Amusingly enough, I think the whole Back to the Future series manages this. The Time Travel is consistent in how it works, and they don't handwave any of it.
I liked these movies but the idea that a picture would slowly start to disappear because the people in the picture no longer exists is pretty silly. Especially since time travel in these movies create alternate histories so it shouldn't matter to the time traveling Marty if the Marty in that universe doesn't exist.
But you are correct in that at least they are consistent and nobody does anything that's blatantly stupid.
I was actually thinking about this point after typing out my reply.
It's consistent in that someone outside of their original time, who has altered history, have a period where the changes are "catching up" to them. When they return to their original time, the changes have caught up. That's why Biff (in the deleted scene) dissapeared when he got out of the Delorean, and Hill Valley was changed both times when Marty returned to 1985.
There are alternate histories, but they replace the current history. Marty coudn't simply return to his 1985, he had to alter events so that his 1985 was the current one.
It's a movie convention, so that Marty could know that history had been changed, and have an opportunity to alter it again, but it's consistent in that he didn't return to his original time to find out. Then it would have been "too late".
*Edit* I think I'm quibbiling now.