Time After Time

Time After Time (1979)

Runtime: 112 minutes

Directed by: Nicholas Meyer

Starring: Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, Mary Steenburgen, Charles Cioffi, Kent Williams

From: Warner Bros.

I saw this movie due to a messageboard convo. Yep, this scenario happened again. That is OK, as this was pretty enjoyable... and it will be a television show on ABC in 2017? I kid you not. Hear all about the movie here:

Again, me seeing this movie came about because of a messageboard discussion. Recently, this was talked about and it was pointed out that TCM would show it this past last afternoon, so I figured it was time to check it out. What a great hook it has: H.G. Wells was not only a famous author but he actually built a time machine... and he knows Jack the Ripper and Jack steals the time machine so he has to go into the future to bring him back... and they end up in 1979 San Francisco instead of London (there is an explanation as to why)... it's quite the distinctive plot.

I was hoping that Malcolm McDowell would look tremendous as Wells and I was not disappointed between the hair, the giant mustache and the glasses. Then again, so did David Warner as Jack the Ripper, especially the 70's clothes he wore. I am amused that Mary Steenburgen was in more than one movie where she fell in love with a time traveler. It is a pretty entertaining movie, usual time travel goofiness and outdated sexual attitudes (not to mention sexual terms) aside.

I admit that it is silly when you see Wells dealing with the 20th century and how he's befuddled by such things as “motorcars” and a garbage disposal, or for how for a period of time he gave his name as “Sherlock Holmes”. Yet I can look past that and enjoy the movie for what it is. Even the romance aspect was tolerable for me as I was not annoyed or bored by Wells' relationship with Amy Robbins; her instantly falling for him is part of the “outdated sexual attitudes” I was talking about. The story was pretty entertaining as you see Wells attempt to track down then stop his old pal. Indeed, I was amused at how Herbert George was crestfallen at how the future wasn't the utopia he was hoping, while Old Jack loved how violent things had become. Imagine what they'd think if they arrived in the hellscape that is late 2016... it was also nicely directed by Nicholas Meyer, who would go on to bigger things in the 80's.

Oh, and I just learned that the Cyndi Lauper song Time After Time was actually taken from this movie; it was only meant to be a placeholder until they could think of something else, only for something else to not work as well. A few other things... I did spot both M.C. Gainey as a London cop and Corey Feldman as a young boy in the museum. And I only discovered this last night: this property is actually going to become a television series real soon. Talk about random. It will be on in the United States on ABC. As far as I can tell, Wells will be chasing Jack the Ripper throughout many different periods of time. Considering all the garbage that's on fictional television (and I am not talking about the fictional crap that is “reality” TV), this has as much of a chance as anything at being worthwhile.