Sci-Fi Classic Review: TIME AFTER TIME (1979)
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- Nicholas Meyer's first directorial effort is built on the amazing premise of H.G. Wells traveling in time to catch Jack the Ripper. It's not the most well-made movie, but it's a ridiculous amount of fun that set the stage for the future Star Trek icon.
If you're looking for a "review" in the traditional sense, then let me just say I love this movie. This video, however, is a "review" in the literal sense (using the Miriam-Webster definition "a retrospective view or survey"), in that I'm going over the history of the film and its place in sci-fi cinema history.
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H.G. Wells interview (2) - • H.G. Wells Interview (0) - Zábava
David Warner's line, 'Ninety years ago I was a freak. Today I'm an amateur.' still gives me chills.
Bone chilling! Our society has many improved matterial things, but morally, we are pigmies!
Warner was master of understatement in line delivery.
That scene alone makes time after time a classic.
You know there was a TV series made from TAT looked bloody awful
@@danielpitti6030 we certainly led by them.
@@danielpitti6030you summed it up nicely
Always loved this movie. Tripped over it at a second hand store. Malcolm McDowell and miss Steemburgeon are excellent actors.
One of my favorites… Well written & acted. Again, great to see a movie made in my hometown of San Francisco. I remember going to the cinema in 1979 to watch this gem. The memories!
I'm fro Britain and I would love to visit your city it looks so beautiful 🤩
So many great movies been made their ahhh!
I saw this film as a senior in high school in 1979. It was a great film then and it is still a great film. It's a shame it didn't find a larger audience when it was released.
"My friends call me Jack" David Warner was diabolical in Time after Time.
One of David Warner's very best roles.
Nicholas Meyer is an incredibly talented writer and director! He's probably a bit underrated to be honest.
The McDonalds scene is the best bit.
fredo1070 I still call it “that Scottish restaurant.”
I saw this at the theater when it first hit the screen. I was twenty-four with most of the same interests as your parents.
As usual your assessment of the film is spot on. And As usual the extra information I get through your review includes some things I didn't already know.
Keep 'em coming!
Man I only remember this movie as a distant memory that you just reignited. I remember having fond memories especially with a specific scene where H.G. Wells went to a mcdonalds for tea and french fries. I'm glad you decided to review this very informative movie review.
Pom frites 😂
McDowell, Warner, and Steenburgen...I have loved these actors since my Dad took me to see this film in 1979.
What critic called out the effect in 1979? I always thought they worked well and at the time not much else was wowing audiences except Alien and Close Encounters that had far bigger budgets. I saw this in the theater in 1979 when I was almost 13 and loved it, still do today.
Critics opinion doesn't surprise me a bit, to be honest. I just watched two 1979 movies: this one and Star Trek The Motion Picture. The latter one showed what could be achieved at that point, and Time After Time seems really weak in comparison.
Believe it or not, 2002's *THE TIME MACHINE* is my favorite time travel film.
I enjoyed seeing it when it was first released. Years after, when my wife and I separated and later divorced -- even though we are still close friends -- the _background story_ of a lost love *really* touched me.
One of my top ten underrated movies of all time. Well done review. Liked and subscribed.
Such a wonderful movie, a perfect cast. The two male leads McDowell and Warner bounce off each other perfectly as does steenburgen & McDowell, her characters understandable terror of Warner's jack the ripper.
The later Tony Scott's Deja vu appears to have taken a note off this movie with the love story appearing the primary goal of the movie.
Brilliant review
And features Icelan out of blue thunder (83) in minor role
underrated movie...not better than back to the future but very decent...
Sounds bizarre - Wells chasing The Ripper thru time but I fancying watching it. Another great wee nugget of knowledge with Corey Feldman appearing.
One of The Greatest Time Travel Movies Ever Filmed, Time After Time,Written By H.G Wells
I remember that film. After watching your review, I think the similitude with Back to the Future III bears a lot of scrutiny. It's like Bob Zemeckis was trying to reverse this film. Instead of a learned gentlemen coming to the future to fall in love with his spiritual contemporary, he goes backward in time. But in both cases, it's the woman's sensibilities that allow him to ultimately embrace the time period and elect to stay. Really, it's the same movie from two different perspectives. Good job illuminating that.
