Keeps You Engaged, But Doesn't Rise Any Higher

Rating: 6/10 (10 March 2017)

"Source Code" is a solid movie that will keep you engaged from beginning to end. It has good acting, an interesting premise, and a plot that takes the entire running time to develop and thus makes you want to keep watching. However, the film fails to rise to sci-fi classic status due to a failure to develop anything other than that interesting plot.
For a basic plot summary, "Source Code" follows the strange occurrences of Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), a military soldier involved in a top-secret time-travel experiment. Without saying any more and risk ruining the overall plot, suffice it to say that Stevens' primary mission is to stop an act of terrorism involving a bomb on a passenger train...no matter how many times it takes for him to get things right.
The high points of this movie are the acting and the basic time-travel premise. Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan turn in fine performances, as does Vera Farmiga as a conflicted military leader. The plot is also catchy, taking from previous sci-fi material found in Star Trek TNG (Picard stopping the Enterprise from blowing up) and The X-Files (Mulder trying to stop the bank from exploding).
Unfortunately, though, there is not a whole lot else in this movie to draw you in. While the acting is indeed above average, the scripted characters and their interactions are nothing to write home about. The main romantic duo that is supposed to carry the emotional base of the film just doesn't deliver the payoff in the end.
Also, there comes a certain point in this movie where you find yourself watching just because you want to figure everything out (after the main climax has come to a close). But (*SPOILER ALERT*): This is one of those movies that leaves the enduing up to your interpretation. Some people like that, while others don't. I guess I fall into the latter camp. There's just so much left up to us as viewers to put into place that I would have preferred a bit more scripted closure.
Thus, while this isn't an outright classic in my mind, it will at least entertain you for the 90+ minute duration, which is more than I can say for most movies these days. Rent it cheaply somewhere, but you really don't need to own this one.