Time After Time (1979) User Reviews

Timely and Credible

[Lechuguilla · 7/10 · 11 December 2004]

Looking like a nerdy Richard Thomas, Malcolm McDowell plays H.G. Wells in this highly imaginative sci-fi thriller, that has Wells fast forwarded from 1893 to 1979, in a quest to find Jack the Ripper. The film's screenplay, direction, cinematography, editing, and costumes are all top notch. And Mary Steenburgen gives a fine performance in a support role.

"Time After Time" has an ever so slight comic book, tongue in cheek, feel to the plot, suggestive of Batman and Robin. Yet, right behind this entertaining, if somewhat superficial, facade is a serious message that is both timely and credible: no matter how much society advances in its technology, our world will always have two things ... violence and love.

Highly entertaining movie with a tense story.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 8/10 · 2 August 2005]

"Time After Time" was one of those movies of which I didn't even knew it existed. It certainly is a movie that deserves more recognition for this movie truly was one of the most entertaining movies I have seen in a while.

The story its concept is already one factor why I liked this movie so much. In the late 19th century The scientist H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) has build a time machine which his good friend John Leslie Stevenson aka Jack the Ripper (David Warner) uses when the police has just discovered his true identity. Ripper travels to the year 1979 and Wells, who feels responsible for his escape to the in his eyes future Utopian society of 1979, follows him to the future, in an attempt to catch him and bring him to justice and prevent him from making more victims in the future. I highly enjoyed this original story and concept and thought that it was perfectly executed by talented director Nicholas Meyer, who made his debut as a director with this movie. After this he made two more well known and widely appreciated Star Trek movies; "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" which by the fans are often regarded as the best in the series of Star Trek movies.

The movie has a fantastic and typical '70's atmosphere which I always adore in movies. It's also filled with some typical '70's tense chase sequences, which are brilliantly filmed and edited. The cinematography itself is also at times refreshingly original, especially the perfectly done opening sequence of the movie in which Jack The Ripper makes another victim.

But the movie isn't just tense and original, it also is highly entertaining and it features some good humor. Of course having an 19th century main character who for the first time takes a look in the future 1979 is already good for some laughs. Such as the time were he visits a McDonald's or comes up with the fake alias Sherlock Holmes when he gets in contact with the police. There are countless 'little' fun parts like this in the movie which makes this movie a pleasant and entertaining one to watch as well as a tense nail biting thriller.

Malcolm McDowell is extremely good and convincing as a 19th century gentleman and scientist H.G. Wells. Honestely he plays his best role since "A Clockwork Orange". David Warner is also perfectly cast as Jack The Ripper. He's a perfectly scary and mysterious gentleman. Warner is perhaps well known to everyone for playing Spicer Lovejoy in the 1997 movie "Titanic". The movie also features a at the time still very young Mary Steenburgen in one of her very first movie roles. She also was superb and the talent was already showing. One year later she even already won an Oscar for the movie "Melvin and Howard".

The movie further more features a highly good and underrated musical score by well known Hungarian composer Miklós Rózsa.

This movie is terribly underrated in terms of how well known it is. This movie deserves to be seen by everybody for this movie is an entertaining one as well as a tense thriller, with some excellent performances by the cast and good directing by Nicholas Meyer.

8/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

A quaint little film

[movieman_kev · 7/10 · 13 October 2005]

H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) follows Jack the Ripper (David Warner) into 1970's San Franscisco, after Jack Aka John Stevenson steals Well's Time machine. H.G. falls in love with spunky feminist, Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen), while they try to stop the Ripper from striking again. Just a fun quaint little film with great acting all around and an atmosphere of wonder. The best parts deal with Wells getting accustomed to his new surroundings. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice a very young Corey Feldman in a very small part as a youngster who's the first to see Wells upon his arrival in the Seventies.

My Grade: B

DVD Extras: Commentary with Director Nicholas Meyer & Actor Malcolm McDowell; an article on time travel in movies; Theatrical Trailer; and Trailers for "The Time Mace (1960) & "The Time Machine" (2002)

A Fun Twist on H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine"

[imddaveh · 29 October 2001]

Often overlooked, "Time After Time" is probably one of the best time travel movies (if there is such a genre) ever made. The time travel effects are cheesy and mercifully few, but the film puts story and character way above visual effects, making for a good trade off.

Malcolm McDowell is H.G. Wells who, in this movie, actually invents a time machine rather than just writing about one. "The Time Machine" is told in flashback as "the time traveler" emerges from his time machine and recounts his adventures to a gathering of friends at his home. "Time After Time" borrows that scene from the book, having Wells announce that he has built the time machine and will embark on an adventure to the future utopia as soon as he works up the nerve. The proceedings are interupted by police at the door conducting a search in the wake of a new attack by Jack the Ripper. As it turns out, one of Wells' guests, Dr. John Leslie Stevenson (played by David Warner), is the Ripper. While the police comb through the house looking for him, Stevenson makes his way to the basement. There, he enters Wells' time machine and escapes to the future.

