Midnight in Paris (2011) Woody Allen isn’t the first person you would expect to make a time travel movie, but he delivered a lovely romantic comedy with a twist here, as Gil (Owen Wilson) visits Paris with his fiancée (Rachel McAdams) and her family. Getting lost on the streets alone, he’s hailed by the passengers of a vintage 1920s car, and realises he has travelled back in time and his companions include F Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso. Sony PIctures Classics
The Time Machine (1960) HG Wells’ classic novel has twice been adapted for the screen - the flashy and soulless 2002 version starring Guy Pearce and Samantha Mumba and this classic 1960s sci-fi flick with the wonderful Rod Taylor as the Victorian Englishman who builds a time machine to travel into the future. The time lapse sequence showing the world changing is still stunning more than 50 years on, and many a child remembers being creeped out by the futuristic Morlocks Courtesy MGM
Somewhere in Time (1980) Almost three decades before the disappointing The Time Traveler’s Wife came this far superior weepie, based on a story by Richard Matheson. Christopher Reeve stars as a playwright who falls in love with a photograph of a woman (Jane Seymour) from 1912 and becomes obsessed with travelling back in time to meet her. While something of a flop when it was released, the movie has developed a cult following - there is a Somewhere in Time weekend held each year and the fan club funded Hollywood Walk of Fame stars for Seymour and Reeve. Courtesy Universal Pictures
Back to the Future (1985) Michael J Fox became a major movie star as Marty McFly in this superb sci-fi comedy. Despairing of his pushover dad (Crispin Glover), Marty spends most of his time with eccentric inventor Doc (Christopher Lloyd) who has invented a time machine using some borrowed plutonium and a DeLorean car. It’s not long before Marty has accidentally zipped back to 1955, around the time his parents first met. While trying to find the young Doc to help him get back to the future, Marty inadvertently spoils his parent’? first meeting, and the altering-your-future plotline is just one of the many treats in this classic movie that was followed by two terrific sequels. Courtesy Universal Pictures
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) Dude! Bill S Preston Esq (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) will be two revered men in the utopian society of 2688, but right now they have to pass their history class in the present day, so Rufus (George Carlin) is sent back from the future to help them, giving them a phone booth time machine so they can meet historical figures. Cue a superb, silly and quotable comedy as Bill and Ted pick up Socrates, Napoleon, Billy the Kid, Freud, Beethoven, Genghis Khan, Joan of Arc and a couple of 15th-century princesses, and an equally enjoyable sequel (Bogus Journey) co-starring William Sadler as a marvellously deadpan Death. Cpurtesy Orion Pictures
Looper (2012) Bruce Willis stars alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this twisting sci-fi action thriller set in the near future. While time travel has been invented, it has also been outlawed but is used by criminal organisations as a way of disposing of people; they send victims back in time where a “looper” is waiting to kill them. Joe (Levitt) is such a looper, but things take an unusual turn when his older self (Willis) is the next person sent back for him to murder. Courtesy TriStar PIctures
Time Bandits (1981) Directed by Terry Gilliam, this is a completely bonkers adventure with a fantastical story, dazzling sets and dark undertones. Young Kevin (Craig Warnock) befriends a group of dwarfs who appear through a hole in his wardrobe. It’s a time hole, and they use it to have a series of adventures and meet Robin Hood (John Cleese) and King Agamemnon (Sean Connery), among others. Bitingly funny, and brilliantly odd.Avco. Courtesy Embassy Pictures
