MovieChat Forums > The I Inside (2004) Discussion > this movie is terrible

this movie is terrible

posted 20 years ago by fat_duncan
37 replies | jump to latest

There are several terminal plot holes in this movie - the time travel aspect is handled ASTOUNDINGLY poorly. It's worse than the Butterfly Effect, and that movie was pretty bad. It's clear from the ending the writer doesn't understand time travel.

This movie tries to ride on similarities to Memento, the Butterfly Effect, and Hitchcock, and manages to miss every mark.
Feel free to disagree.

EDIT: Please note my disappointment in the movie runs much deeper than the poorly handled time travel-read on to my second post.

[–] barbgershenson 19 years ago

i agree. i really enjoy ryan phillipe as an actor, and it's a nice idea and all of that. also, the screenplay isn't bad. the dialogue is really great. but, guess what? think about this for a moment. the music sound track is so horrible that it actually is unbearable and makes a decent movie unwatchable.

[–] out_of_range 19 years ago

ok , im all for a freaky head trip of a movie , but what the fu#@ was this? the only thing that makes any sense to me is that the entire thing was just this after death mind f!@#$. either its his last few minutes of brain activity or its his immortal soul not being able to let go of his life. could have been a good idea for a movie premise, but it seems like such a cop-out to have all the 2002 stuff be something his mind created from miniscule memories from that night in 2000. i mean why build up the anna story or the travert story at all. i mean figuring out that they were just some of the last people he saw and thus his mind made an entire story for them was not this wonderful insightful plot twist. it just seemed like such a waste of time. i think this movies intentions far exceeded its capabilities. im not sure who is to blame for this, i just think someone had this ambition to make such a profound movie, and somewhere along the line it fell terribley short

Anya-i swear im just trying to find my necklace Willow-did you try looking inside the sofa in HELL?

[–] icDEADppl 19 years ago

If you thought Simon was traveling through time... watch it again. This movie is NOT about time-travel. I'll read on to your second post, but I'm not going to spoil it for you, watching it again, by telling you what was really going on. It's much better if you can figure it out on your own.

No, I'll shoot the cook. I'm parked out back anyway.~Agent Sands

[–] icDEADppl 19 years ago

update:
I've read the rest of this thread and see that you're at least trying to explain how you don't really think this movie is about time-travel. I'm responding to my own post, because there were so many on this thread to address, I didn't know which one to deal with.

Yes, even though time-travel never takes place in this movie, Simon THINKS he is traveling in time. Still, that's not the same thing as actually traveling in time. The last two minutes of his life (from 20:00 to 20:02) are all events as he interprets them in a dream-like state. Therefore, the normal 'rules' of time-travel do not apply. In our dreams, we don't always remember events logically and in chronilogical order. That's part of the point this movie made. Simon was more-or-less in a dream for the last two minutes of his life and I think the film pulled off nicely, projecting the 'feel' of a dream.

As for the rest of your reasons for not liking this film. All I can say is, sorry you didn't like it and hope you find other movies that you enjoy more. As for me, I thought 'The I Inside' was pretty awesome.

No, I'll shoot the cook. I'm parked out back anyway.~Agent Sands

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] icDEADppl 19 years ago

I'm not a fan of Ryan Phillipe by a long-shot. But what I'm trying to say to Duncan is that it's not time-travel. He thinks there needs to be all these cool special effects and light-show. However, that's even debatable about actual time-travel. This movie is all a dream-state created before dying in the two minutes from 20:00 to 20:02. NOT TIME TRAVEL! Anything can happen in a dream; plain and simple. It wouldn't follow someone's theories for time-travel in a dream like that.

"Go on, lay down. Play dead... BE DEAD!!!" ~Louis Creed

[–] aliacentofanti 19 years ago

Ok you guys certainly it was his state of death trying to alter/relive the past but what I certainly did not understand was the fact that he went back to it all at the end when he finally figured out that he was in fact dead. It is as if in Vanilla Sky Tom Cruise decided what they hell I am going to stay in the dream world rather than reality.

All in all it was a really really bad film, I at least enjoyed the premise of Butterfly effect and at least it was filmed in a better way than this. I felt like I was watching a made for TV movie the acting was unbelievably bad and I do generally like Sarah Polly who was marginally better than the rest plus the atmosphere just didnt translate. I generally like German films such as Anatomy and Princess and the Warrior as they always have such a great mood. This director really got it all wrong and to hear Ryan Phillipe saying what a great script it was I found unbearable to listen to.

See waking life at least that is an interesting film about a similar topic, I agree that Jakobs ladder was absolutely fantastic. On another note I just saw History of Violence I havent seen a film that good in ages.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] aliacentofanti 19 years ago

Well it just makes sense, the whole film is about the two times he died in the hospital and he travels between those two times in his mind and the events that take place. At one point I thought he was trying to change things and could infact change things like the butterfly effect but that simply wasn't the case, he was just an observer trying to figure out what was going on. What was annoying was what I brought up before whereby he doesnt move on and give himself up to death but wants to stay in his mental wanderings between the two states of life/death.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jejozi 11 years ago

lol Please, tell us how time travel really works.

This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.

[–] jerseyd1 9 years ago

I swear, there's always one of you on this site who has to chime in with. "This is the WORST film EVER, ".

[–] Rena_Mahone 8 years ago

It's far from great but I've seen much worse.

🐺 Boycott movies that involve real animal violence (& their directors) 🐾