At some time in 2005 Jay Leno during his headlines bit posted a version of the article you may now know from this trailer and the film's poster. "WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box XXX Oakview, CA 93022. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before. "

Not long after, it was posted to the user-generated content site YTMND.com, with a photo of a man with a blonde mullet and a clip of the song "Push it to the Limit". A modest internet meme was born. timetraveler.ytmnd.com/

It was combined with various other time travel clips, from Back to the Future to Napoleon Dynamite, and like other memes it wore out it's welcome pretty quickly. At one point even, famed movie trailer voice Don Lafontaine was called to read the ad, and it was made into a fake movie trailer: hardsafety.ytmnd.com/

Users even began their own investigations to find the source of the ad. 7 years later we have this film, with a Seattle Magazine crew hunting down the would-be time traveler.

...and the movie is twee garbage. On one hand, it's short, it's cutesy and inoffensive, and Aubrey Plaza is charming, breezing by in the same role we are used to seeing her in. However, it's just badly made. The film has such bad comic and dramatic timing that I could not help but be constantly frustrated by how many beats it was missing with it's line readings and editing. The characters have no chemistry, and the film is heavily involved in a side story with Jake Johnson working an Indie Stifler-type in a crappy romantic subplot that never pays off, is overwritten and unbelievable. This character more than anything ruins this film every time he is on screen, so very much imposed onto the proceedings.

There is not much else to say about it. There's no new, interesting or funny angle played with the concept, or true playful spirit explored with an outsider character who thinks he's a time traveler. It is entirely predictable all the way to it's twist(if you can call the obvious ending a twist?) ending. All they did was tack on a dated meme to a crappy indie rom-com. It was funnier when it was just a piece of paper read by a hack comedian on late night TV.