As a kid, I used to get to see this movie on television almost all the time. For many years, I always thought it was a TV-movie, but now I find out this is not the case - I just picked up the DVD.
This film starred Malcolm McDowell, known typically as a villain in such movies as A Clockwork Orange, 1971 and Caligula, 1979 (this came out the same year as Time After Time, ironically), but in this movie he played H.G. Wells, the real-life writer of The Time Machine.
The film also starred David Warner as Jack the Ripper, and I knew him from The Omen, 1976 (he played a reporter, who was a good guy, so this film casts the two stars against type).
Then there's pre-Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen as Wells' love interest.
The movie is better than I remember it (which rarely ever happens) because there are scenes shown and language spoken that were never evident on the TV version growing up. Enriched, you could say, and the viewing of this DVD was a joy.
P.S. There's a 7 second scene where Corey Feldman appears. His only speaking line: Mama, who's that? And he actually got a credit in the film as Boy in Museum. Boy, his mother must have been some agent.
Numanoid
05-01-03, 02:41 PM
Don't forget, written and directed by Nicholas Meyer, perhaps best known for writing and directing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country...by far the best of the original cast movies.
Time After Time is one of my perennial favorites. I must have seen it 15 times over the years.
Charlie Goose
05-01-03, 03:29 PM
Very good movie. Not just for the exiciting Jack the Ripper plot, but for the little things. For instance, Wells' scientific mind sorting out all the wonders he's seeing; cars, telephones, fast food.
I also enjoy the catchy themesong by Cyndi Lauper.
Gdrlv
05-01-03, 04:01 PM
Great movie...I also used to watch it constantly as a kid (my favorite scene then was when he went into McDonald's). It's even better now. One of my favorite time travel films...
Rogue588
05-01-03, 04:12 PM
Allow me the mandatory "They don't make 'em like this anymore.." comment..
Seeker
05-01-03, 05:24 PM
I agree - GREAT movie. I really like it, and grabbed it as soon as it came out on DVD...
I loved, the line by HG Wells: "Freedom fries! Mcdonald's French fries are freedom fries!"
wait, that wasn't quite the line, was it....
KitchenSink
05-01-03, 09:53 PM
This was the first movie my wife and I watched together way-y-y-y back when. Had to get this one for posterity.
johnglass
05-01-03, 11:49 PM
Originally posted by Groucho
I also enjoy the catchy themesong by Cyndi Lauper.
rotfl
Iron_Giant
05-02-03, 01:31 AM
I saw it when it came in the theater years ago, I loved the humor in the movie and the time travel and the action sceens. But, I did not like the bloody sceens, it sure did make Jake out to be real - just to bloody of me.
Panda Phil
05-02-03, 11:14 AM
The film was also responsible for bringing the old Warner Bros shield out of retirement, which I thought was kinda cool.
Was so glad this came out on DVD recently. I loved this movie when I was a young punk, and don't know how many times I saw it in the theater. I even remember having a big crush on Mary Steenburgen at the time. :)
Iron Giant - Yeah, it was kinda bloody, but ya gotta admit it's pretty tame stuff by todays standards.
Charlie Goose
05-02-03, 06:51 PM
Originally posted by Gdrlv
Great movie...I also used to watch it constantly as a kid (my favorite scene then was when he went into McDonald's). It's even better now. One of my favorite time travel films...
First he orders, using the same accent as the trucker in front of him, "Big Mac, large fries, and....uh, tea!"
I just watched this again on HDNet Movies (I had seen it once on DVD about 5 years ago,) and it was extremely hard to overlook the terrible blurriness on the top and bottom of the frame. I would say this was apparent on at least 60-70% of the movie, and in some cases this occurence was on the sides of the frame too. I'm not talking about foreground/background out of focus objects, these were the same objects that were in focus in the middle of the frame that became blurry as you went to the edges of the frame.
I have seen this in other movies before, but never to this extent. What causes this?
I also noticed some pretty obvious fishing line on a 3 second shot of an airplane in the sky. I'll have to take a look at the DVD and see if it was noticeable on there.
I was going to reply when I saw that I already did...five years ago.
Numes
07-08-08, 11:28 AM
I was going to reply when I saw that I already did...five years ago.
I used the "search" function! :D
But seriously, any thoughts on my question?
riley_dude
07-08-08, 07:25 PM
One of my favorites and they used San Francisco creatively as well.
Fun to visit some of the sites where they filmed including Embarcadero Center where one of the chases took place.
DVD-ho78(DTS)
07-09-08, 10:18 AM
I was going to reply when I saw that I already did...five years ago.
One of my favorites and they used San Francisco creatively as well.
And a big insirpation for the use of San Francisco in STAR TREK IV, which Meyer co-wrote.
