Project Almanac

Project Almanac is Back To The Future meets Chronicle.

A found-footage movie about time travel sounds like a recipe for disaster but the story here is very strong.

First things first: I know found footage isn't for everyone and there are certain grating parts to this (running is always a no-no in a handheld film) but once you're in it does work, the camera here is actually a bit less maniacal than Cloverfield, for example, but this could easily have been done by splicing found footage and regular shots together (certainly in the overlong festival scene).

The time travel is explained well and takes a long time to actually achieve which sets you up quite nicely with the likeable characters.

Once the machine is built there are some nice moments but it's all a bit brief and, although quick to explain why they can't do some proper time travelling (no Wild West here) you get the feeling that the budget didn't quite stretch that far.

The scenes where they do travel back are, of course, the best bits and there are some very intelligent moments.

Brevity is the problem here though. If, as aforementioned, this was longer and shot properly then this coulda been a contender.

4 stars ****