THE TIME MACHINE (1960) **1/2 Tremendous H.G. Wells story and great, great sets. Everyone in the future pretty much ignores Rod Taylor, which strikes me as a sensible thing. Here's this guy who goes to the future and the best thing he can think to do is enact a genocide against half of the human gene pool? Still, the film wouldn't be nearly so good without his abhorrent acting, and that of his like female counterpart Yvette Mimieux. Yvette gets to be Weena in this one, one of her better named roles along with Lorinda Nibley in Platinum High School and Chi Chi Desnoyers in Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In one particularly funny scene he can't tell her from all the other futuristic chicks, even though her blond hair dye is a good five shades lighter than the other candidates. Another highlight is when he drops wood down a hole and it explodes. Much has been rightly made of Wells' ability to foresee the future, but director George Pal deserves soothsaying celebrity himself for postulating the Eloi and Morlocks as the divergent wings of the counterculture that would in effect take over the world within the decade. As for Wells, his credibility is intact, it's a stunning metaphorical depiction of politics in the early 21st century-but let's hope that the workers can think of a slightly more creative solution than entirely eradicating the self-proclaimed corporate elite. Tar and feathering and limiting credit should suffice.
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