Feeling responsible for having turned the maniacal Jack the Ripper loose on the future utopia, Wells enters the machine (which returns to it's point of origin unless a special key is used) and follows Stevenson 90 years into the future. The time travel sequence consists of cheesy optical effects accompanied by a clever audio montage that depicts most of the 20th century. Wells emerges from the machine shocked to find himself in San Francisco, California in the year 1979. The time machine, as well as most of his possesions, are on display in a San Francisco museum.

While searching for Jack the Ripper he meets Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen), a foreign currency exchange officer at a bank. She reveals that she exchanged very old pounds for dollars with another Englishman, wearing similarly antiquated clothing. This leads Wells to find Jack the RIpper, now decked out in 70s threads, well integrated into modern society...and continuing his fiendish deeds.

From there, the movie engages the audience in Wells' and Robbins' pursuit of the Ripper through the streets of San Francisco with an entertaining mix of close-calls, sly humor, and the inevitable romance between Wells and Robbins.

Malcolm McDowell plays the part of H.G. Wells with his usual intensity and skill, and comes off as very believable. Mary Steenburgen is well cast as the feminine but strongly independent bank employee, and is adorably frail but surprisingly tough. As for David Warner....well, villians don't get much better than Warner. A fine actor, Warner plays Stevenson/Jack the RIpper as a cool, sophisticated psychopath - exactly, in my humble opinion, as Jack the Ripper should be played.

"Time After Time" makes good use of artistic license to integrate fact with fiction. Scotland Yard has always suspect that Jack the Ripper might have been a surgeon, as he is in this film. Also amusing is the fact that in real life, H.G. Wells did marry an Amy Robbins who was an outspoken feminist. All in all, 'Time After Time" is a well written and acted romantic adventure, and remains one of my favorite time travel movies.

Charming, in more ways than one.

[Mr-Fusion · 7/10 · 9 July 2012]

In a thrilling play on history, Nicholas Meyer's H.G. Wells not only wrote about time travel, but also built his own time machine. When one of his dinner guests - the infamous Jack the Ripper (David Warner) - steals away in the device, Wells (Malcolm McDowell) valiantly pursues the serial killer to 1979 San Francisco. Once there, he falls in love with a young bank teller (Mary Steenburgen), and faces a race against the clock when his newfound love is to be the killer's next victim.

As a bulletproof time-travel story, the script has more than its fair share of plot holes and inconsistencies. But as a lighthearted fantasy/romance, it excels, mostly due in large part to the chemistry between McDowell and Steenburgen (an authentic chemistry, as they fell in love behind the scenes, as well). And Warner is perfectly cast as the calculating cold-blooded murderer. And anyone familiar with the real H.G. Wells will smile at the jokes on women's lib, socialism, and his idea of a modern utopia (which doesn't come to pass in '79).

It's a fun time-travel story, and for a director's first time out, it's a solid effort.

7/10

Very Enjoyable Fantasy

[Theo Robertson · 7/10 · 27 August 2003]

Having a premise of HG Wells ( Yes that one ) pursue Jack the ripper ( Ditto ) to the 20th century has all the makings of a really camp and totally crap film , but despite the outrageous idea TIME AFTER TIME is a very enjoyable fantasy .

Unlike most time travel films ( THE TERMINATOR , BACK TO THE FUTURE not to mention several DOCTOR WHO and STAR TREK stories ) TIME AFTER TIME doesn`t really concern itself with concepts like the blinovitch limitation effect ie a temporal paradox , instead it concentrates on how a radical 19th century idealist like Wells would have found 20th century " Utopia " and how he would have been sickened by it . It`s here that the film works best with Wells travelling through the time vortex listening to the history of the 20th century and the scene with Wells and Jack watching television . It`s also interesting to note that the movie`s most amusing moments ( And they are genuinely amusing )are when Wells notices the difference in sexual mores of the present day . The film is much weaker when it switches to " Hero tracks down serial killer " type thriller but that`s not really what the film is about .

H.G. Wells Vs. J.T. Ripper

[slokes · 6/10 · 26 September 2005]

From the opening image of an onrushing Warner Bros. logo to its closing clinch, "Time After Time" has the feeling of a Saturday afternoon matinée in all its silly glory. The fact the clever "Twilight Zone" concept isn't undone by the many logic holes and awkward moments has to do with the charisma of leads Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen and a script that finds room for humor and romance along with the (goofy) science fiction and social comment.

We begin in London in 1893, where Jack the Ripper emerges from the shadows after a five-year sabbatical to kill a prostitute. Meanwhile, not far away, young avant-garde writer H.G. Wells is telling a group of friends about the new time machine he has been working on in his basement, which he plans to use to visit "utopia" just three generations away. When the police come knocking at Wells' door and find the Ripper's telltale black bag in Wells' closet, one of Wells' friends has suddenly gone missing.

As another of Wells' guests is heard to exclaim: "Poppycock!" Lucky thing Jack the Ripper wasn't French; he might have escaped in the submarine in Jules Verne's bathtub.

It's easy to smirk at the concept behind "Time After Time," not to mention its bad special effects. But there's more to like here than dislike, especially as director/writer Nicholas Meyer builds up the pace after H.G. Wells touches down on San Francisco in 1979.

