Alistair1918

I didn't click the 'spoiler' button because if you've read the story description on the main page--you know the story.

This is a tough movie to review. Upfront and foremost I applaud the creative team behind this film. It's built on the frame of a unique story with no star power attached. I can only imagine the hurdles you had to leap and the obstacles you needed to circumvent to to get the film made. But now it's made and being shown on cable for millions to see. Congratulations to everyone involved, and kudos to the director and lead actress--Annie McKay. It appears this is a freshman effort in the director chair by McKay, and it doesn't look like she had a bundle of money in her budget, but she seems to have squeezed every penny out of the cash she had to work with.

McVey's directing style is brisk and light, and if I'm remembering correctly the camera always seems to be moving, flitting here and there, trading staged set pieces for footage of actors doing real things, unaware they're being filmed,acting like real people. These roaming shots pick up tons of characterization and flavor.

Kudos again (this time the chocolate chip ones with oatmeal and cinnamon) to the director for playing a major part in the film. She steps up to the job and delivers an honest and true performance. The same has to be said about her appearance. If I may be allowed to objectify, Annie McCay may never appear on the covers of French fashion magazines, but her natural beauty and crooked smile make her far more attractive and far more appropriate to this role.

If you twisted my arm and demanded I identify my least likable aspect of the film, I would be forced to point a finger at actor and screenwriter, Guy Birthwhistle. I know he's spent plenty of time in front of the camera in supporting roles, but it's my opinion he dropped the ball once too often in Alistair1918.

It was explained once to us exactly how long Birthwhistle had been Fast Forwarded the present time. I think it was either 30 of 5 days. Even if it turned out to be six months, I doubt if his shock of the changed world would still be affecting him. In the past 20 years alone we've had more scientific advancements than in the previous 1000, so his lack of awe didn't ring true at all. By all indications we witness his first trip in an automobile, but he handles it like he has two Buicks and a couple of Chevys back home. The knife gets twisted each time we see him using a cell phone, searching on the internet, and sending email.

Birthwhistle also seems to be unsure about the path of his character. Perhaps it was in the script of his direction, but during the middle of the film we keep getting looks from him like he's an actor and all the events up to this point have been filmed for a reality show, or that he really is a time traveler but instead of getting zapped from the middle of a battlefield it was from a laboratory in Nazi Germany. If the budget had allowed for it I would have loved to see Alistair scribbling in his notebook, sketching his long lost wife, or just trying to figure how his life is going to get together. In the same vein, we should have seen McVey bumping around in her apartment, wondering what she's doing. Maybe she could talk to someone on the telephone for some fresh perspective.

I've read a couple of reviews that were filled with questions about ending the film where it ended. I think it's a terrific ending, but some people just can't deal not having things spelled out for them in exact detail.

I greatly look forward to seeing future films from Annie McVay. I think she has amazing potential. Once again, great work, everyone.

I've been scorching underwhelming time travel films lately while hoping to find a good one. Finally. All I can say is an emotional thank you to Guy and Annie for this wonderful, sentimental labor of love. And thanks you to those who fell on the fields of France during those terrible years. I will include the three names.....Willie Walton, Robert Birtwhistle, Fred Booth.

I was looking for time travel movies and this isn't one really. Its easily watchable with natural acting and virtually no special effects. There is a feel good factor throughout but you always fear the worst outcome .

I appreciate its not for everyone , but it cost peanuts to make so for me it kept me watching so I rate it highly

This is one of those shaky camera movies. With stilted dialog and not well-thought-out plots. You cannot have "time travel" without a whole (wormhole). But this is too many holes in the plot and the execution.

Someone might think "how can he adapt to technology so quickly?" This is explained in the movie. A cell phone is just a combination of phone and radio which both exist in 1918, etc.

Others may ask why not ask questions of that time to help verify his story? Try asking a teenager where Belize is.

Alistair (Guy Birtwhistle) gets blown out of 1918 France to today (2016) in the U. S. He immediately becomes a homeless bum and counts the days accurately for filmmakers that cannot hold the camera still.

All he wants to do is worm his way home. All the filmmakers want to mess with his life and film it. Can the two wants coincide?

Can you stand to watch this slow-moving movie to the end to see if there is any twist or turn? I doubt it.

I was expecting the usual American rubbish with the fake British accents thrown in for good measure but I was pleasantly surprised. OK it was unrealistic but all time travel films are unrealistic (how could you go back if you could kill your own parents etc.). However having overlooked this and the fact a British soldier transported from WW1 happens to land in LA and not outer Mongolia, where presumably there are no audience dollars, it is almost credible. The Yorkshire accent is good and the reactions of the Americans he meets are just about believable too. I also liked the concentration on a good plot rather than special effects and furthermore give the producers credit for mostly eschewing the woke agenda and not risibly shoe horning in some fictitious ethnic minorities from WW1 to appease the BLM crowd (as the film 1917 did).