My parents took me to see Time After Time when I was a kid, and I saw it probably 12 times after that at the theater on my own. I own it, and when I worked in a video store, I consistently recommended it. It's a charming, suspenseful tale of famed novelist H. G. Wells chasing Jack the Ripper through time from Victorian England to 1979 San Francisco.
Time After Time stars Malcolm McDowell as Wells, David Warner as Jack the Ripper and Mary Steenburgen as Amy, the modern woman who befriends and ultimately falls in love Wells. All three deliver exceptional performances with McDowell especially good. The love scenes are convincing, due to the fact that during filming McDowell and Steenburgen fell in love and were married shortly after the film came out.
As the film opens, the Ripper strikes again in London. The police give chase and the trail leads them to the home of H.G. Wells, who has announced that he's invented a time machine and plans to take a trip without leaving his house. Before he can try it, however, one of his guests, a Dr. John Leslie Stevenson, uses it to flee the police. They have identified him as the Ripper by his medical bag, which is full of incriminating evidence. Wells is horrified that his invention has unleashed a mad killer on the future and he vows to follow Stevenson and bring him back to face authorities.
Of course, the idea of taking a 19th century man and thrusting him into the 20th century is bound to have quite a few humorous moments. We watch as Wells emerges, wide-eyed, into this brave new world. Some of the most amusing moments come after he meets his love interest, Amy Robbins. She marvels at the Victorian clothing he is wearing, asking if that's what they're wearing in England. "It was when I left!" is his response. However, there is suspense enough for any movie fan. Even when Wells knows when the Ripper will strike next, the story throws some curves into the mix. Amidst all this, we see Wells come to grips with the fact that the future isn't the utopia he had envisioned. Violence and death are commonplace, contagious even. He is the odd man out, not Stevenson and this is devastating for him.
Time After Time is a brilliant little film, full of humor, romance and suspense. More incredibly, it blends factual events from the life of H.G. Wells and a fictional story effortlessly and makes you wonder if H.G. Wells and Jack the Ripper did indeed know one another. This is a highly enjoyable film and, as time travel films go, one of the most intelligently written and oddly believable ones I've ever seen. Check this out!
In this imaginative, entertaining and suspenseful tale, Jack The Ripper (David Warner) commandeers the time machine invented by his former friend H.G....More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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