When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. In an assignment unlike any he’s ever known, he learns he’s part of a government experiment called the “Source Code,” a program that enables him to cross over into another man’s identity in the last 8 minute of his life.
I’m a huge fan of the science fiction genre, be it books, movies or anything related. We haven’t had any decent sci-fi flicks for quite a while so I was looking forwards to Source Code.
The most recent would be The Adjustment Bureau, which was disappointing to say the least. I didn’t really know much about Source Code, I hadn’t read any reviews but I saw it was doing very well on IMDB (currently 7.8/10) – so it seemed like a safe bet.
Thankfully we managed to watch it on opening weekend, so we got to sit in the massive THX screen 1 at TCM GSC, that was nice! As for the movie itself, it was good! I’d say a little better than I expected, even though I am a Jake Gyllenhaal fan (all the way back since Jarhead) – I didn’t expect it to be great.
The movie is basically a one man show, it’s dominated by the lead character Colter Stevens played by Gyllenhaal – and played extremely well I might add.
Vera Farmiga could be considered the supporting actress in the film I guess, there wasn’t really any other character of note apart from Christina Warren played by the very cute Michelle Monaghan. Both played their parts well – although in all honestly they didn’t have that much to do.
The movie is suspenseful, paced brilliantly, shot well and even though the premise of the movie points to repetition the movie is at no point repetitive (unlike other similar movies conceptually – Vantage Point anyone?).
Anyway back to Source Code, the movie is shot well, the score is good without being disprutive and it’s great to see a movie that is original for once.
Yes it’s not based on a book, nor an old movie, nor a comic book, nor a computer game, nor a sequel/prequel/whatever nor a legend etc etc..
It’s an enjoyable sci-fi thriller with a very human element, some people find the film quite moving. It’s well worth watching, especially if you are a fan of the genre – yah it’s no Inception – but it is a mighty fine film.
I give it a solid time-looping 7.5/10.
It was an enjoyable movie, well paced and thought out, but I didn’t understand the end of the movie, after Stevens life support was turned off, how can he be still alive to be in an alternate reality? The scene where they showed Stevens torn body was quite shocking. Vera Farmiga did a great supporting role, much better than Michelle Monaghan. Great movie!