Source Code

This reasonably clever lil sci-fi thriller wants to have been directed by The Hitch…or maybe to have taken place in The Twilight Zone. It’s a interesting premise done with conviction, especially by Jake Gyllenhaal as the displaced and desperate Army pilot tasked with averting a terrorist incident on a Chicago commuter train. The small budget is all on screen but a couple of the effects betray it’s size. The music definitely takes it’s cues from the soundtracks of many an Alfred Hitchcock film. And the climax, while making sense for the story, seems a wee bit underwhelming. But over all, for the second film by David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones (his first being the criminally under-seen ‘Moon’), it’s a decent and reasonably smart addition to the intelligent science fiction genre. As ‘time-wasters’ go…this one is a safe bet.