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Time After Time | 
| Director: Nicholas Meyer
Actors: Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, Mary Steenburgen, Charles Cioffi, Rita Conde
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $5.79
as of 11/27/2009 17:54 CST details
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Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 2946
Format: Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 112 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.3
MPN: 1000040758
UPC: 883929030835
EAN: 0883929030835
ASIN: B001BGS17Q
Theatrical Release Date: 1979
Release Date: September 2, 2008
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| 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 |
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Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/02/2008 Run time: 112 minutes Rating: Pg
Amazon.com
In this clever speculative tale, story collaborators Karl Alexander and Steve Hayes and screenwriter-director Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II and VI) send two famous historical figures ahead in time. In late 19th century England, writer H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) unwittingly includes Jack the Ripper (David Warner) in his social circle. When one of Wells's dinner parties is crashed by the police looking for the Ripper, Jack uses the author's time machine to escape. But there's one catch--after it has been used, the machine returns to Wells's time. Thus the literary genius bravely sets out to find his evil friend before he can wreak havoc on another time period, and soon arrives in modern-day San Francisco. What follows is a fascinating merger of a suspense thriller--as the charming and polite Wells tries to hunt down the shrewd, brutish Ripper and take him back to the past--and a love story, as Wells befriends and falls in love with a bank administrator (Mary Steenburgen) who acts as his guide through the future. Through its brilliant combination of creepy suspense and tender romance, Time After Time manages to become a classic in two genres at once--a rare cinematic achievement. --Bryan Reesman
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 89
 Timeless Classic November 1, 2009
Joseph Noble (Littleton, CO)
My wife is a nut about Time travel. A long time ago we saw "Time After Time" and we both loved it. Ever since, because we couldn't buy the movie at the time, it became a fond memory. However, the name of the movie was lost. Recently, we came across the movie and immediately ordered it. The acting is great and the plot is unique.
 "The future isn't what you thought. It's what I am!" October 18, 2009
Muzzlehatch (the walls of Gormenghast)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is one of those rare films from my adolescence that I have a palpable memory associated with on its first viewing. It was released at the end of summer 1979 - I don't know whether school had started or not, but what I do remember is that I insisted quite vehemently on seeing it, and my mom acquiesced none too graciously - STAR WARS had made me a serious movie lover 2 years before and I was especially entranced by the few science fiction films that came our way. So my brother and I saw this after it had been out a week or two; it didn't last long and the theater had only 2 other patrons. We both loved it - it was the scariest and most intense film I'd seen at that point, I was 13 and my parents quite overprotective - and I'm glad to say that my love of the film has remained unchanged.
Malcolm McDowell stars in one of his very best (and quite atypical) performances as H.G. Wells, who in 1893 isn't planning on writing about a "time machine", but has in fact built one, as he demonstrates to his guests at a dinner party reminiscent of the opening scene in the actual novel of the same name which was published (in reality) in 1895. He plans to head off into the future to find the utopia that he is certain will exist in a few generations....ah but his good friend John Leslie Stevenson (David Warner, quite chilling) has other plans, as Stevenson is in fact Jack the Ripper, and as the police knock on Wells' door, he makes his escape, to San Francisco in 1979, the machine having been physically moved from London after World War II. Luckily the time machine has several fail-safe mechanisms, one of which causes it to return to Wells, who sets out in pursuit to the "brave new world" of the future.
And thus begins the story proper, a chase-thriller with Wells first trying to find Stevenson, then being himself chased as the Ripper needs a key that will prevent him being followed in the time machine. Along the way Wells meets a bank officer, Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen) who helps him to locate his nemesis and with whom he quickly falls in love. The love story and the thriller are really the principle genres here, and first-time director Meyer handles the latter with surprising ease - the romantic part wasn't too difficult to fake, as it wasn't in fact faked and McDowell and Steenburgen embarked on a 10-year marriage shortly after the film's release. There are a couple of strong and quite obvious themes that underlie the whole story - optimism vs pessimism, the need to take love wherever you find it, and the importance of hope even in the face of the obvious truth that "progress" isn't always positive. There's a great scene in a hotel early on where Stevenson shows Wells just how misguided he's been - but Wells stubbornly persists in his optimism almost to the last, and McDowell is superb at conveying the fish-out-of-water, gentle soul with, at last, just enough steel to prevail over murder and time.
The San Francisco locations are nicely used, and there are numerous brief homages (some perhaps accidental) to earlier famous SF-set classics like DIRTY HARRY, BULLITT, and VERTIGO; Miklós Rózsa's fine score even quotes Herrmann's music for the Hitchcock film - or comes awfully close to doing so - in the Muir Woods scene. If you're someone who is insistent on absolute historical and scientific accuracy in your science fiction, I'm afraid you'll be let down - the explanation behind the time machine and the one paradox that is involved isn't terribly convincing, and the ripper murders occurred in 1888, not 1893. Die-hard Wellsians (yes, there are a few) regularly complain about McDowell's "wrong" accent, the real author's harsh Cockney having been considered grating and unpalatable to film audiences - but as I say above, to think of this as hard, serious social science fiction is IMO a mistake, it's a romantic thriller with just enough social comment to make the characters more interesting and believable. It's exciting, fun, and charming, and it has a feel of the old "classy" Hollywood methods for doing science fiction and horror (the violence is quite muted and more intense for leaving much to our imagination), with special effects definitely of much less importance than they usually have been in genre films released since this one. Not a "great" film, perhaps, or a particularly important or life-changing one, but it certainly hits all the right notes for me.
The disc offers a commentary track featuring director Meyer and star McDowell that is one of the better examples I've heard. Meyer's explanation for his use of the particular hotel he picked for the chase between Stevenson and Wells to begin in had me hitting my head and saying "of course"; it's nice to find a director of science fiction and fantasy who actually knows the classics of the genre.
Great Take On H.G.Wells October 8, 2009
Rickie E. Wood (Defuniak Springs, FL)
This is a film we had on VHS and have now updated to DVD. This is a great take on the H.G. Wells' story of The Time Machine with the added interest of Jack the Ripper. Malcomb McDowell is good as the studious H.G. Wells forced to pursue his friend, who it turns out is Jack the Ripper, into the San Francisco of the 1970's, with his time machine. With the Ripper now running loose in the free-wheeling Frisco of the '70s, Wells must stop the madman before he can slaughter again. Although dated the film is well done, with a cast of well known actors. If you like science fiction the old fashioned way, through the eyes of those who invented the genre, this is a film to see.
I'll watch this Time After Time October 2, 2009
Thom Carey (Yonkers, NY United States)
This movie has something for everyone: love, sci-fi, past and present, bad guy, hero, etc. This is definitely one of my favorites that I can watch over and over again. These 3 actors make this movie sensational. Get it!
A Timeless Treat! September 29, 2009
Kathleen Huber (New York, NY)
Nicholas Meyer is a wonderful writer! He was also the creator of THE SEVEN PERCENT SOLUTION (another favorite of mine), and TIME AFTER TIME is a delicious follow-up. The story is clever and funny and touching and suspenseful, and the cast is splendid (One can watch Steenburgen and McDowell falling in love as they make the film (They were later married). And David Warner makes a superb Jack the Ripper (and gets the lion's share of the best lines: "Ninety years ago I was a freak. Today I'm an amateur.") There's also a luscious musical score by Miklos Rozsa (Listen to the little tune playing in the background at the revolving restaurant!). On a recent visit to San Francisco I found myself stumbling on settings from the movie (Francisco Street, The Palace of Fine Arts, The Hyatt Regency, the Muir Woods), and they inevitably brought back happy memories of this charming movie.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 89
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