Movie review - Time Travel Is Dangerous

Time Travel Is Dangerous ** (out of 5) This droll British sci-fi comedy is low budget, low key and low delivery, underserving a high concept. Writer/director Chris Reading started with an amusing twist on the time-travel milieu. Two rather dim-witted women (Ruth Syratt, Megan Stevenson) who own a dowdy resale shop stumble across a small vehicle that was dumped in an alley by its disenchanted inventors, who never quite mastered its time-hopping capabilities. The ladies use it to snatch clothes and minor objects from earlier eras to upgrade the inventory of their failing business, filling the humble rented space to the rafters with relics of affordable consumer value. No heists. No cash grabs. Just stuff that wouldn’t be missed much by its owners.

The haul includes videotapes of a public-access version of Mr. Wizard starring two guys (Johnny Vegas, Kiell Smith-Bynoe) who happen to have been the machine’s inventors. They are now part of a club ofeccentric wannabe inventors with what could have been a charming cast of oddballs. The right cast was in place, but without the right writing.

Although the bones were there for a delightful romp, the script failed to deliver the goods. Some of the best-known actors – Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Jane Horrocks – were underutilized. What we end up with could have been called Billie and Teddie’s Not So Excellent Adventure, if the temporal sojourners weren’t named Ruth and Megan. Their visits to earlier times, ranging from the age of dinosaurs to recent decades, are among the film’s best moments. But they were too small a percentage of the running time. One long sequence in a sort of time-warp limbo was intriguing – as if an Alice in Wonderland type of encounter had been written and directed by Terry Gilliam.

Budget limitations are obvious, and perhaps should be used to cut this production more slack. Time-travel shows are inherently fraught with logical issues, even when played for laughs. This one avoided some of the usual traps, but became more annoying than engaging as events unfolded. Too much petty quibbling among, and bad decisions by, the principals for entertainment value.

(Time Travel Is Dangerous opens in theaters and On Demand on 11/21/25)