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The "Time Machine" directed by Simon Wells (the great-grandson of the book's author H. G. Wells) is a poor attempt to retell the science-fiction classic with modern movie-making techniques.

Tweaking the story, the hero, Alexander Hartdegen, in this version goes back in time to try to right something that went wrong. When he fails, he wants to know why and decides that the future is the only place he can find the answer.

With the exceptions of the Uber-Morlock (Jeremy Irons) whom we hate and VOX (Orlando Jones) whom we like, the characters failed to bring out any emotion in the audience. We didn't really care what happened to them, we were just watching.

While this movie has a few scenes with great special effects it is an overall failure. Read the book, rent the 1960's version, or wait for this to come out on video but don't waste your money going to see it in the theater. Rated PG-13 for a few graphic scenes "The Time Machine" has a 96-minute running time.

-- Jim Besher, pressman