Project Almanac is a likeable, lightweight time-travel thriller for teens
REVIEW: Project Almanac is a likeable, lightweight, teen time-travel thriller that is let down by being filmed with shaky hand-held cameras.
Leigh Paatsch
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Project Almanac (M)
Director : Dean Israelite (feature debut)
Starring : Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Sam Lerner, Virginia Gardner.
Rating : ***
There’s no past like the present
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In Project Almanac, we have a very likeable, if very lightweight, teen time-travel thriller.
A necessarily jumpy story - which is initially harder to follow than it really should be - centres on a young group of friends tentatively pushing their home-made time machine to new and dangerous limits.
It takes ages for the gang to fire up the calendar-hopping contraption which, amongst other things, is comprised of some bits and pieces nicked from an Xbox. Plus some batteries from a popular make of hybrid car.
The wait does indeed prove to be worth it, even if these scientifically advanced all-American youths make some odd choices regarding how to best use their gizmo.
”You have to kill Hitler,” one of them pants excitedly. “That’s like Time Travel 101.”
It is no spoiler to reveal such history-altering high-jinks will not transpire in Project Almanac.
However, there will be a decent play made at winning yesterday’s lottery, and, umm, a group visit to a rather lack-lustre Lollapalooza concert from a few years prior.
The uneven manner in which this movie has been filmed - unfortunately, it’s all shaky hand-held cameras dancing the found-footage tango - could irritate those who might otherwise be thoroughly engrossed by proceedings.
It is hard to work out why first-time filmmaker Dean Israelite went down this stylistic road (which 2012’s underrated Chronicle navigated far more swiftly and smoothly).
The obligation to continually tag who is holding the camera - and often supplying such incisive commentary as “oh my God!” and “did you see that” - does nothing more than squander hard-earned dramatic momentum.
It must be said a generically genial cast of relative unknowns do acquit themselves well amidst the tumult.
There are also some genuinely unpredictable (and even for a film of this calibre, totally unscientific) warps of time that warrant further thought.
Considering this has been produced by notorious Transformers supremo Michael Bay, it could have been a heck of a lot worse.
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Originally published as Project Almanac is a likeable, lightweight time-travel thriller for teens
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