Chad
07-09-08, 12:44 PM
This is available to watch instantly on Netflix, FYI.
eedoon
07-11-08, 10:00 AM
Thanks to that someone who brings this thread from the grave, I watched the movie last night and I really enjoyed it a lot. There were some cheesy moments (I don't like Steenburgen's performance in the movie... well she was fine, but not really that good), but overall I really love it.
Numes
07-11-08, 12:29 PM
I just got finished listening to the commentary and Nicholas Meyer is great as usual. He talked a lot about how it was the first movie he directed and isn't shy about pointing out the flaws or things he might have changed.
Malcom McDowell was also on the commentary track and he had a lot of good stories too. Most of them centered around how he and Steenburgen fell in love on the set of the movie.
There was one really odd thing, though. It was obvious that the commentaries for McDowell and Meyer were recorded separately, but the way they edited the commentary together, it's like they tried to make it sound like they were in the same room. They would put a random "yes" or "yeah" by one of them after the other one spoke to make it seem like they were recording it together. Very odd, I have never seen it tried so bluntly on a commentary track before.
NIMH Rat
07-11-08, 04:32 PM
Always liked the scene where Steenburgen is crawling all over MM at her apartment, playing with his little 19th century vest buttons, and he mutters some gentlemanly thing like "I don't mean to be so forward...." and she says "Forward? I'm practically raping you." Then they make out.
Never understood why [MEGA SPOILERS] the police gave Holmes such a hard time as he begs them to send a car to Steenburgen's apartment to stop her from getting killed. If they'd done what he asked, they'd have saved someone's life, and no matter what they see there, they'd confirm whether Holmes was an honest man or not. Just never made sense to me that they'd be such bullheads.
Groucho
07-11-08, 04:36 PM
Holmes?
rennervision
07-11-08, 05:18 PM
I sort of think if we ever do travel through time, this movie touched on the one way it will happen. You enter the time machine at one point in time. You can then emerge at any point where the device continues to exist. If the device gets moved during your journey, you will essentially travel through space as well as time when you reappear.
Numes
07-11-08, 06:09 PM
Never understood why [MEGA SPOILERS] the police gave Holmes such a hard time as he begs them to send a car to Steenburgen's apartment to stop her from getting killed. If they'd done what he asked, they'd have saved someone's life, and no matter what they see there, they'd confirm whether Holmes was an honest man or not. Just never made sense to me that they'd be such bullheads.
Well, let's see. That was a key plot element of the movie that the friend of Amy Robbins die and that us, the audience, think that Amy is dead. In addition, he says his name is Sherlock Holmes. I mean, would you take that guy seriously?
I thought it was a great plot point. In fact, since I saw this movie the first time about 5 years ago I couldn't quite remember if Amy actually died or not.
rw2516
07-11-08, 06:47 PM
I sort of think if we ever do travel through time, this movie touched on the one way it will happen. You enter the time machine at one point in time. You can then emerge at any point where the device continues to exist. If the device gets moved during your journey, you will essentially travel through space as well as time when you reappear.
The Time Machine(1960) used this same idea. When Wells demonstrates with the time machine model, he tells his friends the machine is still there, even though they can't see it, occupying the same space in the future. When Wells travels in the full scale model he never leaves his laboratory, occupying the exact same space. The Morlocks drag his machine into their citadel, so when he returns to his time the machine is outside his laboratory because the Morlocks moved it. When he decides to return to the future he has to drag the machine back into his lab first so he will appear outside the citadel.
NIMH Rat
07-11-08, 07:01 PM
Well, let's see. That was a key plot element of the movie that the friend of Amy Robbins die and that us, the audience, think that Amy is dead. In addition, he says his name is Sherlock Holmes. I mean, would you take that guy seriously?
I thought it was a great plot point. In fact, since I saw this movie the first time about 5 years ago I couldn't quite remember if Amy actually died or not.
I wouldn't take the guy at his word but the best way to prove he's lying is to speak with Amy, which Wells was urging them to do. Finally Wells gets them to act.....by confessing to all the murders, the only lie he tells.
I admit it's good suspense but those cops were made extra dumb just to drive viewers insane.
NC-36
07-12-08, 06:56 AM
"The first man who raises a fist is the first man who's run out of ideas."
Words I live by to this day.
Dr Mabuse
07-12-08, 11:15 AM
I was going to reply when I saw that I already did...five years ago.
which kind of fits in with the theme and title of the film neatly...
CreamyGoodness
07-12-08, 02:21 PM
I sort of think if we ever do travel through time, this movie touched on the one way it will happen. You enter the time machine at one point in time. You can then emerge at any point where the device continues to exist. If the device gets moved during your journey, you will essentially travel through space as well as time when you reappear.
What would would happen if the time machine was destroyed at some point and you went beyond that time?
Also, I love the film (saw it almost 30 years ago in the theater when it first came out and MANY times since), but why wouldn't HG be smart enough to just go back in time one day and stop Jack from escaping into the future in the first place? Yeah, because then there's no movie. Hmm. Is there a 5-second version of this on YouTube? That would be it.
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