Time After Time [DVD] [1979] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

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.

When H.G Wells(Malcolm Mcdowell) is showing his amazing new invention to his closest friends, little does he know that one of his companions, physician John Leslie Stevenson(David Warner), is in fact notorious serial killer Jack The Ripper. Wells inadvertently gives Stevenson access to time travel, and when the police come round in pursuit of The Ripper, he has travelled forward in time, using Well's time machine. Wells sets off in pursuit, and finds himself in 1970's San Fransisco. What he finds there shatters his dreams of a Utopian future, but on the other hand Jack The Ripper finds the modern world very much to his liking, moving around unnoticed like a venomous Chameleon. Wells is going to have to use all his ingenuity to stop the monster he has unleashed in the 20th century.
This is a marvellous film. Director Nicholas Meyer pitches the tone perfectly, as it merges fantasy and reality seamlessly. It also is a genre busting film, being a romantic comedy, a fantasy and science fiction all in one. The three central performances are beyond criticism, Mcdowell terrific as the Victorian gentleman who is both awed and frightened as to what the world has become, Warner is perfect as The Ripper, a mixture of mannered threats and sly cunning. Last but not least, Mary Steenburgen is terrific as Wells' feisty love interest Amy Robbins.
Despite the gruesome theme running through the film, there is a great sense of humour running through the film, with Wells struggling to come to terms with Twentieth century America. There's a great joke involving Mcdonalds, and there's a very funny scene where Wells' who thinks he's quite the ladies man, suddenly becomes rather shy when Amy comes onto him.
Nice extras on the disc too, including a commentary by director Meyer and Mcdowell. One thing that should be mentioned. Although it states on the sleeve that this is a Region 1 release, it might be well worth your while asking the seller you are buying this from whether the disc is multi-region as mine played perfectly on my Region 2 playing DVD machine.
An excellent release all round. Don't miss out on purchasing it. 5 out of 5

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.