42
Metascore
33 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaPhiladelphia InquirerSteven ReaThe film, in its early going, also has a nice light humor about it, and an engaging, albeit tragic, love story.
- 60The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe A.V. ClubKeith PhippsMachine makes its look-to-the-future-not-the-past message as clear as a Grammy acceptance speech, but as an exploration of regret and the elusive quality of time, it falls well short of "Memento," another film starring a sad-eyed Pearce.
- 60Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonAmazingly stilted before accelerating into its exciting finish.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleThere's something wrong with a time-travel movie that allows an audience's interest to drift so that we have time to worry over where he's parked, and whether he remembered to take his key.
- 50Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanDeliberately quaint and old-fashioned, a once-over-slightly exercise in nostalgic wonder directed by the British-born great-grandson of H.G. Wells, who treats the spirit of his ancestor's novel with literal-minded fealty.
- 50Washington PostStephen HunterWashington PostStephen HunterWeirdly disjointed and uncertain as to tone.
- 40The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThis uninviting and pallid version, starring Guy Pearce, is intent on grinding all the sharp edges off the original story, in effect making the movie childproof, so no one can get hurt touching it.
- 40VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyBreaks down when it gets to the distant future, which in this case isn't a good place to be stranded.
- 38Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertA witless recycling of the H.G. Wells story from 1895, with the absurdity intact but the wonderment missing.
- 38New York Daily NewsJack MathewsNew York Daily NewsJack MathewsWells' vision of the distant future is cartoonishly simplistic without the subtext of British class consciousness that informed the novel.