Time Travel is Dangerous, Narrated by Stephen Fry

To be fair, anything can be dangerous when idiots are doing it. Unfortunately, Ruth and Megan are incredibly darned dumb and they found a time machine. They eventually fray the space-time continuum to a dangerous extent, but at least they bring back some nice inventory for their vintage store in Chris Reading’s Time Travel is Dangerous, which is now playing in Los Angeles.

After a horrifying experiment, Dr. Ralph Shedrake binned his time machine, along with VHS tapes of his old popular science TV show, The Future, Today. You know who dives through dumpsters? Vintage store owners. Despite Sheldrake’s unfortunate detour, his invention truly works. Soon Ruth and Megan regularly dash back in time for collectibles, or to grab takeout from their favorite Chinese restaurant that closed three years ago.

Before long, freak storms start erupting in the skies and both women experience mysterious maladies. They seek help from the local (very unfortunately named) inventors’ society, where Sheldrake happens to be a member. Obviously, they have damaged the fabric of time. Reluctantly, they agree to stop, but neither have large reserves of will power or good judgment.

Time Travel is Dangerous represents a genre comedy that is legitimately funny, so hey, how about that? It is not side-splittingly hilarious, but it is consistently amusing. It helps tremendously that Reading and co-screenwriters Anne-Elizabeth and Hillary Shakespeare are not afraid of skewering the clueless co-leads, or of casting them in an unflattering light. Plus, Stephen Fry’s martini-dry narration also sets the right note.

Wisely, the film never wastes time on pseudo-scientific explanations. However, Sheldrake and his colleagues from the show are oddly engaging characters. While their concept of time travel breaks no new ground, the [mis]applications are somewhat fresh (somewhat following in the tradition of Harry Harrison’s novel, The Technicolor Time Machine). The comedy is still somewhat hit or miss, particularly the time spent in a liminal time-zone, but Brian Blessed supplying the voice of Gavin, the Lovecraftian octopus is certainly noteworthy.

Regardless, Ruth Syratt and Megan Stevenson are cringe-inducingly annoying as their partially meta selves—as well they should be. Most of the jokes wouldn’t work, otherwise. Brian Bovell and Sophie Thompson are appealingly eccentric as the older Sheldrake and Valerie, as are Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Laura Aikman as their younger VHS selves. However, Janne Horrocks’ broad caricature of Amelia Earhart falls flat.

Still, this is mostly a jaunty little film. Sometimes, it indulges in mild identity politics, but it is nothing compared to the ideological takeover of the Doctor Who franchise. Recommended as a low-stress time travel comedy, Time Travel is Dangerous is now playing at the Laemmle Royal.