Saw Timecrimes (AKA Los Cronocrimenes.) It comes from a list of horror films but is decidedly non-horrifying. There is a masked killer, but the protagonist is this shlubby, balding dude who looks constitutionally incapable of screaming and, when he is told the killer is right behind him, slowly walks away (with much backward glancing) and does not run. Like Triangle, it is very enslaved to its central conceit which is time-travel. I wonder if the filmmakers saw the success of Primer and thought they should make a slightly dumbed-down version of it with more sex and violence. (It's not necessarily a bad idea, mind you. People like to feel flattered by their own cleverness. Look at how successful Inception was.)
Anyway, the film itself is not very interesting. It has this interesting loop structure, but it's also frequently obvious what's going to happen. It has a video-game-ish feel of being predictable by virtue its own internal logic. The character often feels less like he's making decisions than ticking boxes off of his quest-log. Drive car A to point B, lock door C with key D, hiding it in location E afterward. It's sort of satisfying, but satisfying the way watching the internals of a clock is satisfying. I can dig a clockwork movie. I thought De Palma's Femme Fatale was pretty great and it indulges in many of the same shenanigans. Alas, this movie just isn't engaging (for me anyway. The usual caveats apply.)
The film is not horrendous but it is fairly dull. Watch this if you liked Primer, but want something easier as a warm-up.
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