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Time After Time
Writer H. G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to modern day San Francisco after the infamous serial killer steals his time machine to escape the 19th century.
Release : | 1979 |
Rating : | 7 |
Studio : | Orion Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, |
Crew : | Production Design, Set Decoration, |
Cast : | Malcolm McDowell David Warner Mary Steenburgen Charles Cioffi Kent Williams |
Genre : | Adventure Drama Comedy Thriller Science Fiction |
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I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Admirable film.
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
I have mixed feelings about TIME AFTER TIME. On the face of it, it's the kind of film I really should enjoy. A fish-out-of-water adventure in which H.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to the then-present day via his real-life time machine, what could possibly go wrong with that? Well, the answer is plenty, and all of it is down to the script, which goes down the clichéd romantic route rather than the thriller route.So what we get is a long, slow-paced romantic comedy in which Wells takes time out to pursue the youthful Mary Steenburgen and almost seems to forget that he's supposed to be hunting a killer. The romantic scenes are quite sweet but I avoid the genre like the plague where possible and I just wanted them to get back to the action.Malcolm McDowell is a fine choice to play Wells and he reminds us that he's far more than the stock villain that he's usually stuck playing in Hollywood. Poor old David Warner has a great part but is barely utilised here. The dated special effects scenes are fun but there's far too much romance and too little in the way of genuine science fiction; the film as a result plods when it should zing.
Time After Time was one of those films I saw in my youth (I was 13 in 1979) and it left an indelible impression on me. More of a romance than sci-fi, the viewers suspension of disbelief needs to be fluid here as we watch Meyer take liberties with history and turn our beloved writer into a time hopping romeo out to save the world from the evils of Jack the Ripper. However the deeper entertainments here are the chemistry between Steenburgen and McDowell, who were married after filming completed. So in a sense we are watching a romance in real life unfold similarly like in the film, and all the more better with a lush Rosza score behind it, which really is the best thing about the film. Why this movie is not on Blu-ray completely baffles me but it doesn't exactly stand out in terms of photography. The effects are simple and well placed, external shots are functional and appealing but not epic, but an HD remix is desperately needed here as the SD version is the only available through Amazon. Sometimes studios do this because HD can sometimes make the movie look worse, and if there is no budget to clean it up, keeping it in Low-Fi sometimes is best. However Time After Time deserves a view if you like on screen romance mixed with compelling situations reminiscent of the Hitchcock school of Love meets danger.
A terrific premise: What if H.G. Wells really invented a time machine and Jack the Ripper escaped to the year 1979 in it? Great special effects sparingly used at the start and finish of the film, when the time machine "travels". My only complaint are the hidden "plugs" for the Hyatt-Regency Hotel chain. Even a dinner scene is filmed in their trademark "revolving restaurant" at "The Top of The Hyatt". A bit slow in building up the story. Does not take the cheap way out and does not become a slasher movie. Some blood and a few body parts. A young Mary plays a currency exchange employee. Naturally it's a "London Bank" in San Francisco. Both "The Ripper" and Wells exchange their antique gold coins there. There is a proverbial "game of chess" played between the two. Wells tries to alert the authorities and he gets arrested as the suspect in a string of murders. Using the name "Sherlock Holmes" makes him seem quite mad to the police. As usual, why "Jack the Ripper" is compelled to slash women remains a mystery. Great ending, as Wells returns to his own time and takes "the girl" back with him. They marry. More a love or adventure story than science fiction. Most enjoyable. Several "best" reviews do a wonderful synopsis of the plot. I won't attempt an improvement here. There is one question, however: How did the time machine first get there before Jack the Ripper arrived and how did it end up in San Francisco not London? There is a time paradox there. How the existing museum piece and the "real" machine manage to converge on the same timeline is never explained.
A fiction adventure of the Victorian writer H.G. Wells (McDowell), who time-travels to San Francisco in 1979 to capture the infamous Jack the Ripper aka. Dr. Stevenson (Warner), who uses Wells' newly-invented time machine to escape and keep slaughtering women in the city, meanwhile he gets hooked on a local bank clerk, a modern woman Amy Robbins (Steenburgen), whose life comes under threat during the cat-and-mouse chase, Wells has to rescue her and settles the old scores with Stevenson. For its own sake, the film leans more on a romantic adventure than a Sci-Fi no-brainer, predates the ultra-popular BACK TO THE FUTURE franchise (where Steenburgen also stars in its third installment), it pairs Wells' ungainly anachronism and old-fangled chivalry with Amy's active happiness-pursuing initiative from women's liberation movement, it is most tantalizing when the pair connects under an unconventional method when the woman takes the lead and not shies away about it, Amy's racy retort to Wells' polite concerning is "Forcing me? My God, Herbert, I'm practically raping you.", while Wells is an avant-garde exponent of free love, this is one significant aspect he envisions for a Utopian future. McDowell is innocuously likable with an unsophisticated urgency to right the wrong and Steenburgen acts with a distinctive drawl which sounds both seductive and peculiar, the two not just click wonderfully on screen, in reality, they also tied the knot in 1980, but eventually broke up after 10 years. As for Warner, his gore slashing atrocity is mostly dampened for not going to far, so his portrayal of the notorious killer is not startling enough, strangely, his final gesture even strikes as a tacit agreement with Wells, permits him a way out of an alienated real world. Then with regard to the time machine gizmo, it looks chintzy even compared with George Pal's THE TIME MACHINE (1960, 6/10). However in its London prologue, Wells laboriously clarifies how the machine functions, with an emphasis on two important devices, one is the key, which the passenger should keep with to prevent the time machine returns to its departure location after the mission; another is the vaporising equalizer, if it has been pulled out, the passenger will travel through time without the time machine, he will be stuck into an infinite dimension, so there is no coming back. The former grants the precondition of Wells' pursuit in the first place while the latter guarantees the demise of the evil Ripper like a cinch. Director-screenwriter Nicholas Meyer really makes an effort to make the story at least logically passable, unfortunately, the happenings in San Francisco do not deserve such treatment, the sloppiness of a museum without any security measurement, or how Amy stays put in the exact same place even she is fully aware a murder will befall upon her later is alternately frustrating and befuddling, all feel more slapdash is that the suspense has been honed up greatly owing to Miklós Rózsa's formidable symphonic score, if only the listless writers can squeeze their brain to confect a more believable scenario. So TIME AFTER TIME has its innate clumsiness, but it also has a beguiling goofiness underneath to greet new visitors, plus if you are really into time travel or Jack the Ripper, this amalgam may shred some dim delight.