Tag: Nicholas Meyer

Time After Time (1979)

TIME AFTER TIME

TIME AFTER TIME (1979) Three-and-a-half stars

Screenwriter and director Nicholas Meyer created some nifty concepts for his 1979 directorial debut TIME AFTER TIME: what if writer Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) really did invent a time machine, what if surgeon John Stephenson (“Jack the Ripper”) steals Wells’ time machine and travels from 1893 London to 1979 San Francisco, what if Wells tracks down Stephenson in San Francisco and becomes more like Sherlock Holmes (Meyer wrote the novel and screenplay THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION), and what if Wells falls in love with a modern woman and they find themselves in danger from Mr. Stephenson.

Malcolm McDowell as Wells, David Warner as Stephenson, and Mary Steenburgen as Amy Robbins flesh out Meyer’s concepts.

McDowell brought a devilish charm to Alex in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, another high concept picture with literary roots, and he’s a lovable English eccentric in TIME AFTER TIME.

Warner makes for a suitably menacing antagonist, who’s more in his element in late 20th Century America than he was in late 19th Century England. Meyer works the juxtaposition of Wells and Stephenson to maximum impact.

Steenburgen plays a character who almost instantly falls in love with Wells. There’s just something about the way that she tells Wells that she will believe him. She later played basically the same character in Robert Zemeckis’ BACK TO THE FUTURE PART THREE, and it works in both films.

McDowell and Steenburgen fell in love making TIME AFTER TIME together and they were married from 1980 to 1990.

They do have that extra special glow during TIME AFTER TIME, and they do create a screen couple that we fervently desire to stay together.

I have at least liked virtually every movie I have ever seen that incorporates time travel, from BACK TO THE FUTURE and TIME AFTER TIME to THE TERMINATOR, MEN IN BLACK 3, and X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. I find time travel movies endearingly silly and goofy in the best possible way, if nothing else, and the best ones are profound.

TIME AFTER TIME especially has fun with Wells being a stranger in a strange land … and time. Mileage will invariably vary on these gags. Of course, we have to keep in mind this Wells (1893 model) would not know about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake or about the Golden Gate Bridge which opened in 1937.

Meyer’s other credits include writing the delightfully whacked out INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS and writing the two best STAR TREK films, THE WRATH OF KHAN and THE VOYAGE HOME. Meyer said that he tried out ideas for THE VOYAGE HOME that he did not use in TIME AFTER TIME.

TIME AFTER TIME works as comedy, science fiction, romance, and thriller. I revisited it recently as the second half of a double feature with BREAKING AWAY and both films left me feeling all nice and fuzzy inside.

NOTE: Of course, it must be a September 21 thing, since H.G. Wells, Stephen King, Bill Murray, Chuck Jones, Leonard Cohen, Ethan Coen, and David Coulier were all born Sept. 21 in their respective years.

Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973)

DAY 99, INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS.jpg

INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS (1973) Three-and-a-half stars
Granted, you know yourself better than anybody else, but tell me if this tagline / synopsis just doesn’t hook you in right away: “A powerful cosmic force is turning Earth women into queen bees who kill men by wearing them out sexually.”

I mean, sign me up to watch that movie!

Did Valerie Solanas ­— author of the SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) Manifesto and famous for her attempted assassination of Andy Warhol — write INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS?

Not even close, because INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS gives us a Grade-A B-nudie flick and you know that when the most prudish character is played by a former Playmate of the Year (Victoria Vetri, when she went under the name Angela Dorian).

Anyway, future STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN and TIME AFTER TIME scribe and director Nicholas Meyer wrote this one and it’s something that he can be proud about. I mean, it’s something that I would be proud about writing.

Apparently not, since Meyer wanted to have his name removed from the credits before his manager talked the Hollywood newcomer down. Upon further research, Meyer’s script had been altered while he visited his family, hence that whole wanting his name stricken from the permanent record.

I bet folks ask him all the darn time about THE WRATH OF KHAN and TIME AFTER TIME, and understandably so, but how about INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS, a film that I believe rates with THE WRATH OF KHAN and TIME AFTER TIME on an entertainment level.

I don’t know, I enjoyed this film like I enjoyed Russ Meyer classics FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! and BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and let’s face it that I’m amused by such a ridiculous premise and I’m turned on by the women in this film like I am the women in FASTER PUSSYCAT and BEYOND THE VALLEY.

In his IMDb profile, William Smith’s biography starts “Biker, bare-knuckle brawler, cowboy, Bee-Girl fighter, vampire hunter … William Smith has done it all.” Over a long career, you might remember him for being at odds with Joe Namath in the biker flick C.C. AND COMPANY (1970) or being Clint Eastwood’s fisticuffs opponent in ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN (1980), which could go 15 rounds with THEY LIVE’s fight scene between Roddy Piper and Keith David.

Obviously, William Smith’s government agent Neil Agar can hang with the bizarre world of INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS.

Ultimately, though, it’s not about him and the beautiful women, led by Anitra Ford’s Dr. Susan Harris and the Brandt Research Facility, and the dirty old men here make the horny scientists in TOWER OF EVIL (1972) chaste in comparison. Look up “horny scientist flick” and INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS should be depicted with the incredible bee girl transformation sequence filed Exhibit A.

I can’t go without mentioning the line “They’re dropping like flies.” I love it every single line, every single time. If I would have had the opportunity to meet late character actor Cliff Osmond (1937-2012), I would have made him read me that line.

Other taglines for INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS: “They’ll Love the Very Life Out of Your Body!”, “Ordinary housewives turn into ravishing creatures,” and “They’ll Turn You on from Dusk to Dawn.”

Other titles for INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS: “The Honey Factor” (working); “Alien Predators” (bootleg); “Graveyard Tramps” (reissue). On French TV, the movie plays as INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS.

You can find copies of INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS everywhere, since its D-cups are public domain.

I came across it on at least two different cheapie 50-movie horror packs from Mill Creek that stack up public domain titles ranging from classics like NOSFERATU and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD to less than classics, some of them so bad that I don’t want to even name them.

MGM packaged INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS with INVASION OF THE STAR CREATURES during its epic “Midnite Movies Double Feature” DVD series.

There’s also INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS packaged with THE DEVIL’S 8, UNHOLY ROLLERS, and VICIOUS LIPS on the “4 Cult Movie Marathon Volume One” DVD … and the Bee Girls also have a Scream Factory solo Blu-Ray release.