The Time Machine (1960) Review

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(More customer reviews)This review refers to the Warner Bros. DVD edition of "The Time Machine"(1960)......
I am so impressed with how this 43 year old classic Sci-Fi film looks and sounds on the DVD, that I am going to start with that this time. I wasn't expecting it to look as great as it did because the editorial review here gives it 3 out of 5 stars on both the picture and the sound. If you are a big fan of this film, or thinking of buying it as a gift for someone who is, you will not be disappointed with this transfer. The picture is presented in the original widescreen format,so you won't miss a bit of the action. To watch it you would think you went back in the time machine to 1960 and were viewing it for the first time. It is clear and sharp with vibrant color.The soundtrack is remastered in Dolby Dig 5.1 and is a welcome enhancement.The DVD also includes a terrific Behind The Scenes documentary called "Time Machine...The Journey Back". The film's star Rod Taylor hosts and fans will love this informative feature. You'll get a good look at how the actual machine was made and the journey that it has taken in the last 40 years as well as other interesting tid bits. This feature has it's own scene selections to choose from or you can just watch it straight through. The film may be viewed in French and has subtitles in English and French.(my only teeny complaint would be that the black bar area is not used for these subtitles, they are at the bottom of the film).
The story based on the novel by H.G. Wells is as captivating today as it ever was. You know the tale.....
George(Rod Taylor)has all the time in the world. He tells his friends an incredible story of his adventures traveling through the ages in a time machine that he has built. As his story begins, he starts out slowly traveling through the 20th century. He doesn't like what he sees. War and destruction seem to be the fate of civilaztion.He pushes foward, quickly, and the years fly by. Finally stopping in the year 802701,he comes across what seems to be a paradise on earth. Clean air,fruit growing in abundance, and a society of young beautiful people, the Eloi, who don't seem to have a care in the world. But even in this Utopian like civilazation there's trouble amiss.The Morlocks are running things from underground and they are just as scary today as they ever were.So it's up to our guy George to save this future civilazation from the evil Morlocks,and try to get back home to the year 1900 for an 8pm dinner appointment..whew,what a great story!
Directed brillantly by George Pal("7 Faces of Dr. Lao"/"Atlantis the Lost Continent"), the film also boasts the great talents of Alan Young, Sebastian Cabot, and the lovely Yvette Mimieux, as "Weena", who adds a little romantic interest to the story. The film was awarded a well deserved Oscar for it's special effects(also discussed in the featurette) for Gene Warren and Tim Barr.The movie is rated G, although the scenes with the Morlocks might be a little scary for very young children.
A great story, fabulous film and an outstanding DVD. So go back in time, with your old friend "The Time Machine"..enjoy...Laurie

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A time travel inventor travels to the future where the passive Eloi are in danger of becoming prey to subterranean mutants called Morlocks.Genre: Feature Film-DramaRating: GRelease Date: 13-MAR-2001Media Type: DVD

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Time After Time (Snap Case) (1979) Review

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(More customer reviews)It has been a while since I've reviewed something on my lifelong favorite's list. So I've chosen "Time After Time" because it isn't very well known by younger audiences nor is it necessarily considered a "classic."
However, I instantly fell in love with this movie over 25 years ago--and I still consider it a rip-roaring good time!
Starting out with the most bizarre plot ever, "Time After Time" will keep you enthralled. It is a glorious popcorn flick--fast, light, fun, and exciting in equal measures. Set in 1893, we meet H. G. Wells (Malcolm MacDowell) who is unknowingly friends with Jack The Ripper (David Warner). MacDowell has constructed a time machine which Warner misappropriates as he is fleeing the authorities. He travels to modern day San Francisco where he continues his murderous ways. MacDowell follows him, he must stop Jack The Ripper! He meets up with a local woman, Mary Steenburgen, who helps him adjusts and ultimately gets caught up in his unlikely story.
"Time After Time" succeeds in several different genres concurrently. This is a credible sci-fi pic, a sweet romance, a fish out of water comedy, as well as a decent serial killer thriller. I think that's what I love and respect about this film, it's out there. There is no way that this picture should work, it should be terrible. And yet, inexplicably, Nicholas Meyer has crafted an intricate and audacious work. Even if I didn't love this movie, I would respect its ambition and scope. But love it I do, this is one of the most wildly entertaining pictures you could hope to see. Some people might be tempted to dismiss this work as dated or even slight--and yes, you do have to accept that this is a product of the 70's. There are references to "free love" and other concepts of the era, but at the same time--the film is incredibly prescient about violence in the modern age. Every time Warner describes how he was meant to exist in this future, where killings and debauchery are commonplace, I understand a real truth in his sentiment.
The performances are cracking good. MacDowell is the unlikeliest hero and a refreshing romantic lead. Warner has NEVER NEVER been better. If you are even a passing fan of his, you must see this picture. And Mary Steenburgen is a delight--she doesn't do enough these days! Maybe this isn't highbrow entertainment, but it is dazzling fun. Recommended to all without even the slightest hesitation. KGHarris, 12/06.

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London 1893 is home to a killer with a macabre nickname... and also to a visionary genius who would write "The Time Machine." But what if H.G. Wells' invention wasn't fiction? And what if Jack the Ripper escaped capture fleeing his own time to take refuge in ours - with Wells himself in pursuit?

