This week's rentals: Timeline, love actually, and Master and Commander

I had what I figure was a margin of success in picking out the DVD's that I did last week, so throwing caustion to the wind I gave the old DVD dartboard another try. Woe is I. This week was not that bad, but there was definite disappointment.
Since I had read the book I had always wanted to see Timeline, even though it tanked at the box office it had for me all the elements I like and expect in a Michael Crichton movie. Shallow characters and a fairly anal attention to technical detail. Not special effects mind you, but the majority of the movie is set in the 14th century, and it's about paying attention how good archer's are with bows and arrows because it was their their job. This as opposed to Star War's Imperial soldiers who couldn't hit a fuckin' thing no matter what. You can obviously flesh things out much more in a book and build the credibility and create that suspension of disbelief to by into the concept of time travel. However, the length of time you have to accomplish this in a movie is very small and you're relying on the actor's to help you buy into the concepts presented. As presented in the movie at the beginning, the six main characters were the six most gullible people on earth. Six academics bought the concept of time travel without any kind of evidence to back up the claims other than 'time travel anecdotes'. That they were going to time travel in the next few minutes back to medieval times to rescue another academic. And they were convinced to do this in under a minute. Huh? What the fuck, over? The two exceptions to the actors who for the most part acted as if they were thinking about why they took these parts. Noteworthy performances from Paul Walker (really jim dandy job Paul)and Neal McDonough (excellent work). Unfortunately, only when they spoke was the movie interesting. My vote is get the book. The hardcovers on the discount table at Barnes and Noble.
love actually was very entertaining. Eight interwoven stories decately balanced by excellent actors and dialogue. With the exception of the Hugh Grant storyline, they was all very probable stories.
Master and Commander has not been viewed as of this writing.