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Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

6/10

Stars: Chris O'Dowd, Marc Wootton, Dean Lennox Kelly, Anna Faris

Director: Gareth Carrivick

This BBC2-style comedy-fantasy is a distant relative of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but a bit more fun than the film version of that cult series.

Sacked for scaring the kids at a fairground space show, sci-fi nerd Ray (O'Dowd) drowns his sorrows at the local pub with mates Toby (Wootton) - who's obsessed with thinking up ideas for films - and sci-fi sceptic Pete (Kelly). Ray meets a girl, Cassie (Faris), who says she's looking for a time leak. His mates fall about (as you would), but when Pete goes for a leak of another kind, he re-emerges from the loo to find everyone in the pub bloodily dead - including himself with a bushy beard.

Fleeing back and forth from the loo, the boys keep encountering themselves at other times - though Ray warns the others not to touch their doppelgangers for fear of causing a paradox, and destroying them.

Despite decent special effects, it's all slightly amateurish - but good for a frequent chuckle, with the three leads teaming up well, and Faris in for star value in a role that could have been played by anyone. A pity about the bad language in this one, as the cheerful jape is probably one that older junior-schoolers would enjoy.

David Quinlan

UK 2008. UK Distributor: Lionsgate (BBC Films/HBO Films). Colour.
82 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 21 Apr 2009