Time After Time

[JenniferSohns 3]

Do you guys ever do British movies? I am watching one from around 1979 that is making my head explode. Time After Time is the story of time travelling H.G Wells chasing after Jack the Ripper in late seventies San Francisco. That not enough for you? How about Malcolm McDowell marveling at every modern innovation in near slapstick fashion as Mr. Wells himself?

 

Seriously, this movie is so bonkers that I am afraid that when I finish watching it will disintegrate and never have existed. Please witness the madness.

 

[seanotron 2307]

If you don't like Time After Time (an American movie, actually) you deserve to disintegrate. It's awesome.

[PhillipMedoc 648]

Never heard of this movie before this thread but I rented it last night. Fun, watchable movie. Although the premise is a bit silly, it jumps right into it and never really drags. Malcolm McDowell is pretty great as he hadn't entered his late career slump yet. The antagonist is well played by veteran villain actor David Warner, and Mary Steenburgen is basically playing a variation of Georgette from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. There are a few standard fish out of water tropes, although the movie doesn't dwell too long on them or try to make them into actual comedy bits. The optical effects during the time travel sequences are cool looking -- I'm a huge sucker for old school visual fx. And the time travel machine itself is delightfully dorky, looking like a glittery car snatched from a Knott's Berry Farm roller coaster.

 

Worth a watch. Not on Netflix, but a local store rents older titles for $1. The commentary (of which I only listened to about 20 minutes of) seems pretty interesting; the director is talking with Malcolm McDowell, who is quite articulate and talkative.

[seanotron 2307]

The director is Nick Meyer, who also directed (and wrote) The 7 Percent Solution and Star Trek's 2 & 6 (he also co-wrote 4).

[Ghost_Host_999 1]

This really was a superb piece of film making. I love the scene in the hotel room where Jack The Ripper shows Wells just how wrong he was about the future. That was very well written and brilliantly acted.