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Source Code an Action Flick With Brains

Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan star in Duncan Jones' sci-fi film

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 1, 2011 12:35 PM CDT

(Newser) – Source Code stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a military pilot placed into another man’s life using a secret program called Source Code—where he's forced to repeat the same eight minutes perpetually in order to catch a bomber. It’s pulse-pounding but deeply human:

It’s “the first film in a while to have a decent heart while quickening your pulse,” writes Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News, calling it a "top-shelf B-movie." Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan “pull off the human moments within this intricate mousetrap—and never get lost in the puzzle.”

Writing for the the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan agrees: “Source Code wouldn't work at all without a cast with the determination and ability to really sell its story." But “that's just what it has."
Director Duncan Jones “creates scary, hairy, high-octane tension,” notes Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. There are some “logic lapses,” but “it's a small price to pay for a ride that starts at wild and accelerates from there.”
In the New York Times, Manohla Dargis says Jones “creates a sense of intimacy that draws you to the characters, so that the tension comes from your feelings for them and not purely from plot twists.”

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In this film publicity image released by Summit Entertainment, Michelle Monaghan, left, and Jake Gyllenhaal are shown in a scene from "Source Code." (AP Photo/Summit Entertainment, Jonathan Wenk)

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Source Code an Action Flick With Brains

Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan star in Duncan Jones' sci-fi film

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Johnny Depp stars in Tim Burton film

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