It turns out to be someone's utopia alright, just not Wells'. "I belong here completely and utterly," the Ripper tells Wells when they meet again, while the Ripper flips through channels of televised carnage on the hotel TV set. "I'm home. It's you that doesn't belong here." McDowell plays Wells with a welcome combination of smugness and naïveté, the comic foil as he runs up against everything from taxicab doors to McDonalds fries. The fish-out-of-water bit may go on too long, but McDowell sells it amiably enough, and makes us care for his character's plight. As a fan of McDowell's, it's nice to see him playing an atypical good guy for once, and do it so well.

Steenburgen takes the thankless role of obligatory romantic interest Amy and does wonders with it, with her offbeat "Annie Hall" delivery and way with dialogue. She's the modern girl in this story, only she doesn't realize quite how modern.

"You still maintain this is all poppycock?" Wells asks her after showing her his machine.

"That isn't the word I had in mind," she replies.

The film slips a bit with the Ripper, not because David Warner does a bad job. On the contrary, the gifted actor pulls out every bit of strange malevolence he can from the script's most undernourished main character. In his frank DVD commentary, Meyer says he didn't want to make a slasher film, and while that's his prerogative, the Ripper scenes feel almost too tame. The script feels underbaked in other ways, too, and while I won't go into any spoiler-laden details, you can see the many other comments here. Mark Dougthy and Simon Tack raise two compelling questions this film leaves unanswered.

Yet taken for Saturday afternoon entertainment, there's solid moments aplenty in "Time After Time," some funny, like Wells the atheist praying for sanctuary in a church and getting his just desserts, or his use of a nom de plume when giving San Fran police info on their latest killer. Some are just affecting, like the romantic lunch Wells and Amy have in a revolving restaurant and the moment when Amy finds a newspaper that tells her loverboy ain't the crock she thought he was.

"Time After Time" doesn't hold together terribly well upon reflection, but it is a film you will think about after, and have fun watching. And for McDowell fans like me, it's a chance to see a favorite actor for once without his horns.

Very well done and quite romantic

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 9 November 2015]

"Time After Time" is the sort of escapist fantasy that you just need to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy--and very enjoyable this film certainly is. Additionally, it's quite romantic and is a movie I strongly recommend you watch.

The film begins in London during the time of Jack the Ripper (David Warner). Coincidentally, the famous writer H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) has just built a working time machine and the Ripper uses it to avoid being caught by the police. But Wells knows he cannot allow this maniac to escape and travels to 1979 in search of the murderer. There, Wells falls in love with a lady (Mary Steenburgen) and enlists her help to find the killer.

This movie works for a variety of reasons. It's certainly one of McDowell's best performances and it's nice to see him being vulnerable and more multidimensional than his other famous roles (such as in "A Clockwork Orange"). The film also looks and sounds wonderful (with a lovely score by Miklós Rózsa) and is wonderfully directed by Nicholas Meyer. Well worth seeing and a rousing adventure that both men and women will likely enjoy.

Still rather interesting, if slow

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 25 February 2019]

Nicholas Meyer wrote the Sherlock Holmes novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and for directing the second, fourth and sixth Star Trek movies (you know that story that only the even ones are good?) as well as the TV movie The Day After which forced every kid in my 1983 elementary class to realize that we were all going to die in a nuclear holocaust. Time After Time is his directorial debut.

In 1893 London, H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) is showing off his time machine to his dinner guests when the police arrive, on the hunt for Jack the Ripper, who they believe may be a surgeon friend of Wells, John Leslie Stevenson (the always welcome David Warner). By the time our author hero finds where the potential killer is, he's stolen the time machine and is off for 1979 San Francisco.

Wells is shocked by our future, expecting it to be some kind of socialist utopia. Instead, he finds a world where even Jack the Ripper must admit is awash with horror and bloodshed. The maniac confesses to Wells that "Ninety years ago, I was a freak. Now... I'm an amateur."

Our hero must protect his new love Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen), catch the killer and make it back in time - cue Huey Lewis - to London. Sadly, there was no time machine available to speed up this film, which confuses the words plotting and plodding. It's a slow-moving affair that lumbers to a conclusion, but perhaps my brain is addled from years of Hong Kong cinema that rewards my short attention span.

That said, McDowell and Steenburgen have great chemistry, which makes plenty of sense when you realize that they fell in love making this movie and were married for nearly a decade. Also, despite how romantic the movie claims Wells was, his marriage to Robbins was anything but. He was an unapologetic cheater who believed that men could have as many lovers as they wanted while wives must be faithful.

Time After Time was rebooted in 2016 as an ABC TV series which only lasted for five episodes. It completely slipped by me, to be perfectly honest.

A rare science fiction gem

[Spleen · 9/10 · 22 March 2003]

This was a childhood favourite of mine (I think I was ten), and it was a pleasant surprise to see it again as an adult (properly this time, on the big screen) and find it really was as good as I'd remembered and hoped. I'd never have guessed that this was Nicholas Meyer's first time as a director. He was fortunate in his talent, of course, having himself as a writer, Miklós Rózsa as a composer, and Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell both convincing and enchanting us as the two lovers (McDowell, in particular, hits the right notes so perfectly that when you see him plead, with tears in his eyes, at the end, you feel the urge to do the same thing yourself).

