“Time travel. It’ll turn your brain into spaghetti if you let it.”
What’s it all about? When Ray (Chris O’Dowd) is fired from his job at a local theme park, he and his two friends Pete (Dean Lennox Kelly) and Toby (Marc Wootton) go down the pub to commiserate. Oh, and then there’s the whole time vortex in the bathroom stall. I almost forgot about that. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT TIME TRAVEL also stars Anna Faris as Cassie.
I have a thing for stories about time travel. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have caught on about that fact. So, when I found out that Chris O’Dowd (THE IT CROWD) was in a movie where his life’s goal is to be a Time Lord (DOCTOR WHO), I fell over myself trying to get a copy of the DVD. FAQ ABOUT TIME TRAVEL turned out to be a light, amusing addition to the time travel filmscape. It’s definitely something to check out on a Sunday afternoon if you’re in for an adventure that’s a bit like DOCTOR WHO meets SHAUN OF THE DEAD — but with 1/10th the budget and 1/3rd the laughs.
Ray (O’Dowd) and Toby (Wooton) think that “nerd is the word used to keep [them] down”. Instead, they suggest to their friend Pete (Kelly) — who constantly ridicules the two for being, well, nerds — that he should use the term “Imagineer”. It’s with this that the three start complaining about Jude Law, referencing “FIREFLY and/or SERENITY” and drinking pints. It all seems like a pretty normal night out for group of, er, Imagineers until Anna Faris appears out of nowhere as the over-eager Cassie. For some reason she’s incredibly excited to meet Roy, who she calls Roy the Great. She also says she’s from the future and travels through time repairing “leaks”. It’s alarming. Thinking his friends are pulling a prank on him for being obsessed with time travel, Roy ignores Cassie’s exaltations and returns to Toby and Pete with the next round of drinks. But they weren’t pranking Roy. Cassie is a time traveller and, soon, so will Roy, Pete and Toby.
With references to DOCTOR WHO, BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III, ALIENS, FLASH GORDON, THEM!, SUPER MARIO BROS. and many others, FAQ ABOUT TIME TRAVEL isn’t as bogged down in popular culture as you might expect; I was actually somewhat disappointed they didn’t throw in a couple more. But the amusing script is filled with memorable exchanges between the time travellers, much like this:
Toby, in a closet: Wait a minute. What’s this? I can feel fir trees. There’s a whole ‘nother world back here — with snow and fawns and talking lions!
Pete: Is there?!
Toby: No.
Pete: Dick. I love Narnia.
FAQ ABOUT TIME TRAVEL features a “time machine” that’s actually a men’s bathroom stall in an English pub. The boys think it works by singing and dancing half-heartedly to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler. If you don’t think that’s funny, you won’t enjoy FAQ ABOUT TIME TRAVEL. Also, if you don’t think that’s funny, I question whether or not you possess a sense of humour.
Notes: Directed by Gareth Carrivick; Produced by Neil Peplow, Justin Anderson Smith; Written by Jamie Mathieson; Starring Chris O’Dowd, Dean Lennox Kelly, Marc Wootton, Anna Faris; Music by James L. Venable; Cinematography by John Pardue; Editing by Stuart Gazzard, Christopher Blunden.
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Dang giiiirl where did you find this movie? I’ve been keeping an eye out for this one for a while and as far as I can tell it only got a UK release. Must I achieve possession of it through subterfuge?
Glad to hear you liked it, also! Sounds like I probably will too.
Borrowed my friend’s UK-region DVD and it took up a “region switch” on my computer. Maybe it’s available on iTunes?
If you don’t want to worry about counting down the regions on your computer’s drive, external DVD-ROM drives can be had for, like, $35 these days; I have one that’s locked to R2 for this very purpose.
Alternately, there are an awful lot of set-top DVD players that can be made region-switchable with a remote-control code. We live in a wonderful, wonderful world.
I have decided to ask for a very expensive Blu-Ray player that also has region-switchable DVD options for Christmas. Where to find that? Hmm. Santa will just have to figure that one out.
Oh I see, I can’t switch the region on my laptop anymore- used it up when I was in Germany. I will look online, since I guess it’s unlikely it’ll get a region 1 release.