Source Code: Review

Duncan Jones debut, Moon, was one of the best was one of the best movie debuts from a director in a long time.  So would his second film, Source Code, be able to match his first.  It not only matches it, it surpassed it.

Captain Colter Stevens finds himself on board a train and in the body of a history teacher.  Not knowing why he’s there or who the pretty woman opposite him he has, Stevens is involved in an explosion.  He then finds himself in a capsule talking to a military officer who wants to know if he’s found out about who set off the explosion.  He is part of the military experiment in which he gets to live the last 8 minutes of the man’s life in order to find out who is responsible for blowing up the train and hopefully this will stop an even bigger disaster happening.  So he keeps going back into the final 8 minutes but there was more to this mission than meets the eye.

This is a tense, exciting, nail biting thriller is more twists and turns than a train track.  Not a single inch of its 93 minute running time is wasted.  Jones keeps the pace and suspense racked up throughout.  Just when you think you know what’s going happen something else occurs that throws the movie into a completely different direction.

Jake Gyllenhaal is perfectly cast as Stevens.  Part every man, part action hero, he’s believable throughout and you go through his journey with the same level of confusion.  He is well supported by the beautiful Michelle Monaghan, as the mysterious woman who he slowly starts to fall in love with; Vera Farmiga as the military officer guiding him through the mission and Jeffrey Wright as a scientist who created the source code.

With the recent spate of Inception rip offs, this film manages to raise above any comparisons, and is more like Groundhog Day meets Quantum Leap.  It is probably the best action film I have had the pleasure of watching since Die Hard.  My cinema seat arm still has my fingers imprinted in it.  The explosion on the train is spectacular to watch and even though we keep going back to the same 8 minutes it is never boring and you slowly start piecing the entire puzzle together.  Like myself you might guess who the bomber is quite near the beginning of the movie, but there are more twists and turns that you would expect, and this is the power that makes this film so watchable.  Plus this is more romantic than any of the recent spate of love stories and rom coms.

If you have to make a movie decision this week and you’re not sure what to go and see, then rush and see this fantastic movie.  You will not be disappointed.  Congratulations Duncan Jones, this will be a definite cult classic and I can’t wait for your third movie.