An earlier writer regretted that Meyer didn't have his hero travel back in time in an attempt to prevent Jack the Ripper's crimes before they were committed (and even went so far as to blame this "failing" on the absence of CGI!), and I suppose that if I'd been a fan of incoherent cliché, I would have been disappointed, too. But this is a film, thank goodness, that takes itself seriously. There's no nonsense about changing the past. H.G. Wells (some spoilers follow) believes at first he has set Jack the Ripper loose on a socialist utopia; but when he finds that the world is, on the whole, as violent as it's always been, he doesn't use this as an excuse to write off the menace he inflicted on 1979 San Francisco as unimportant, nor does he (or the film) retreat into a "Back to the Future" fairytale. He makes a serious attempt to right his inadvertant wrong. This is the main reason that tension steadily builds throughout and the "chase" conclusion is as smart and involving as anything that has gone before.

H.G.Wells has built the time machine he wrote about

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 28 May 2015]

Time After Time has Malcolm McDowell cast as the famous H.G. Wells who hasn't turned to writing yet, but is quite the scientist and has built the famous time machine he wrote about. It's peer into the future maybe see if and when the Utopia he thinks humankind is destined for comes about. It certainly hasn't in 1979 the year Wells travels to the future in San Francisco of that year.

But Wells is on a more important mission. Using the machine before him was David Warner, a doctor friend of Wells and a convivial dining companion who happens to be the infamous Jack the Ripper. Wells means to bring him back to face British justice.

Warner of course continues the activities which made him infamous. The challenge for Wells who represents the ultimate in civilization is does he have the right stuff to bring down a man who has become known in history as the incarnation of pure evil.

Along the way we learn that Wells snatched his second wife from the future one Amy Robbins played by Mary Steenburgen. That was the maiden name of Wells's second wife, not that he was the most faithful of husbands. But she put up with his infidelities in real life and had a few of her own.

Time After Time is based on an interesting notion produced well for the big screen. All three of the leads give great performances.

As for Wells he remains optimistic though far more realistic.

wonderful sci-fi as H.G. Wells travels to 1979

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 31 May 2015]

"Time after Time," from 1980, stars Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, and David Warner, and is directed by Nicholas Meyer.

In this story, the author of "The Time Machine," H.G. Wells, lives in England, has invented the time machine, and shows it to guests visiting, among them, Dr. John Stevenson, who has arrived late. Wells then admits that he hasn't gone on a trip to the past or future because he hasn't gotten his nerve up yet.

Moments later, the police arrive, and it's revealed that Dr. Stevenson is really Jack the Ripper and has just killed someone. Searching the house, they can't find him, nor did anyone see him leave. Wells realizes that Stevenson took his time machine. The machine has a key in it that causes it to return to its starting point. Wells can see that he traveled to 1979. So he sets the dial.

He winds up in San Francisco, smack in the middle of an H.G. Wells exhibit, which is modeling his time machine. He sets out to find Stevenson; after changing some money, he realizes the doctor did the same and goes searching for the bank that changed it.

At the bank, he meets Amy Robbins. They fall in love. But Wells is there to do a job.

This is a great story, very tense, suspenseful, and exciting as Wells seeks out Stevenson and tries to keep him from killing again and also to get the key away from him - the key that will return the machine to its starting point.

In one scene, he faces off with the doctor at his hotel, and Wells points out that "neither of us belongs here." Stevenson turns on the TV and starts zapping the remote. There are hostages being killed in Israel, tanks moving through the desert, an assassination of a mayor -- "I'm home," Stevenson announces. He feels he's found a place and time where he fits.

Malcolm McDowell, young and cute here, does an excellent job as the brilliant and earnest Wells, and Steenburgen is lovely as a feminist who falls for him. They have great chemistry; they did fall in love during this film and married. McDowell's career didn't take off as it should have, due to some personal problems, and he wound up playing bad guys in low-budget films and on television. As can be seen here, that's a shame. However, he is in constant demand. Warner makes an attractive villain.

A delightful movie, a charming cast, that will keep you entertained and absorbed. Highly recommended.

This is an enjoyable thriller in which scientific genius named H.G. Wells stalks a criminal genius named Jack the Ripper across time itself

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 2 March 2023]

This is a good movie starring Malcolm MacDowell and David Warner and the film introduced Mary Steenburgen with whom MacDowell married . Set in Victorian London, circa 1983 . H. G. Wells is experimenting with his time machine . Futurist H. G. Wells (Malcolm McDowall) believes that the future holds a Utopian society and he also believes in time travel . He has just built a time machine which he is displaying to a group of friends, including skeptical surgeon Dr. John Leslie Stevenson (David Warner) . Later on, he discovers the machine has been used by an associate who turns out to be Jack the Ripper , to travel to San Francisco in 1979 and Wells meets and subsequently falls in love for a beautiful bank clerk (Mary Steenburgen) . Then in San Francisco a series of grisly killings happen and Police Lt. Mitchell (Charles Cioffi) investigates the deeds , while H. G. Wells becomes the prime suspect. Wells follows to stop any further murders ! . The Wildest Chase of the Century!. H. G. Wells races through time to catch Jack the Ripper!.A chase through time -- to catch Jack the Ripper!. A brilliant scientist !. A criminal genius !. A delightful romance !. And a daring chase across time, the most exciting, mysterious and challenging dimension of all !. Imagine!

