Time After Time
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Charles Cioffi, David Warner, Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, Rita CondeBrand: WHV
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 112 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-09-02
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- London 1893 is home to a killer with a macabre nickname. and also to a visionary genius who would write "The Time Machine." But what if H.G. Wells' invention wasn't fiction? And what if Jack the Ripper escaped capture fleeing his own time to take refuge in ours - with Wells himself in pursuit?Running Time: 112 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: PG Age: 88
Movie Reviews of Time After Time
Movie Review: "Give me a Big Mac, fries... and tea to go, please."
Summary: 5 Stars
H.G. Wells is celebrated as a visionary, having predicted, among other things, accurate advances in technology, space travel, women's liberation, and global war. But what if his prescience is because the man cheated? What if H.G. Wells hadn't foreseen the future as much as he'd visited it instead? This wild supposition is explored in TIME AFTER TIME, one of the best, most audacious time travel stories to have ever come out of cinema.
Evening in London, 1893, and H.G. Wells has invited to sup a small circle of friends so as to unveil his marvelous invention: a working time machine. But it turns out that Wells has unwittingly been playing host to Jack the Ripper, fresh off his latest act of butchery. When Scotland Yard tracks him to Wells' home, the Ripper uses the time machine to escape out of the bobbies' grasp, out of 1893 London, out of the Victorian era altogether. Fearing that he'd unleashed the notorious serial killer to some social Utopia in the future, H.G. Wells, not quite the intrepid man of action, pursues the Ripper to the unknown - in fact, to San Francisco, 1979, where Saucy Jack has picked up where he'd left off. And the 20th Century isn't exactly the social Utopia which H.G. Wells had envisioned. But then one is hard put to cling to optimism regarding the future when the first person you meet there is Corey Feldman.
It's such a brilliant but cheeky conceit, pitting H.G. Wells against Jack the Ripper in a time travel adventure. Wells, cerebral, unassuming, and the very portrait of the civilized Englishman, is just about the most unlikely hero and, when I first saw this film, I was hard pressed to figure out how he could possibly come out on top against so vicious and masterful a killer. Nicholas Meyer - forever viewed on a pedestal by me for his work on THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION - writes the clever screenplay and directs for the first time. He makes it work on several levels. It's a slasher flick and a tender love story. It's a bit sci-fi. It's got a terrific sense of humor.
In fact, soon after Wells finds himself in modern-day San Francisco, the film's tone immediately becomes more lighthearted and the romantic subplot is introduced. Mary Steenburgen plays Amy Robbins, liberated woman and helpful bank worker, who becomes intrigued by McDowells' genteel, anachronistic Englishman. Steenburgen has never been sweeter and she has great chemistry with McDowell. As it turns out, these two actors actually fell in love on the set.
Malcolm McDowell doesn't really get too many chances to be endearing - he's more apt to play roles nearer to his bent, sinister character in CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Here he plays Wells with great charm, a certain innocence, and comedic ease. Under his fine interpretation, we're treated to delightfully wacky scenes such as H.G. Wells ordering from McDonalds or hailing a cab. And it's a nice touch that Wells never believed that Sherlock Holmes's popularity would outlast the Victorian period.
Meyer' ear for dialogue has never been more sure. Wells, as you'd expect, applies correct grammar and a pleasing turn of phrase whereas, for example, Amy Robbins, Wells' modern-day love interest, talks like the rest of us rabble. There are a number of very quotable lines in this one and brought about in several very well done scenes. One memorable sequence takes place in a hotel room as Wells finally tracks down Saucy Jack, and Jack via television is able to demonstrate to an anguished Wells that the future is very much indeed suited to the Ripper's ways. The Ripper chillingly gloats: "We don't belong here? On the contrary, Herbert, I belong here completely and utterly. I'm home." And, moments later, he drops what may be the best line in the film: "The world has caught up with me and surpassed me. Ninety years ago I was a freak. Today I'm an amateur."
H.G. Wells later in the film contributes what I think is the second-best quote as he condemns the Ripper's violent nature: "The first man to raise a fist is the man who's run out of ideas." Ironically, it was Wells himself who earlier on had lost composure and struck Jack the Ripper, although the serial killer would repay him many times over for that slap.
This DVD's special features include: audio commentary by Malcolm McDowell and a candid Nicholas Meyer (recorded separately and yet fairly seamlessly); the "It's About Time" text informs us of several films which feature the theme of time travel; the spoiler-ridden theatrical trailer for TIME AFTER TIME, as well as the trailers for the 1960 and 2002 versions of THE TIME MACHINE.
The special effects are... whatever. Bits of the film can't help but be dated. And while David Warner makes a sinister Jack the Ripper, he doesn't elevate the slasher elements of the film. And, largely, it's because the actual violence is rendered on a subdued scale. Nerves are jangled, yeah, although it might not be until afterwards that you realize all the slashing takes place offscreen. Meyer knew too much bloodletting would have taken away from the more sentimental elements of the film. Nicolas Meyer and the actors successfully tiptoe that balance between the gristly and the blithe, the terrible evisceration of yet another soiled dove juxtaposed against the sheer fun of having H.G. Wells explore the 20th Century. We end up with what has to be one of the most riveting and most touching time travel tales ever put to film.
Summary of Time After Time
Synopsis:Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: PG
Street Date: 09/02/08
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
LanguageENGLISH
Foreign Film: no
Subtitlesno
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve Please note: This supplier will be closed on 11/24, 11/25, 12/26, 1/2 for the holidays. The shipping cut off is 12/10 to try and have the products delivered by Christmas.
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