Everybody deserves a second chance, although Colter Stevens has about eight chances to redo history in eight minutes or less.

Rating: 7/10 (3 April 2011)

That modern day classic film, Inception, has already influenced today's filmmaking studios with its artistry and its monetary grosses. Just go to your nearest movieplex and you'll see other films about mind control games, like the two more recent hits, Limitless, and The Adjustment Bureau. Now comes yet a third...
Source Code is the latest in this genre, a time warped story about time travel to a parallel universe. It's the clever Groundhog Day formula re-imagined as an action thriller with the same tired déjà vu structure of Vantage Point, set aboard a moving train. ( I know, it's also reminiscent of hundreds of other sci-fi diversions like Back to the Future, 12 Monkeys, The Butterfly Effect, and the Terminator series; action hits, like Speed, Unstoppable, and Run, Lola, Run; romantic movies like Sliding Doors and Time After Time, and even television series like Mission Impossible, 24, and Lost, to name a few others. )
But Source Code wisely takes its lead from those other films and stays on track pretty much of the time. The film begins with a puzzling dilemma: a soldier awakens on a train to find himself in the body of another person and on a train that will self destruct in 8 minutes. He is also hooked up to mind control operatives headed by the military who are in charge of a secret experimental program called Source Code who give our hero a mission to save mankind: Find the bomber and prevent this and other terroristic attacks from happening. Now granted the circumstances are enough to shock anyone, let alone our protagonist. But with a name like Colter, you know he's the right one for this job and he means business.
The appealing Jake Gyllenhaal is perfectly cast. As he tries to unravel the mystery, the audience immediately is held in rapt attention due to the topnotch direction by Duncan Jones, a wonderful convoluted script by Ben Ripley, and a fine cast of performers. Michelle Monaghan plays Christina, Cotter's short-lived love interest who keeps coming back for more. Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright effectively serve the plot as major catalysts heading this mission.
Not only is Source Code a tense thriller, but it's a nifty whodunit as well. The film tries to remain logical and intriguing, although there are one too many twisty plot devices that tend to border on overdrive. Add to that mix, a stilted familiarity of the scenes being constantly replayed and reversed time and time again that becomes somewhat tedious and strained.
Still, most of the time, it's edge-of-your-seat excitement and suspense. Source Code has much to admire. It is a well crafted, intelligent, and entertaining joyride. GRADE: B