Vigalondo who wrote, directed and plays a supporting role. The plot in it's simplest terms concerns Hector (Karra Elejalde)who accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back about an hour in time, setting off a series of seemingly minor mishaps with unforeseeable consequences as he attempts to put things right. Los cronocrímenes is supremely intelligent, taking ideas from just ...  Read the complete review

I'd read good things about this a while back and finally got around to watching it on DVD yesterday. Written, directed and co-starring Nacho Vigalondo (as the lab guy), this 2007 film from Spain tells the story of Hector (Karra Elejalde) who, whilst relaxing in his garden, spots someone on a hill by his house. Upon surveying things through his binoculars he sees that it is a naked young woman. When he climbs the hill to see what is going on he is stabbed in the arm by a figure wrapped in bandages. He escapes to a nearby research facility and whilst hiding gets sent back in time an hour or so. This is when we find out the true identity of the masked ...  Read the complete review

Time travel is a science fiction concept that is well worn and well loved. I always have an issue with it as by its very nature the concept cannot work. If you find out about your future, you have already changed it! The entire concept is a paradox and one that cannot exist in a single timeline; therefore all films, books and TV shows that report to be about one single story of time travel are false! The only way that time travel can work in any sort of linear media is to use the concept of parallel universes; by jumping from one to another you are following one coherent thread and ignoring many others that are not as convenient. This means that there are countless ...  Read the complete review

note: also appears in part on Flixster and The Student Room Nacho Vigalondo's Timecrimes is a very clever time-travel based thriller that has been already copied with the recent film Triangle, but stands by itself as a true original. This Spanish film, due to its subtitled nature, is unlikely to gain the audience it deserves, but it's one of the more inventive and unique thrillers to hit our screens in a while. The film opens with Hector (Karra Elejalde) relaxing with a pair of binoculars, and soon enough, he's stabbed with a pair of scissors by a strange figure dressed in a pink hood and long jacket. Hector makes his escape to come across a ...  Read the complete review