Project Almanac is the latest entry in the teens filming themselves/found footage genre that has plagued cinema since Cloverfield. Steady cams were invented for a reason folks. Beyond the film's shaky concept, the bouncing and skewed angle camerawork is an entirely unpleasant experience. The prime annoyance being the teens putting the camera on the floor to capture their time traveling antics. The result is scene after scene of neck straining tedium. Director Dean Israelite's aims for cleverness and authenticity completely backfires here. It's of no surprise this nonsense comes from Michael Bay's production company.

Johnny Weston stars as David Raskin, a nerdy high school senior who wants to get into M.I.T. With his sister (Virginia Gardner) and two equally geeky best buds in tow (Sam Allen, Evangelista), the teens film David's attempts to make his higher learning dreams come true. They stumble across a video of David's seventh birthday party with his long deceased father. They are shocked to see the current David reflected in a mirror at this event. Further investigation, drum roll please, in the basement, results in the discovery of the father's secret time traveling project for the government. With stolen hydrogen from the high school and the local babe (Sofia Black-D'Elia) now in the gang, the teens time travel adventures begin. They soon learn that dire consequences result when you mess with fate.

Project Almanac initially has promise before it peters out into utter nonsense. The cast is likeable, even though the female characters have nothing to offer. They couldn't possibly be written as smart and equally capable as the boys. Instead they are denigrated to the love interests and sex objects. The building of the device, which requires utter suspension of disbelief, and their conversations about what to do with this newfound power is what you'd expect from goofy kids. But the weak plotline devolves quickly into hormonal stupidity. Then sputters into an entirely predictable resolve.

It's an obvious statement that Project Almanac isn't remotely in the same league as Back to the Future, or even Butterfly Effect; but the filmmakers could have taken more from those films. The first lesson was to shore up your story than relying on camera gimmickry. I can't help but feel that this film would have been vastly more enjoyable if it had been shot in a standard way. Maybe I've become a curmudgeon out of touch with how youth watches movies today. Maybe teens enjoy bending their heads to watch bad films. I suppose I could bring a neck brace to the sequel.