Source Code Reviews

A bit like Inception, but not really the same. Really thrilling story. And the ending became quite predictable when I was in the middle of the film.

Source Code shouldn't be as bad as it is. It has a relatively interesting and unique (if slightly gimmicky premise), and has some great ideas up it's sleeve. The problem here, is that Source Code also has it's share of terrible ideas and obvious flaws that send this initially entertaining action flick into a downward spiral that progressively gets worse until the film closes.

The premise behind Source Code is that a man named Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, on a train. Completely confused, Colter panics until the train ultimately explodes. He awakens again in a capsule, where he is informed through a monitor that he has the ability to inhabit other people's body through a process called Source Code. Through Source Code, Colter lives the person's last 8 minutes in order to discover information.

The plot is a bit more involved and complicated then that, but everything is so convoluted and tedious, it seems pointless to explain the rest of it.

The idea here is quite unique. I like the premise. The problem here is execution. There are so many ideas that aren't utilized or aren't fully utilized that could've made this a much more intelligent, suspenseful, and engaging experience.

Instead, the plot intricacies trips Source Code, and the film not only becomes flawed, but broken. There are obvious things overlooked by the characters, some contradictions, even a few plot holes. And if you aren't rolling your eyes or feeling somewhat frustrated by the cheap, cheesy, sequel-begging ending, then you've fallen for the gimmick.

Plot details are simply way too similar to other movies. Character revisits the same 8 minutes repeatedly. Sounds like Groundhog Day. Character wakes up in a body where he doesn't know who he is. Sounds like The Bourne Identity. And if the word Inception isn't screaming in your face when Colter, while in someone else's mind, gets hit by a train when lying on the train tracks, then you've clearly never seen Inception.

The fact is, Source Code is not only a bad film. It's a rip off of other, often better films. It's insulting, and it doesn't make for a good film.

The act of returning to the same 8 minutes quickly becomes repetitive. And while there's a "carrot" at the beginning of the film (knowledge of what's going on) to keep you interested for the first couple of "re-visits," the experience quickly grows tiring and dull.

The acting isn't particularly good. Jake Gyllenhaal delivers a passable performance as the distraught main character, Colter Stevens. Vera Farmiga does much the same as the seemingly robotic (in character, not in acting) Goodwin. Michelle Monaghan poorly acts the obligatory love interest, Christina, and Jeffery Wright as Dr. Rutledge uses a ridiculously hammy and over-the-top voice just begging for mockery.

The score by Chris Bacon isn't bad, but it's too generic to be anything but mediocre. The main titles show promise, but the rest of it is generic and goes overboard on electronics.

While Source Code starts off with potential, it quickly becomes a mess. Convoluted plot, hammy acting, rip offs from other films and an insultingly terrible ending left me not only disappointed, but disgusted. Source Code has it's share of thrills early on, but after half an hour, the whole film drags, leaving a potentially fresh and enjoyable film in a cacophony of improbability and blunt stupidity.

A 100% engaging and suspenseful thriller with an emotional core, a pitch perfect cast and some exciting action sequences, but not too many. This sci-fi film doesn't rely on special effects for entertainment, but rather *shock horror*, on story! On that, it delivers, being highly intellectual even if it uses rediculous science. Yet, for its sci-fi concept, it never feels silly and by the end of it I felt highly satisfied, albeit slightly mind-blown.

I think, if you completely suspend belief and just enjoy the movie as it's presented, it's actually a mostly decent action/thriller/drama movie. If you start picking it apart, yes, it definitely falls apart, so I chose to suspend belief and just sit back and enjoy the story for what it was because I do enjoy both Jake Gyllenhaal and Vera Farmiga. It's a movie about time travel, about a man who wants to try and change the past but is told he can't...and what happens if and when he does try. And for that, it's an okay movie.

What an intregering idea thi sfilm brings: go back in time, not to change the past - but to save the coming future! Liked it very much!

This is a very enjoyable film. Only problem I think is that it takes so long for the audience to understand what's going on that you don't get to enjoy it as much up until the last half hour. Still, the idea is great and it's a high quality big production.

Source Code is a great sci-fi movie which explores travels on time and parallels realities through a very simple premise, but never ceasing to be puzzling and intriguing. The scriptwriter, Ben Ripley, doesn't make many ceremonies to quickly explore the pretext of the repetition of the narrative, discovering the mechanisms of the pump or by placing the characters off the train. Some parallel actions, such as the gun, end up having less potential, but they don't undermine the progress of the narrative. Too bad the ending is sugar water, that need to deliver a happy ending to leave the viewer satisfied at the end, which is not always necessary. It is still an above well average film, engaging, dynamic and efficient.

I've been looking forward to the Source Code but it's been a big disappointment, there's no other way to say it.
I loved the opening: Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, an Air Force captain that wakes up in a train without knowing how he got there. On the train there's a girl talking like they were friends and calling him "Sean". He tries to explain her he's not Sean but she seems not to understand why he's saying so. Stevens decides to go to the toilet and then looks at the mirror...
I thought it was great, enough to catch my attention. But as the movie went on, the mistery got releaved and I found out what really the Source Code is, I found myself in front of the most absurd theory I ever heard. Every sci-fi story is invented and incredible, it's fiction after all, but basically uses a pseudo-scientific theory that could look plausible. This movie uses the old story of time paradoxes rules, immutable vs. alternate timelines, and puts on them The Source Code, that is something really absurd.
Anyway, I decided to enjoy the human drama side of the movie. In fact, Stevens does his best to rescue the girl and maybe everyone else, even when he finds the truth. And I tried to enjoy the action movie, made of good scenes but with some little flaws, for example I could tell about twenty minutes before the protagonist who the attentator was, and those twenty minutes has been really annoying. Moreover there's no point in leaving your wallet in a train that was going to burn out and make ashes of everything, hoping someone will find it and think you were in there.
It's not I'm too hard to please, but from a big production like this I was asking a little more. Like another ending, not so predictable like that.
I liked Vera Farmiga instead. She's not doing that much in the story, but she's been able to look like a light guiding Stevens from where he is, while Jake Gyllenhaal performance has been good but not great.

It started out as a good movie, but turned obvious. I gave it 6 stars because it was worth seeing. The ending was an after thought, or so it appeared.

Yeah it almost impressed me, but it didn't. The story was defiantly cool and original. The action was good. The twist and turns down the road kept me interested, but towards the end it just seemed to loose touch and I was kind of dissapointed because I was enjoying it. I do like Jake Gyyenhaal a lot and I am glad he's not doing another Prince of Persia movie. It seemed like with a small idea they ran out of ideas and twists towards the end, just didn't live up at all to the beginning.