One of the most ingenious and agreeable thrillers of our time, in which H. G. Wells follows in contempary epoch to Jack the Ripper and the ensuing battle of wits is both imaginative and amusing Malcolm McDowall is attractive as Wells who goes into modern-day San Francisco via a time machine and Steenburgen is equally nice as Wells' modern American love interest. And David Warner is very good too , as a creepy character . Time after time (1979) results to be a brilliant pastiche that has quite a few splendid moments .

Special mention for the moving musical score by veteran composer Miklós Rózsa ; this was one of the last pictures scored by classic musician composer Miklós Rózsa , who received the Saturn Award for Best Music. As well as colorful and evocative cinematography by cameraman Paul Lohmann. The motion picture was competently directed by Nicholas Meyer, though overlong . Meyer's directing debut - from his own screenplay - occurred in 1979 with this Time after time. This was followed by Star Trek II - The wrath of Khan (1982) and The day after , (1983) ABC's nuclear-themed movie, which remains the single most watched television film ever made, nominated for fourteen Emmys. Its controversial telecast drew over one hundred million viewers. He's a prestigious screen-writer and novelist. Meyer novels include Holmes pastiches, The seven-per-cent solution (1974) that was cinematically adapted by Bob Clark , The West End Horror (1976) and The Canary Trainer (1993); also Black Orchid (1977) and Confessions of a homing pigeon (1981). Other directing credits include Volunteers , starring Tom Hanks and John Candy (1986), The Deceivers , starring Pierce Brosnan (1988), Company Business , starring Gene Hackman and Mikhail Baryishnikov (1991), Star Trek VI , starring Christopher Plummer (1992) and the HBO film, Vendetta , (1999), starring Christopher Walken, among others. Rating : 7/10 . Better than average. The pic will appeal to Malcolm McDowall fans and Science-Fiction enthusiasts.

Rarely matches its potential

[charchuk · 4/10 · 24 June 2007]

An interesting mash-up of a time-travel, fish-out-of-water romance with a Jack the Ripper mystery never really lives up to its potential. Indeed, the romance is the worst part of it, mostly due to Mary Steenburgen's truly annoying performance, but also partly because it takes away from David Warner and his great performance as the Ripper. I would have loved to see more about his fascination and adoration of our violence-ridden culture - perhaps some sharp social commentary would have worked well. Instead, we're treated to a silly love story and not enough mystery. Malcolm McDowell is fine as H.G. Wells, but never really comes across as heroic. The script is surprisingly sharp at times, but really only when it's referring to the Ripper part of the story. It's well-made, but nothing special.

A Fascinating Time Trip

[EmperorNortonII · 17 July 2004]

"Time After Time" is an interesting movie. It has the legendary H.G. Wells chasing Jack the Ripper through time, from London in 1893 to San Francisco in 1979. Wells is played by Malcolm McDowell, as a young idealistic visionary and scientific genius, who looks upon the future as Utopia. (How many movies can you remember where McDowell was the good guy?) Jack the Ripper is played by David Warner, who exudes something cold and frightening as the infamous killer. While the future hardly turns out to be Wells' imagined Utopia, Jack embraces the prevalent violence of the 20th century. In "From Hell," Jack the Ripper said he had invented the 20th century. "Time After Time" gives that statement a kind of significance. The movie may not offer much to the many theories surrounding the Jack the Ripper mystery, but it's still enjoyable.

Maybe not great, but at least very entertaining

[GTeixeira · 7/10 · 23 January 2014]

In 1893, HG Wells (Malcolm McDowell) manages to create a time machine. When a friend (David Warner), who turns out to be Jack the Ripper, uses the machine to escape into the future, Wells follows after him to 1979, where he must stop the murderer while also having to come to terms with the shocking future, which is far from the utopia he expected it to be...

A very interesting and surprisingly lighthearted thriller/adventure, with quite a bit of comedy thrown in, 'Time After Time' has a silly and fantastic feel to it that kinda reminds me of the more young audience aimed films of the 70's and 80's.

The actors are very good. Malcolm McDowell's HG Wells is a nice counter to his usually darker roles (like in 'A Clockwork Orange' or 'Caligula'); he pulls off a brilliantly convincing and even comedic performance as the naive futurist. Likewise, David Warner is also very good as the villain; rather than making the Ripper a psychotic monster he makes for a more sophisticated, almost gentlemanly antagonist that is no less of a menace.

Mary Streenburgen is charming and cute, and has great chemistry with McDowell, making their characters' romance convincing and entertaining to watch; however I didn't like her character too much and something in her delivery felt a bit... off sometimes. For example, when she is being threatened by the Ripper her lips curl a bit, as if trying not to smile/laugh.

