Dances With Films 2024 – Whenever asked, I proudly declare Back to the Future Part 2 as my favorite of the Back to the Future trilogy. “Why?” you may ask. One word, farce. I am a sucker for it. But more importantly, it taps into the absurd ramifications of the concept of time travel like few other films do. Similarly, Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox follows a similar path, choosing to lean into the zany comedy and existential madness of it all. Writer-director Stimson Snead goes for broke, taking the action to ludicrous extremes, then going even further. It’s a fun movie, but it is weighed down by a few too many scenes of expository dialogue and superfluous scenes of silliness.

So what is the Time Traveler’s Paradox? In short, What would happen if a time traveler went back in time and killed himself, would he continue to exist? The Back to the Future films theorized, for instance, that if Marty McFly couldn’t get his parents to meet, he would cease to exist. Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox goes a different direction. What if the time traveler went back in time, killed himself, and instead remained alive? Why would that be possible? Deep, confusing questions for sure. but when you see it play out it’s hilarious.

The film opens big with a credit sequence that tracks into the abandoned warehouse where Tim Travers (Samuel Dunning) has constructed a time machine. In the middle of a large room, Tim fires his creation up, and walks through its portal to go back in time. He then circles around the machine and walks through the portal again, meeting up with himself from just minutes ago, and shoots him in the head. Stumped, Tim circles around again, meets himself again, and shoots himself again. He shouldn’t be alive but there he is. The bodies pile up and, eventually, he decides to stop killing himself to see where that goes. Dozens of versions of Tim Travers swarm around theorizing why it’s all happening.

Occasionally, The Tims pop over to the bar next door for a drink. Here we meet Delilah (Felicia Day), a radio producer that Tim has a thing for and who is being pulled into his chaos. We also eventually learn that Tim uses plutonium in his experiments and his suppliers show up unannounced. Chaos folds in on itself, lunacy esccelates, and everything builds to an outlandish conclusion.

I did enjoy Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox for a number of reasons but it spends so much time attempting to spell things out that the pacing suffers. Between the manic scenes of multiple Tims doing unspeakable things to each other while dodging hit men, assassins, and the girl that he has fallen for, we get thumped with dense sequences of dialogue that halt the proceedings.

Still this is a fun movie. Dunning is brilliant as the frantic Tim. He convincingly plays multiple versions of himself and somehow gives them each a distinct personality. Think Michael Keaton in Multiplicity but with better effects. We are also treated to hilarious cameos by the likes of James Bunratty (Joel McHale), The Simulator (Keith David), and Royce (Danny Trejo).

Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox is a sci-fi comedy that would make Douglas Adams proud. It gleefully dives into the comic possibilities of time travel at the hands of a quirky, borderline insane mind while exploring truly scientific concepts. Just don’t forget to rewind.

7 out of 10