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The Invisible Man: Season One Review

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(More customer reviews)After seeing so many poor or banal sci-fi series released on DVD, I was upset that the Sci-Fi Channel's THE INVISIBLE MAN series was not amongst them (at least not in the US anyway... it's been available for years on Region 2 DVD's), but now, at long last, it's coming! This is by far the best show that the Sci-Fi Channel has ever created (aside from the great BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) and it has been deserving of reruns at the VERY least, but other less interesting and less entertaining shows have been clogging up Sci-Fi's airwaves (STARGATE series, I'm looking at you!).
But onto the show itself. Darien Fawkes (the underappreciated Vincent Ventresca) is a thief who is finally caught and put in prison. He's looking at a life sentence, but his brother comes to his "rescue" of sorts when he offers him a deal: Testing an experimental gland implant in the brain that will release a chemical nicknamed "Quicksilver" that coats the skin for a brief period of time that bends light around the subject, allowing them to become invisible to the naked eye. Darien accepts the deal, but we know what road good intentions lead to. Fawkes' brother is double-crossed and killed by his assistant Arnaud DeFehrn (the wonderfully sleazy Joel Bissonette), and Fawkes is stuck with the experimental gland before it's perfected. The gland has a potentially fatal flaw which is that if used for too long of a period of time, the user (in this case, Fawkes) will experience what is called "Quicksilver Madness" which he experiences psychotic and sociopathic tendencies. Fawkes is recruited by "The Agency", a covert ops organization that answers only to The President, run by a perenially frustrated bean-counter usually referred to as "The Official" or "The Fat Man" (the hilarious Eddie Jones) and his yes-man Eberts (the also-hilarious Michael McCafferty). Fawkes' condition is watched over by the lovely Claire "The Keeper" Keeply (beautiful and dry-witted Shannon Kenny), who must regularly give him injections of a counter-agent that wards off the Quicksilver Madness, and is determined to find a way to remove the gland from Darien without the procedure killing him.
The show also gives us a brilliant buddy cop story with Fawkes partnered with Agent Bobby Hobbes (the wonderful and easily recognizable Paul Ben-Victor), a self-professed ladies man and martial arts master, who also may be suffering from schizophrenia that may be fueling these delusions of grandeur (or are they delusions?). The chemistry that is developed between Fawkes and Hobbes is just amazing, and it becomes one of the high points of the show.
One of the other high points is the amazing special effects. When Fawkes goes invisible (and vice versa), the transition is totally seamless. It was this level of achievement that unfortunately brought this show to an all-too premature end because it was just too expensive to keep up that level.
Overall, this is a really great and really fun show that just ended way too soon but it finally is back to watch on this DVD series!

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The sensational sci-fi series that has to be seen to be believed, The Invisible Man is now available on DVD for the first time ever! Join con man-turned-covert-op-specialist Darien Fawkes (Vincent Ventresca) in 23 gripping Season One episodes, including the two-hour TV-length pilot, as he undergoes a top-secret invisibility experiment by the "Agency." As he takes on spy networks, assassins and lethal weapons cases, Darien must come to terms with the "Quicksilver madness" and physical outbursts that are unexpected side effects of his special abilities. Co-starring Paul Ben-Victor (Entourage) and Shannon Kenny (7th Heaven), this suspenseful action series has intrigue, humor and futuristic weaponry that you'll want to "see" again and again!

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The Time Machine (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)It may be unfair, but a remake of a hit movie must always be compared to the original. The 1960 original of THE TIME MACHINE was a deserved hit. The 2002 version may be a treat for the eyes, but unfortunately, not for the brain. Part of the problem is that Simon Wells, the great-grandson of H. G. Wells, directed the movie as if he were more entranced with dazzling special effects (and dazzling they are) than with bringing out a believable, fully fleshed series of characters. In 1960, director George Pal wisely kept the focus squarely on the hero's adventures and why he helped the human Eloi. In 2002, Simon Wells clearly loved the image of leaping, loping half-humans that he had seen in previous sci-fi movies. The supporting cast in the age of the time traveler (David Pearce) did not do very much to point out his character. His girlfiend Emma (Sienna Guillory) was in the film only to motivate him to build a time machine to alter the past to avoid her death. One would think that such a clumsy device would not be sufficient by itself to galvanize the time traveller. In the original, Rod Taylor's scientific curiosity with time was quite sufficient a motivation.
The real hero of the movie is the special effects co-ordinator. The images of one day melding into the next are memorable. Further, the appearance of the Morlocks as a cross between man and fish stuns the senses. Jeremy Irons disappoints as the Morlocks leader. As Irons pontificates on the split between Eloi and Morlocks, the viewer can see under the pasty-white makeup and hear the Irons from DIE HARD III lecturing Bruce Willis on similar such claptrap. Further, the ending, which I shall not divulge here, is an incomprehensible mess of weird logic unconnected to resulting effect. What emerges by the end of the film is the growing realization that Simon Wells ought to have paid less attention to being different from his forebear and more attention to a director who knew how to weave a magical spell that would not get lost in the techo wizardry that passes for the cutting edge in computer special effects.

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TIME MACHINE - DVD Movie

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