The plot has quite a few problems, both story-wise (the usual thriller clichés and nonsense, like the police not questioning Mary's character to check Wells' claims) and concept-wise (it is time travel based after all, though the movie smartly does not delve too much on the implications it carries); it develops quite predictably too, and sometimes far too silly at that. On the other hands, the movie does have an excellent visual quality and an excellent soundtrack, which helps bring a certain charm to the story.

Overall, 'Time After Time' is a charming and fun film with a rather good cast. Despite its nice concept, it ends up as little more than a lighthearted variation of your run-of-the-mill thriller; not so much, however, as to take away from the overall entertainment, and in the end there is more than enough of it in here.

TIME AFTER TIME (Nicholas Meyer, 1979) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 21 May 2006]

I had watched this as a kid but didn't remember much about it when Warners' SE DVD came out a few years back to know whether it was worth purchasing or not – despite including an Audio Commentary featuring Nicholas Meyer and Malcolm McDowell! So, I took this opportunity to watch it a second time – again, dubbed in Italian! – and enjoyed it quite a bit, even if it's by no means a classic.

McDowell (as H.G. Wells) and David Warner (as Jack The Ripper) were well cast, while Mary Steenburgen – who later married the former! – makes for an unconventional 'modern' heroine. The special effects were rather iffy but the period detail (of both the Victorian and modern settings) – and the Ripper slayings themselves – were quite nicely done…though the disco scenes look rather hilarious now! Miklos Rozsa's score was effective, too.

One thing I was annoyed by, however, was the fact that the passage of time – which took McDowell 86 years in the future – was displayed only by haphazard political events, as if those are the only measures by which new eras are defined! No mention at all was made of the leaps and bounds that have occurred in culture or even science…though Wells and the Ripper are later shown watching a Looney Tunes cartoon (featuring Yosemite Sam) on TV!! The scene where McDowell and Steenburgen exit a cinema which had been screening "EXORCIST IV" was also amusing – and oddly prophetic! Likewise, it was interesting that Wells would hide behind the alias of Sherlock Holmes, unbeknownst that that literary figure's popularity would have probably exceeded even his own by this time!

At this stage, I wouldn't mind owning the DVD eventually – but, with all the titles that are constantly getting released, the old ones I've yet to pick up and the fact that I have very limited shelf space, I can't say that it's much of a priority right now...

Dandy plot, winning cast, but a convoluted treatment...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 13 March 2008]

Malcolm McDowell as H.G. Wells and David Warner as Jack the Ripper make wonderful adversaries in this squashy fantasy-thriller which doesn't have a firm narrative, doesn't know when to quit, but does include marvelous performances and a handsome production. The plot itself is rather ingenious, too: Wells, about to unveil to colleagues a time machine of his own design in Victorian-era London, instead must use his contraption to chase down John Leslie Stevenson, a mad killer who has hijacked the machine to escape into the 20th century. Wafty Mary Steenburgen is cute as a bank-teller who becomes involved (her precise talk meshes beautifully with her funny/frazzled personality) and Patti D'Arbanville has a memorable bit as a modern-day victim of the Ripper. Yet, in the film's final third, these cat-and-mouse games become confused and ridiculous, and director Nicholas Meyer drags it out to an ungainly length. **1/2 from ****

A Classic – One of My Favorite Sci-Fi Movies

[claudio_carvalho · 10/10 · 22 April 2005]

In 1893, in London, H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) has just finished his time machine, when his friend Dr. John Leslie Stevenson (David Warner) – indeed Jack the Ripper – uses it to escape from the Scotland Yard. Wells decides to follow John, and arrives in 1979, in San Francisco. While in a bank chasing John, he meets Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen), who is responsible for the exchange of currencies, and she gives the address of John, in Hyatt Hotel. Wells and Amy have a crush on each other, while John threatens them, trying to get the key of the time machine. "Time After Time" is a classic, and one of my favorite sci-fi movies. The first time I saw it was in 1979, in the movie theater, then I have watched it at least three times on VHS, and now it was my debut on DVD. The plot has some irrelevant inconsistencies, as usual in movies that deal with time travel, but these flaws do not reduce its charming. There is sci-fi, action, romance, suspense and drama blended in a delightful story. Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen have a perfect chemistry, and Malcolm McDowell has probably one of the nicer character in his career, where I would like to highlight three excellent movies and performances in his filmography: the masterpiece "A Clockwork Orange", "Time After Time" and "Cat People". David Warner is excellent as usual in the role of a charming villain. "Time After Time" is a highly recommended film, for lovers of sci-fi films. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Um Século em 43 Minutos" ("One Century in 43 Minutes")

Pretty good film.

[hemisphere65-1 · 6/10 · 16 June 2021]

McDowell is very good, but Warner is outstanding as a villain!

The story is creative, but the script is full of massive holes even compared to other time travel stories.

Both characters, but especially Jack, become comfortable with the modern world way too quickly.

Steenbergen is not bad, but the dialogue doesn't help her character.

Always A Fun Ride

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 4 November 2005]

This has always been an interesting movie to watch because of the unique storyline: two famous characters in history traveling ahead in time and the opposing each other in the modern world.

