Die Reise zum Mittelpunkt der Erde

Lighthearted romp for kids and teenagers based upon the Jules Verne book. An anthropologist named Jonathan Breck (Rick Schroder) and his niece (Steven Grayhm) undergo a hazardous voyage hired by Martha Dennison (Victoria Pratt) to find clues of her husband Edward (Peter Fonda) who disappeared five years earlier during an expedition to the center of the earth in Alaska (at the original novel is Iceland) recently bought to Russia. The trio along with a Russkie scout descend into deep caverns and discover a way leading to the planet's center. They have to deal with numerous risks, dangers, endure torrential floods, prehistoric animals and discover a forest with a lost tribe but not the lost city of Atlantis as happens in the classic novel.

This inferior adaptation is a special version of the Jules Verne adventure yarn . There're rip-roaring action, spirit of adventure, derring-do, thrills, but results to be quite boring. It's a brief fun with average special effects , passable set decoration , functional art direction and minimum use of computer generator. Acceptable cinematography, being filmed in Columbia British , Canada and atmospheric soundtrack . Highlights of the voyage includes a roller-coaster trip, a terrifying odyssey in sailing, with appearance of prehistoric reptile such as Plesiosaurius , Pterodactilus, and many others events. The film is produced in low budget by the usual Robert Halmi Sr. and Jr. who had formerly produced another version directed by George Miller , plus financed Jules Verne's 20.000 leagues under the sea(1997) directed by Michael Anderson. The motion picture is middling directed by T. J. Scott.

Other versions about this known story are the following : Classic adaptation (1959) by Henry Levin with James Mason as Lindenbrook, Pat Boone,Diane Baker and Arlene Dahl; Spanish version (1976)by Juan Piquer with Kenneth Moore , Jack Taylor, and TV adaptation by George Miller with Treat Williams, Jeremy London and Bryan Brown and another inferior television picture (2008)by David Jones with Greg Evigan and Dedee Pfeiffer. And of course, recent and successful take on filmed in 3D, produced and starred by Brendan Fraser with Anita Briem and Josh Hutcherson. Rating : Below average.

You never know what to expect from a title like this one.

I found the movie to be entertaining and acting very good.

Ricky Schroder does an admirable job with a script that needed some more development. I liked seeing him as an action hero and explorer. The special effects were quite well done. A family movie that the whole gang can enjoy. Peter Fonda is fun as an explorer who becomes a "God" within the earth. The story has nice plot points and satisfies its intended audience. The supporting cast does an all around good job. Scenery was beautiful and production values quite high. I think the wardrobe was quite well conceived and the props looked good as well. I give it a strong 7.

It's always difficult for me to watch a movie after having read the book it's allegedly based upon. Anyways, I decided to try this one, and I have to say I can't find any part of it that'd be based on the Jules Verne novel (except the title, of course). It's amazing to see how professor Otto Lidenbrock from Hamburg became Jonathan Brock, his nephew Axel became Abel, how his Danish guide Hans Bjelke morphed into Sergei Petrov, and how the expedition that originally started in ICELAND at the end of June, suddenly changed to Alaska in September. But most important is the complete lack of respect for the original plot and its characters, to the point that the movie shares nothing with the book they say it follows. I do understand that most books can not be adapted faithfully to the screen, but there's a difference between taking a few creative licences and making a completely different story. So, I'd like to ask Mr. William Gray to, PLEASE, read the book before saying his script is based upon it, or otherwise take the credits (and responsibilities) of signing his own stories.

The film is not an amateur job and is not "so bad it's good." It's just bad. I pause after one-third of the running time, and the adventurers are STILL not into the hole. We've had a lot of backstory not found in the book or the decent 50's film, so what you may recall from those earlier works--forget it. The film begins in San Francisco, and goes downhill from there, even without having a hole to go down. The other comments indicate that it does not get better, and I can take those comments to heart if I decide to bail on the whole project. I see this film was released the same year as another misbegotten version of this story. I did see that Brendan Fraser opus and hated it. I have an image of Jules Verne spinning in his grave like a rotisserie chicken. Who could go wrong with the terrific story Verne wrote?

A half-baked remake of the 1959 classic, and it lacks one rather important feature -- an actual journey to the Center of the Earth! Instead, the viewer is treated to a world within a world (the Earth is hollow -- who'd have guessed?!?) where there is a sky and actual sunlight (how else would vegetation grow?? the bigger question is: how does a star exist within the center of the Earth and not burn it to cinders?) The actors are passable, not good. The characters are foolish: the main female character decides to take a swim in a lake.Nobody bothers to tell her "Strange world, stay on the land." (A lake, one asks?? Yes, if there's sunlight, how could there not be lake? If one must be stupid, well then, lets be completely stupid.A good point: the only consistency in the movie is stupidity, so go with the flow, must have been the thinking. If they'd thought less, it might have gotten better.) Then,throw in to the mix, the usual "savages," indigenous to this world and an us vs. the savages ending and you have nothing out of the normal. Oh, by the way, everyone talks in 20th century English, as usual, although it's the 19th century. Writers lack any sense of the speech of different eras, common in writers under the age of 30. Watch. Snooze.