I actually saw this movie at a Special Sneak Preview Screening in at the Capitol Theater in Melbourne Before it was officially released !
I always loved it and thought what an unusual slant to put on the Jack The Ripper story/ Malcolm McDowell & Mary Steenburgen were excellent choices in their roles along with David Warner. Great Review :)
I think this must be the inspiration for the Lois and Clark "Tempus Fugitive" episode that has H.G. Wells get involved with Tempus, a murderous psychopath from the 22nd century who tries to change history by killing Superman as an infant. Best episode of the series.
I watched this film pretty recently and I really loved it! It's such a charming, fun, and sincere film with a cool story. And Malcolm Mcdowell was really cute in this film. (Waaaay different than Clockwork Orange haha) Great video, I learned a lot from it!
Gotta say my favorite time travel movie is the original 1960 Time Machine film. It was your video about The Time Machine that made me subscribe to the channel.
David Warner also did an Outer Limits episode playing a police officer hunting Jack The Ripper who then turns out to be The Ripper himself!
This is one of my favorite movies as well and you did an excellent review of it. Very well done
Somewhere in time -- Tricia
I love this film.
I saw this film during its original release, twice, and have rewatched it many times since then. It is great fun. I love Dvid Warner's icy cold stares.
I trust you have seen "Murder by Decree,' released the same year and an excellent Sherlockian film, even if Plummer plays a too warm-hearted Holmes (I am partial to the eccentric portrayal by Jeremy Brett). James Mason makes a fine Watson and the film creates an atmospheric Victorian London.
Malcolm McDowell is such an awesome actor.
This is a hidden gem of a movie.
This was a pretty good science fiction fantasy film, great casting as well! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this classic sir!👏
I watched this film in a second run theater at a Sunday afternoon matinee with "the Seven Per Cent Solution" on November 4, 1979. I felt at the time that it was strange that he would be arriving tomorrow and felt a flash of reality about time for the first time in my young life. This remains one of my all time favorite films and later i found my own version of Mary Steenburgen to partner up with with for a time, as I too fell in love with Mary while watching this film. Life is grand. Thanks for the review.
Jacobi would of been great
One of my fav childhood movies, the FX was Awsome for the time…
The World is somewhere between Jack The Ripper's worldview, and H.G. Wells' Utopia. What passes for the news and television, is completely different than most people's everday lives.
A good review. With that level of disagreement it's amazing the movie didn't fall flat. I think the casting was very good and glad they made the choices the did. I took it mostly as a fish out of water story. It worked well how someone from i9th century England would view 1970s San Francisco. It was a time and place of high crime, among other things. It is surprising they didn't use explicit violence. At any rate it was a good choice.
Another quality review. Thank you. I'm surprised Meyer was able to improve as a director so quickly for 'ST-TWOK', especially since he was working with Paramount's TV crew.
I have always fancied the idea that Jack could have become the formless killer in Star Trek's Wolf in the Fold. Loved the movie.
It would fit. When he vanished into time, he could have been propelled back to when time began, just a formless energy wandering the galaxy with nothing but a desire for murder. Eventually it drifted into the Alpha Quadrant...
I saw this as a kid when it came out. I can always watch this. Now I want to buy it.
I love this movie ! HG Wells, Time machine and Jack the Ripper what's not to like? Plus its set in San Francisco if i ever manage to visit the USA i want to go there. (:
1979 and 2022 is not exactly the same era bud lol things have changed alot but yeah probably still a city worth visiting.
This film is a sort of reboot of The Time Machine. This movie is not as good as George Pal's Time Machine but still very good. I think this film would have become a classic like The Time Machine, if there had been an hour long epilogue showing Amy learning her way around 19th century London.
Loved it ! A great mix of Suspense Thriller and Science Fiction
I first saw this movie on HBO at the time I.was a big Star Wars fan.
I saw it in the 80's on french tv.
A pretty good memory.
Asked about favorite time travel movies. Mine has to be Somewhere in Time
Thanks to 80s summers staying home watching HBO I found this gem.