Time travel stories appeal to me, anyway, so it's no surprise I found it fascinating. Regardless, there is such a good combination of drama, suspense, comedy, action and romance that it would appeal to most anyone.

Malcolm McDowell is particularly good as H.G. Wells and David Warner is chilling as Jack The Ripper. Mary Steenburgen, even though she is a big '70s liberal-feminist, is still appealing to me, probably because of her face and voice.

This is just a fun movie to watch and I've enjoyed viewing this about every four or five years now for 20 years. there are no dull spots in this movie.

HG Wells Meets Jack The Ripper

[michaelarmer · 7/10 · 18 March 2020]

This film is a hybrid, a tie up between the famous HG Wells story, The Time Machine and the famous Murders of the late 19th Century by Jack The Ripper. HG Wells builds his time machine and is about to travel in time when Jack the Ripper, who is HG Wells surgeon friend, escapes in it when he is cornered at Wells house, and flees to 1979, the time machine returns empty and HG Wells follows him to try to stop him.

The storyline is not great, the HG Wells side is interesting, but the Jack The Ripper version is a bit unbelievable. However, Malcolm McDowell is on good form as is David Warner, and Mary Steenburgen is good as the desperate city woman trying to find a good man. Everyone else is fairly redundant. The special effects lighting looks poor, the murders are not well covered, they concentrate on the relationship between McDowell and Steenburgen and his attempts to come to terms with 1979, and catch Warner, obviously it ends well with a couple of haltering steps.

But its the Time Machine storyline and Malcolm McDowell that save it from being a less than average film.

A personal fave...one of the most purely enjoyable 70s movies!

[hnt_dnl · 10/10 · 24 August 2012]

TIME AFTER TIME (1979) is on a relative short list of movies that I 'purely enjoy'. The 70s is arguably the best decade in the history of cinema, at least in terms of high-quality classics. It probably wouldn't crack my top 10 "best films of the 70s", but a short list of entertaining personal faves from this decade include this movie. I've seen it countless times and I always get a kick out of it's sheer entertainment value. The movie immediately draws you in with it's bombastic score over the opening credits sequence that sets the tone that the viewer is in for a wild ride!

Starting in 1890s London, Jack the Ripper is on the loose and has claimed his most recent victim, a courtesan in an alleyway (a chilling scene), then cut to the home of H.G. Wells (brilliant performance by star Malcolm McDowell), who is hosting a dinner party with several friends. One of them, Dr. John Lesley Stevenson (excellent work by David Warner) arrives late. Wells shows the gentlemen his latest invention, a time machine that he is hesitant to use, but later he finds out that one of his guests MUST use it as his friend Stevenson turns out to be Jack the Ripper! The local police are clueless, but Wells, armed with his knowledge, decides to follow Stevenson wherever he travelled.

Followed by this is an amazing time travel sequence that rivals the one in 2001:A Space Odyssey. This film was made in 1979 and the effects beat out many that came out in the decades AFTER it. Watching it makes me feel like I'm in Wells' place! Wells ends up on present-day San Francisco and the search for The Ripper begins! The early fish-out-of-water scenes of the Victorian Wells in the middle of modern-day USA are entertaining, with several funny and insightful scenes, including encounters with a pawn shop owner and an experience at McDonald's!

Wells eventually meets a bank employee named Amy (a refreshing Mary Steenburgen) who immediately takes a liking to him and he finds is a major key to helping him capture Stevenson. Wells finds him pretty early in a local hotel and this leads to an invigorating chase sequence, in which Stevenson escapes. Wells continues to need Amy's help and they find themselves falling in love.

This film moves at a brisk pace, but still finds time to catch it's breath and provide character insight and a thought-provoking message about the negative correlation between technological advancement and morality. The gentlemanly and moralistic Wells finds himself extremely out of place in a modern world where not all of his predictions of the future came true!

I know everyone is high on his work in A Clockwork Orange, but I frankly think Time After Time is McDowell's best film performance. An unconventional leading man, he totally carries this film as the protagonist and makes the journey palpable to the viewer! Warner essays his role as a serial killer with a chilling menace that is frightening. While I like Steenburgen in this, I do feel like her performance isn't quite the level of those of McDowell and Warner, but I find her very refreshing and likable in this role. Not a conventional beauty, I think her kind of "plain Jane" quality suits this movie. She's appealing enough that it is believable that Wells would fall for her.

Director Nicholas Meyer fashioned an eye-popping, fast-paced, provocative sci-fi adventure film with this movie and directed it with a lot of style. A very entertaining movie from the 70s!

