Project Almanac

When socially awkward high-school science whiz kid David Raskin (Jonny Weston) is searching in the attic for a project to lure an MIT scholarship grant, he discovers a bewildering image from his seventh birthday party on his late father's video camera. After next finding a time-travel device in a secret laboratory in the basement, David and his nerdy buddies (Allen Evangelista, Sam Lerner) work to get the machine operational, with David's giggly younger sister (Ginny Gardner) documenting the process (yes, this is another found footage film). But their increasingly volatile experiments require a stronger power source, so they hook up to a car battery that belongs to pretty, popular Jessie (Sofia Black-D'Elia), David's secret crush. Predictably, their first “jump” is a chemistry exam “do over,” while others include wreaking revenge on bullies and scoring at the lottery. But when they frolic at the music festival Lollapalooza—having bought used backstage passes on eBay—something winds up going awry. And while they pledged never to time-travel alone, guilt-riddled David does just that—with disastrous results. Produced by Michael Bay, filmmaker Dean Israelite's frenetic film—full of formulaic shaky handheld camerawork and clichéd jump cuts—gathered dust on the shelf for a year. A disappointing effort (it's no Back to the Future), this is an optional purchase. [Note: Blu-ray extras include deleted scenes (9 min.), two alternate endings (5 min.), an alternate opening (4 min.), and bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a lackluster film.](S. Granger)