Timeline - TV

Once again, I am baffled why so many people panned this movie.  Timeline is based on a novel by the late Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park) and is directed by the wonderful Richard Donner (Superman & Lethal Weapon).  There is a whole host of known actors including: Paul Walker, Frances O'Connor, Gerard Butler, Billy Connolly, David Thewlis, Michael Sheen and Marton Csokas.
The story is actually quite clever with a mix of archaeology, time travel and dark ages France with Knights and Swords!
Billy Connolly, the archaeology professor ends up being trapped in medieval France and his students (who discover his notes) find out about the time machine and go back to rescue him.  But the company who built the machine has something else in mind and when things go wrong (as they must) and a company bad guy returns to the present with a grenade which detonates and destroys the machine, how are our heroes meant to return to the present themselves?  There is a great link at the end which ties up the storyline quite nicely I thought.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't the most brilliant movie but I don't know why it didn't do very well at the box office (perhaps Paul Walker is the reason?).  This is actually a clever time travel film and if you haven't seen it because of the bad reviews, it is time to revisit it. 7/10