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Time After Time [1979] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


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Quite a gem
Review date: 2008-06-14 Rating: 10 out of 10

My interest was sparked by McDowell rating this highly in the Guardian - in part doubtless influenced by him meeting his future wife on the movie.

He's right to be proud of it - an excellent film, a great cast, great looking design, a fine score, excellent direction, a witty sense of humour and with a warm embracing of the 1960 Time Machine and Jack the Ripper mythology. I always find Mcdowell to be excellent, be it in a Lindsay Anderson film or an episode of Monk and he doesn't disappoint here. With David warner as the other lead it's a fantastic cast.

Highly recommended, my only disappointment was not watching it on a cinema screen where the time travel sequence must have looked magnificent.

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Reviews


An engaging romance, with Jack the Ripper lurking near by
Review date: 2007-08-08 Rating: 10 out of 10

It's not often you find a well-done romance featuring Jack the Ripper. A young Herbert George Wells in 1893 London invites a few close friends to his home for a meal and a look at his latest invention. It's a time machine, and he intends to use to it visit the future, which because of science and man's intelligence he is sure will be a utopia. The police interrupt his evening gathering because Jack the Ripper has struck again and they know he is in the neighborhood. But when his guests leave, one is unaccounted for, and the time machine is missing. It returns empty, having gone to November 5, 1979, where Herbert's friend, Dr. John Leslie Stevenson now known to be Jack, got off. Herbert gathers what money he has, packs a travellling bag, and sets off in pursuit. He cannot let the madman who was his friend infect utopia.

Wells winds up in San Francisco. He meets Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen), a bank teller who helps him with some of his strange money, rather likes his curiously old-fashioned suit, and then helps him just get around. The future turns out to be a difficult and confusing place. He and Mary develop feelings for each other and he tracks down Jack, who is in his element. As Jack tells him, "Ninety years ago I was a freak. Now I'm an amateur." The resolution of the plot is final for Jack, but is just a beginning for Herbert and Mary. But Wells is determined to return to his time, just as Mary is reluctant to leave her time. His disallusionment with the future is understandable. In a museum he finds an exhibit about himself with copies of his books he hasn't written yet. "I have to go back," he tells Mary. "I have to destroy this machine. I have all those books to write, whatever they are. Fiction, I hope."

This is a charming movie which is hard to catagorize. Some will call it science fiction. I think it's basically a romantic suspense film, which has a lot of humor built in. The future turns out not to be utopia, and Wells' attempt to deal with things is touching and ironic.

Malcom McDowell, an actor I have a lot of respect for, turns in a first-class performance as the shy, earnest and brave Wells. Mary Steenburgen just about matches him as Amy, a woman who also is shy but who values independence and is not about to simply settle for the title "spouse."

This movie works on a lot of levels. You might not fall in love with it, but you'd have to be both hard-hearted and humorless not to at least like it.

I thought the DVD transfer is just fine.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Geraldine Baron
Charles Cioffi
Rita Conde
Larry Blake
Bill Bradley

Creators:
Geraldine Baron (Primary Contributor)
Larry Blake (Primary Contributor)
Paul Lohmann (Cinematographer)
Miklos Rozsa (Composer)

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 8839290308358
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Colour, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2008-09-02
Universal product code (UPC): 883929030835
Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 112 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1979
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: French (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)
Language: Portuguese (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)

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