About Time is a Very Bad Movie

You could also have talked about how the main character keeps going back in time to make sure his wife falls in love with him, which takes away a lot of her agency. It's pretty creepy.

There is the short movie "One-Minute Time Machine" which is also kind of a love story. It explores the general topic so much better and only lasts roughly 6 minutes.

dschingisi

I joined Patreon to watch this video <3 <3

xanna

Everyone glosses over the fact that he goes back in time multiple times to figure out how to wow his dream girl in bed. How would anyone feel if they found out their sexual partner had relived the first encounter to perform well and not actually faced the intimate situation head on as you had? I guess it would be flattering on some level to find out how much someone wanted to impress you, but it would also cheapen the memory of that moment and make you doubt the connection you thought you felt.

natesicles

Knew i was depressed but idk if i realized HOW depressed until it hit me that ‘boring wife’ was the first thing to make me smile in over a week

king of hating lighthearted time travel movies

Alixe

I always forget you get extra shit as a patron. I’ve been bored rewatching old videos with a fuckton of new ones just sittin here

as someone who liked this movie, I can honestly say that: all of these critiques/ points are valid XD I would argue that he went from exploring his powers, to realizing that he doesn't need or want them by the end of the movie, and that that's his character growth, but as Henry said, he arrived to that conclusion around halfway through the movie, which makes the appearance of "growth" at the end redundant. Would I watch this movie again? Probably not. Do I regret the ~2 hours I spent one evening watching this with my mom? No. It was something that we could both watch and enjoy, if only for roughly 2 hours. Our taste in TV overlaps a bit, but we struggle finding movies to watch together, and it was nice spending an evening sitting quietly with her on the couch.

BEASBeth

well dang, now I feel awkward liking this movie :x

BEASBeth

I really enjoyed this movie and I'm going to enjoy you covering it as well. Thanks!

loved hearing you talk abt this!

clown2earth

I’m so excited to watch this right now

Brad Ganley

glad to find there are others who share my hatred of this movie. the fact that this guy basically only used his power trying to get this woman pisses me off. like, is she really the right person for you if you have to KEEP redoing stuff to make her like you? been a min since i saw the movie but that's how i remember feeling. anyway great vid

Loved to see this, I actually watched this years ago and remember feeling deeply frustrated and dissatisfied. I think I watched it with my mum and her friend and they enjoyed it and I didn't want to be mean but it really does leave you with a kind of violent hatred. It's such an interesting concept and they're desperately begging you to care... and it's like... the potential to be compelling at least A LITTLE... and it never touches on the idea of like? I think I remember when he tries to propose like three different times and he doesn't realise that she wants them to be alone for it? Doesn't that also open the questions of how well he knows her? Does he ever go back and consider the he isn't that aware of this woman who he supposedly loved? As well as the groundhog day type shit of him feeling he loves and knows her more than she really knows him (Sorry this is such a long comment but on the topic of a groundhog day-esque story I think that the Season 2 episode Try, Try of the new Twilight Zone reboot is a really interesting take on that concept). Anyway thank you for your hatred :)

Would love it if Joel could recommend movies to watch instead of About Time

my mom used to come visit me every year (COVID made that harder) and I remember so distinctly a few years ago how excited she was to show me this movie and how much she loved it, wanted me to love it too -- and how much I was shocked by how utterly terrible it was. The next time she visits, I look forward to sharing this video with her, thank you.

Dan DeFord (The Deekins)

If you haven't seen it, Midnight In Paris is a good romance/time travel/live-in-the-moment kind of movie, if you were looking for one. I think it explores the time-travel thoroughly (or at least places reasonable limits on it) and also has a more unique take on the idea. Funnily enough, it also stars Rachel McAdams? And it's unfortunately a W̶o̶o̶d̶y̶ ̶A̶l̶l̶e̶n̶ film... but I think it's good.

As someone who worked as a server at one of those dark themed restaurants, I got the question "Have you seen "About Time"?" a lot. I finally saw it and I hated it. Glad I'm not the only one.

Rose Kiewitz

As someone whose life is marked by grief, I find this premise- emotionally difficult to think about. The idea of being able to go back, to experience the things I lost with an adult understanding, or perhaps somehow to change the past to avoid the grief at all, is an obsessive, dangerous line of thought, one that will trap me if I allow myself to indulge in it. I love Slaughterhouse Five, which arguably engages with a similar idea, a.) because Billy's form of time travel is more or less just becoming fully engulfed in memory, he can't change anything, and b.) it's a book so marked by melancholy that him being able to find a perfect moment in his life (sleeping in a cart on a sunny day) really feels earned, feels like a victory over a life that is invariably going to be marked by horrors and disappointment.

disk-kun, the mascot for the famicom disk system

i agree that this movie executed the main character's time travel abilities poorly and never showed him developing as a result of these powers or growing to learn the downsides of using this. This movie could learn a lot from the seminal 2006 film "Click", an extremely cerebral and thought provoking piece of cinema in which the main character is very thoughtfully and cleverly shown to eventually regret the ramifications of his manipulation of time through such tragic and compelling situations as getting really fat, fast forwarding through his wife nagging at him, and watching his dogs fuck in fast motion. It's really a timeless classic, you should check that movie out big joel.

Jared Cress

ooooo, I love the Goya painting in the background, there! it's such a beautiful piece.

Bewildered Bee

I mean it does give you the opportunity to experience life forever, a kind of immortality. I guess it’s a personal choice but, I’d use that shit all the time lol

Big Joel

You say this in the video but you don’t seem to appreciate enough that they can only travel back in time to a part of their life they’ve already lived. They aren’t immortal. They can simple “relive” parts of their lives. They don’t have the freedom of time travel. They have the freedom of “do-overs” while being unsure of the greater impact of the “do-overs.” Of course, time travel powers that limited wouldn’t be used often.

Kyle

I joined your patreon just to see you rag on this movie