Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

Plot

Ray (Chris O'Dowd) has been fired from his job as a costumed guide in a theme park attraction called "Star Ride". Ray's good friends Pete (Dean Lennox Kelly) and Toby (Marc Wootton) work at the theme park restaurant and they all decide to go to a cinema and pub after they leave.

Ray meets an American girl named Cassie (Anna Faris) who claims to have a time machine built into her body and whose job is to find and repair "time leaks" and stop "editors". Understandably, Ray's friends have some trouble believing her.

However, they end up traveling back and forth through time within the pub. Hints about their journey appear in different time stops. They meet a second time traveler, named Millie (Meredith MacNeill). Cassie is told about Millie and is immediately suspicious, with good reason. Cassie's time machine is taken offline and she finally meets Millie. Millie makes Toby an offer to die and be a legend which, of course, he refuses.

At the end of the movie, the three friends walk home wondering about the events in the pub when Cassie appears through a big glowing portal. She reveals that they have only fourteen hours to save the Earth (a reference to the film Flash Gordon), and urges them to go with her to a parallel universe.

Cast

Home media

The DVD was released on 7 September 2009 in the UK.

Production

The film is a co-production between HBO Films and BBC Films. It was filmed at Pinewood Studios in the UK. The credits of the film include thanks to "The Wheatsheaf Pub".

Design

The opening credits appear in outline block letters in light blue against the background of space, in the same style as the Superman films.

Reception

Critical reception has been mixed. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of 40% based on twenty professional reviews.

Empire magazine concludes "Quirky and engaging with a script that keeps you on the ride." The review for the Daily Mirror's verdict was: "This engaging comedy feels like a stretched-out TV pilot, but is nicely put together, with enough laughs to make a refreshing change from usual Brit film fare."

The Irish Times described it as a "mildly diverting yarn" but was critical of the small scale of the film and the apparently limited budget. Peter Bradshaw reviewed the film for The Guardian and said that it was "the worst film of the week, a dire British comedy, to which the only honest response is to soil and then set fire to the Union flag in the foyer of your local cinema."