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...
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...