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TIMELINE Based on the Michael Crichton novel, this Medieval romp couldn't be sillier if Monty Python's knights who say "Ni!" turned up for an extended cameo. A group of present-day archaeologists are hurled back to 14th century France to rescue their professor (Billy Connolly), who himself had been sent back after a wormhole linking the past and present had been discovered. Bless this cornball picture for holding our interest throughout its entire length -- how could it not, when practically every scene will leave audiences tittering for one reason or another? If it's not the overripe dialogue, it's the incompetent performance by star Paul Walker, the baffling plot inconsistencies, the clashing dialects or the puzzling character motivations. 
21 GRAMS Whiplashing between past and present, writer-director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Amores Perros) has fashioned an absorbing drama that's as much about loneliness, retribution and redemption as it is about matters of the heart. Much of the movie's potency comes from viewers being allowed to slowly connect its pieces, so suffice it to say that the story centers on three individuals (Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro, all terrific) whose lives are all affected by the same car crash. As narrative fragments bombard us and the storyline circles back on itself repeatedly, it becomes apparent that the melodramatics are merely a necessity to forward the movie's exploration of the manner in which life and death are constantly stepping on each other's toes. 1/2
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