Time travel done with whimsy, thrills and romance

[kevinolzak · 7/10 · 27 July 2022]

1979's "Time After Time" marked the directorial debut of Nicholas Meyer, previously the author of "The Seven Percent Solution," which featured the fictional Sherlock Holmes encountering the actual Sigmund Freud. Here, we are treated to real life novelist and 'women's liberation' advocate H. G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) actually building his legendary time machine in the year 1893, eager to test it until another Whitechapel murder is executed by Jack the Ripper, not surprisingly revealed to be Wells' best friend and chess rival John Leslie Stevenson (David Warner). Only after authorities leave does Wells discover how easily the Ripper vanished into thin air, stealing his prized time machine to make his way to modern day San Francisco in 1979, a period that Wells predicted would become 'Utopia.' Trailing his quarry in a manner befitting Sherlock Holmes (a pseudonym he actually uses when dealing with police), Wells appears in a museum display of works he has yet to achieve, and in exchanging pound notes for American currency meets a very liberated, independent divorcee working the Bank of London counter, Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen), who instantly takes a shine to this literally lost soul to not only show him the town but take him to her bed in highly amusing fashion. Meanwhile, the Ripper has taken to this new world like a duck takes to water ("90 years ago I was a freak, today I'm an amateur"), but Wells, in a nice allusion to their many chess matches, has the means to figure out how he can foil his rival, unless Amy winds up his next victim. David Warner is very good but in his low key, genteel way doesn't possess the kind of menace the part calls for, so the thriller aspects are overshadowed by the love story, which in this case was true to life, Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen proving that on screen chemistry works even better off camera as they were wed for 10 years and had two children. It was a delightful change of pace for the often villainous McDowell, exuding a wonderful sense of wit and likability that is nicely paired with screen novice Steenburgen, her only previous film Jack Nicholson's "Goin' South," an unconventional beauty perfectly cast as a fully emancipated woman escaping a miserable first marriage to become a genuine free spirit ('free love' indeed!). It is the two stars together that carry this picture beyond its science fiction origins for a fully fleshed out romance under most unusual circumstances, concluding with a most telling line: "every age is the same, it's only love that makes any of them bearable."

Weak premise ... even weaker execution - part one

[canadianguy62 · 2/10 · 14 February 2010]

Wouldn't it have been easier for Wells to go back in time 15-20 minutes and ensure that Dr. Stevenson/the Ripper didn't escape the police? Yes, it would have ruined the whole premise, but that proves just how weak the premise was.

H G Wells would have been 22 when Jack-the-Ripper was on his killing spree; his last known victim was killed in November 1888 and Wells was born in 1866. Malcolm McDowell, who plays Wells, was 36 when he made this film and David Warner, who plays Dr. Stevenson/the Ripper, was 38. Stevenson was, "approximately 37"; the actors playing these characters are two years apart in age, yet we're to believe that they're 15 years apart in the film?

The time machine is set for 11:15, and, when comparing his pocket watch to the clock in the museum, notes that it is "8 hours off". The clock showed 2:28, suggesting that he arrived at about 2:15 or so. Either he did not arrive at 11:15 (London time) as he set the time machine to do, or the setting of the clock on the museum wall was wrong. If the former, it was not explained; if the latter, it was a serious lapse in continuity. Either way, this was a glaring error, unfortunately typical of this poor production. I thought it possible that this was due to the autumn time change, but Britain and the US both changed their clocks on 28 October of 1979, so it could not have been from that. Nor is it GMT as there is 8 hours' difference between GMT and PST when the autumn time change is made.

Stevenson must have been carrying a crap-load of British pounds or precious metal of some sort or another. Had he hidden anything in his doctor's bag, it would have been useless, as he left the bag at Wells' place. Later on we see that he still has the musical locket; surely he could have commanded a very high price for that!

Certainly Stevenson did not have a credit card which allowed him to book a room at a nice hotel. As for the British Pounds (from 1888 or earlier) that Wells converted at the bank … that simply would not have happened; they would have been taken out of circulation years before and would not be convertible at a currency exchange/bank. The value in those bills would have been found at a coin dealer. The fact that the banker even advised Wells of that makes me wonder why they didn't simply send Wells to a coin dealer to get (quite likely) much more US money for his bills. Very poor script-writing!

The letterhead upon which Stevenson writes a note for Wells, is from St. Bartholomew Hospital (where the Dr. practiced in 19th-century London). Even though Dr. Stevenson ditched his clothes to look more modern, we're to believe he held onto a piece of letterhead that might have been in the pockets?

When Wells shows the time machine to his "girlfriend", he sets "point of origin" as the 7th of November; he only arrived on the 5th. We're to believe that all of the stuff that had taken place to that point happened in just two days?! Come on!

Also, she read a headline in the "future" newspaper that showed her as having been killed; if she were alive when she went in the time machine, how could she have been killed? Would she not have been "nowhere to be found" between the date when they went into the time machine and when they arrived in the future? I don't purport to understand the whole quantum theory thing, but even that seems a stretch.

They were talking about the murders that the Ripper has committed in SF and Wells said that they were too late to prevent the murder of the 3rd victim, but could prevent the 4th. Couldn't he simply travel back in time and prevent all four murders? Again, that pesky back-in-time thing!

Finally, he removes the "vapourising equaliser" at the end and Stevenson is sent into infinity? Not only did it appear that Stevenson hadn't done anything to set the dials to any alternate time, but how come he travelled initially without the equaliser, and simply ended up at a point-in-time with no machine for time travel, yet this time he's gone to infinity? Maybe I missed something, but that seems a rather convenient plot element (delivered completely from left field).

I know one is supposed to suspend belief, but that doesn't mean throw out all common sense.