I have long considered 'Time After Time' one of the most ingenious and well executed film premises I have seen. The story begins in the London of 1893. At the home of upper-class inventor and writer, H.G. Wells, friends gather to hear of Wells' latest invention, a time machine. One of those in attendance is Wells' closest friend, one Dr. John Leslie Stevenson, known to a few unfortunate 'ladies' as Jack the Ripper. When police show up at Wells' home looking for Stevenson, he absconds into the future with Wells' time machine. Filled with guilt for allowing a psychopathic murderer to escape and prey on future society, Wells retrieves his machine using an auto-return failsafe and sets off in pursuit, ending up in modern-day San Francisco. Nicholas Meyer both directed and wrote the very inventive screenplay. The film stars Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen and David Warner, all turning in excellent performances.
Filmed in Panavision, 'Time After Time' has long been in need of a letterboxed transfer. Warner has finally accomodated fans of this film. Unfortunately, other than the widescreen framing, little else about this transfer matches up to the quality of the film. Colors are generally accurate, but exhibit some over-saturation and smearing, particularly reds. The image is sharper and more detailed than the previous full frame transfer, but this sharpness leads to a very pronounced graininess. This may well be inherent in the film elements as the previous transfer was somewhat grainy as well. I suspect the increased sharpness in this new transfer only enhances the problem. Whatever the case, this new disc is far from unwatchable, but not as good as I had hoped for. The framing measures a little over 2.30:1 and is slightly windowboxed, though I doubt this will be noticable on most monitors.
The Dolby Stereo soundtrack is generally very good. Dialog is fairly clear and natural. Seperations are clean with good center channel placement. Though not as dynamic as some of the newer mixes, there are some interesting directional and surround effects. Check out Wells' first excursion through time on side one. Nifty use of the surround channel.
The film runs 112 minutes and contains 36 chapters. The theatrical trailer is included following the feature. List price is $34.95.
This review is copyright, and may not be reproduced without the written consent of the author.
