Source Code Movie Review

What do you get when you throw terrorism, time travel, and groundhog’s day together? A pretty decent movie actually. Source Code doesn’t require you to understand how the science works, it just works, even with a few quirky and awkward moments here and there, you’ll leave the movie theater pretty satisfied. So lets get to it, the Angry Clown at the movies review of Source Code.

The movie starts off with several shots of Chicago, as well as the train where the majority of this movie takes place. In fact if you ever saw the trailer in theater or online, the first 10-15 minutes is basically just the trailer, really, watch this:

and then watch the first 15 minutes and you’ll know exactly whats going to happen.

So the plot has a terrorist planting two bombs, one has went off on a commuter train, killing everyone on board, and another one in Chicago. In order to figure out who this terrorist is, the government is going to use a new program that lets a operative, Colter Stevens(Jake Gyllenhaal) to go into the body of a deceased person, and try to find clues as to who the terrorist is, that will eventually lead to his arrest before the second bomb goes off. Colter Stevens however isn’t aware of this plan, he is dazed and confused about where he is, how he got there, and what his main goal is. The movie doesn’t explain in the beginning as to why the US government would send an operative into a situation he has no recognition off, especially something so important, but there is a reason for this, it just part of the bigger revelation that comes at the end of the movie.

Assisting Colter Stevens on his mission are Colleen Goodwin(Vera Farmiga), an Air Force officer and Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), the head doctor who came up with the source code project. Both of them throughout the movie are hiding something very important from Colter Stevens, part of the bigger mystery as to what Source Code is and what Colter Stevens has become in order to use it.

Source Code allows Colter Stevens to enter the body of Derek Frost, who died on the train. He has exactly 8 minutes to find information on the second bomb and the terrorist who plans to use it. Along with Derek Frost/Colter Stevens on the train is Christina Warren(Michelle Monaghan), who plays the girl that he will eventually fall in love with, like you didn’t see one that coming. As Jake Gyllenhaal (I’m just going call him Jake rather than typing Derek Frost/Colter Stevens over and over again) is thrown in Source Code over and over again, the details of the conversations changes, his actions changes the events of the people on the train, but he soon realizes that no matter what he does, once eight minutes is up, the Source Code world ends, and then he has to start everything over again.

Each Source Code scenario is very different from another, some scenario focuses on Jake trying to stop the bomb from going off, other focuses on Jake interaction with Christina, and other scenes just focuses on Jake kicking some butt on a few innocent bystanders, has he gets more and more desperate in trying find the actual person behind this, and end this endless Source Code cycle he is forced to endure.

So what is Source Code? will I ain’t going to spoil it for ya, that is the whole point of this movie. While catching the bad terrorist is the main goal of Colter Stevens, the main goal that the movie is aiming for is the revelation of how Source Code actually works, and what kind of sacrifice each character will have to make in order to save lives, and about what Colter Stevens has become in order to be able to use Source Code. The revelation of what Source Code actually is, is done gradually, you should have a few hints here and there as the movie progress. Which leaves the final revelation not very shocking or surprising.

Why yes, I'm willing to die over and over again if I get to see her everytime

Now I like a lot of things in this movie, but there a few things that threw me completely off. One involved how easily Jake got through a padlock by breaking it with a flash-light butt. Another is Russell Peters, yes, Russell Peters is in this movie, and if you don’t who Russel Peter is then this wont be a problem for you. If you know who Russel Peters is however, the first thing you’ll think of when seeing Russell Peters is “HEY!, its Russel Peters!”, and every time he has any screen time, you will just keep on thinking its Russell Peters, and no one else. Heck he even plays a comedian, he even has a stand-up scene at the end of the movie. I think the producer was a huge Russell Peters fan.

So that is my only issues with the movie, I like the acting, I like the plot, and I like the characters. Its really not a complicated movie that require deep thoughts afterwards like Inception, you’ll be able to follow along. Would I suggest watching this movie in the theaters, not really, maybe a rental on Netflix, its okay, but doesn’t really require a full movie going experience to enjoy.