The hardest part of making a movie that always Groundhog Day its way backwards is keeping each leap fresh for the viewer. Source Code did an admirable job of this. Sadly, in everything else it pretty much failed. The logic of the time travel and parallel dimensions breaks down under scrutinization. Plus naming this technique "source code" is just confusing if you know anything about computers. It's 2011, we're pretty computer savvy; maybe they should have named it something else. The idea of source coding (in the film) is neat but come up with a semi-original name at least. Imagine if "Inception" had been titled "Implant" or "Idea." Lame.
Luckily Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga are really charismatic actresses and Jake Gyllenhaal gets another notch on his mediocre blockbuster belt. And there was a Russell Peters sighting! I've been wondering what Peters has been up to and in a break out role he plays...a comedian. Whatever, a man's gotta make moves right? Overall this was just entertaining movie hopping fodder that could have been so much better. Sigh.
I do have to note that the idea of sending someone backwards in time to fix things in the present is something I've been wondering about since 12 Monkeys. See, in college, I had this long argument with a friend over how any way you cut it, Bruce Willis' character would have ended up saving the world. Or at least successfully completing his mission. What we saw for the duration of the movie was just a few almost there attempts but the credits rolled before Willis actually got things right. However, because he was able to be repeatedly sent back, there was really no chance of failing. Actually just re-watch 12 Monkeys instead of Source Code. It's a far better movie.
