Review by ma-cortes

The film talks about the known story from Jules Verne novel and previously rendered in the classic by Richard Fleischer . The oceans are no longer safe , many ships have been lost , the sailors have returned to New England's fishing port with tales of vicious giant whale with long horn . A naturist , marine expert named professor Pierre Aronnax (Patrick Dempsey in the role of Paul Lukas) along with a professional whaler named Ned Land (Bryan Brown in the role of Kirk Douglas) and a helper (Adewele Agbaje) join forces in a perilous expedition that attempts to unravel the mysterious sinking ships by an unknown creature . Aboard the ship called Abrahan Lincoln , they go out to investigate the "monster" roaming the seas . They are captured and get thoroughly involved with captain Nemo (Michael Caine in the role of James Mason) and his daughter Mara (Mia Sara) who take an extraordinary adventure underseas in an advanced submarine called Nautilus .

This fantastic TV movie displays sensational adventures , noisy action , suspense , marvelous scenarios and results to be pretty enjoyable . The great novelist , Jules Verne , described this thrilling tale about a dangerous journey to the darkest depths of the sea with Captain Nemo aboard the Nautilus . Surprise-filled entertainment and with plenty of action on grand scale , including excellent special effects made by means of computer generator and some ship and submarine by maquette or scale model . However , overlong runtime is not boring but turns out to be entertaining and amusing . Memorable and superb casting with Michael Caine plays a magnificent captain Nemo , similar to immortal James Mason ; Patrick Dempsey plays a young Annorax while in Disney version was an old Paul Lukas ; attractive Mia Sara in a new role , she has an excessive romance with Dempsey ; Bryan Brown is an obstinate, stubborn Ned Land just like Kirk Douglas . Atmospheric and vivid score by Mark Snow (X-Files). The television movie was nicely directed by Rod Hardy . Other versions from the classic story for TV are directed by Michael Anderson with Ben Cross and a cartoon movie directed by Arthur Rankin . The motion picture will appeal to fantasy-adventure fans .