You cannot discuss time travel movies without the 1930 movie Just Imagine.
Is that the one about the guy getting
a newspaper that's reporting future events?
Love this movie. Discovered it on VHS in the eighties. The link with Back to the Future is obvious.
Great video!
My favorite time travel flick is a made-for-TV movie called Running Against Time. It concerns a man who uses Time Travel to go back in an attempt to save JFK. He believes that if he does so, he can keep his older brother from dying in Viet Nam. It is a great film with average acting by everyone involved, but the way things spiral out of control and keep getting worse it gives the vibe of 'Some things are inevitable' and no amount of 'going back in time' to 'fix it' will work. Great film.
I haven’t heard of that one! I’ll try to track it down.
"It concerns a man who uses Time Travel to go back in an attempt to save JFK" - omg it sounds like one of these unused Star Trek scripts from the early 80s :D
@@ELEKTROSKANSEN Well, I have seen all the Star Trek time travel episodes, and no, this is not an unused script. This one is far more in depth in what happens not just to the time traveler but to those around him as well. Robert Hays is the star and he does a really good job in the scenes where he is a grown man--in who's past his older brother was killed at 18 in Nam--and encounters his living older brother in the past, in the days before he decides to go to Viet Nam. The emotional scenes where the time traveler has to come to grips with the fact that there is NOTHING he can do to stop the inevitable are powerful because the men of the 1980s were not yet as pussified by the women in their lives (as they are today) so defeat is a bitter pill to swallow. You certainly don't see that in a Star Trek script.
Time machine. Rod Taylor
I recently saw this movie and the movie Time Freak (2018)... It made me think about this: do you only cover movies on your channel older than 2000?
My rule is that they have to be at least 30 years old.
Love this movie so much!
A good review of a good movie. It seems 1979 was a great year for good movies. I remember not just Time After Time, but also 10, Star Trek, Alien, the Muppet Movie, Breaking Away an a lot of others.
Favorite time travel movie: either Star Trek IV or Star Trek: First Contact
David Warner is excellent in everything.
Have you reviewed Time Bandits ?
Not yet, but it’s in the queue
Am I crazy or does Stevenson/Warner nod his head yes in the seconds before Wells/McDowell pulls out the vaporizing equalizer to send the Ripper into infinity? Which would mean the Ripper would rather die than face any sort of accountability. Though why he doesn't just shut off the machine quickly and get out out and beat Wells up.
Though he didn't even need to do that. Who would believe he's the present day killer? The police, on the word of Sherlock Holmes. (A nice touch, neither man recognizing that Holmes had become an icon).?
And McDowell is as convincing here as in A Clockwork Orange. He leaped off the screen in that . movie, something Kubrick protagonists rarely do.Not since Cagney has anyone had so much fun being bad.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that little nod before too.
Knowing what I know about history, I found Jack/John flipping through the channels to demonstrate how things got worse a very weak argument. Contact sports were less regulated in the 1890s, violent children's entertainment existed, there was no shortage of violent acts or accidents in the world, and guns were significantly less regulated. The filmmakers were either oblivious or didn't care that California already had a two-week waiting period, you couldn't buy one the same day in 1979 San Francisco, but you could in 1890s London and carry without a permit. That shouldn't have surprised anyone from that time.
All true. The opinions of Nicholas Meyer are not necessarily shared by this CZcamsr. 😂
Mary Steenbergen is perfect!!
Best one👍
I just watched it, and I gotta say, this movie has probably THE cringiest romance ever presented on screen. The dialogue between HG Wells and the lady is just so, sooooo bad..! "First I thought it was your voice or your clothes. Now, I don't know. Maybe it's that "little boy lost" quality you give off. Brings out my maternal instincts." - it's like a basement dweller dream come true, lol, finding a nerdy chick that will act as a girlfriend and a mother in one package. In general: too much sappy romance, too little David Warner being astounded by a world that "cought up to him".
WAITWAITWAIT ... Nicholas Meyer wrote INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS???????
I know, right?!
But, wait... You talked more about how it was made rather than what the movie was about.
Wells, good writer; not so good bloke.