Time Crimes (Los Cronocrímenes)

A Spanish couple, recently moved in to a secluded new home, go about their business until visions of a topless girl in the trees leads husband Hector to go exploring whereupon, as you do, he enters a time machine and goes back a couple of hours. In classic Marty McFly fashion he must make sure his other self does exactly the right things or he’ll cease to exist, until events are complicated by a death he must try to avoid next time round.

Writer/director Nacho Vigalondo starts dropping his trail of breadcrumbs early on and the pieces of the puzzle are fun and intriguing for a while but it’s a house of cards ready to collapse in on itself at any moment. Many of the things Hector must do seem contrived and his escalating actions bear little resemblance to his already established character, leading to a shaggy dog thriller not half as clever as it thinks it is and with nothing remotely like a satisfying conclusion. [Paul Greenwood]