Journey to the Center of the Earth

Hysterically awful TV update of the classic story clearly (or hopefully) wasted most of its budget on beer, because the special effects stretch to little more than a bloke in a bizarre furry white suit and a dizzily-whizzing, chirpy female head in a bubble (which may remind Brit viewers of a certain recent Building Society Ad). And F. Murray Abraham's in it! It's less than a decade since the Oscar, for God's sake, 'F'! But its fun. GREAT fun. Watch it AFTER the pub, as I'm ashamed to say I did not, and its a classic.

complete turd, as someone already said the characters are _incredibly_ stereotyped. just WHY did they have to throw all events that made the book original and interesting out the window - and replace it with ideas they stole from a todler at a nursery.

Okay, this is getting old now. I'm binge watching Jules Verne's classics, namely 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Mysterious Island and Journey to the Center of the Earth and let me tell you a lot of writers have gone into business for themselves over the years.

What I mean by that is just how few are actually following Verne's work, most use the concept/title and little else. This made for TV effort barely takes the concept and is really just in title only.

Feeling and ending like the pilot episode of a Scyfy original television series it has little to nothing to do with Verne's work and is another example of creators taking liberties with time tested material.

We see a group of adventurers visit the center of the earth via a mole machine and a volcano and it erm.....flies, for some reason. While down there they come across Harry Henderson, vampire slime bat things, cavemen and an evil faceless foe who speaks in a voice that would be cheesy even by 1980's kids show standards.

Sadly the cheesiness doesn't end there, the performances are the over the top, the sfx are exactly what you'd expect for the time and the whole plot is yet another mockery to Verne's classic.

If you're seeking an adaptation of Journey to the Center of the Earth this very much needs skipping over. If you're looking for a cheesy dumb 1990's scifi movie starring Tuvok from Star Trek Voyager and Lurch from the Adams Family then this is the film for you.

The Good:

90's nostalgia novelty

The Bad:

Awful cgi

Has little to do with Jules Verne's work

Needlessly cheesy

Incomplete

The only thing really surprising to me was that it was filmed in the Nineties and not thirty or forty years earlier. It was quite reminiscent of the films I used to sneak into the neighborhood theater to see on Saturday afternoon. Lots of action, outlandish characters, unbelievable situations and even cheesy swirling scene changes. It doesn't seem to pretend to be anything but what it is, and what it is is not bad,for what it is.

"Journey to the Centre of the Earth", the name brings to mind one of the world's best sci fi writers. And what do the Americans do to this pearl of literature. RUIN IT! I am surprised that the Jules Verne estate don't have an automatic chance to preview all films carrying the name and say whether or not it should be shown at all. My vote for this film:

Special Effects 5 Cast 3 Plot -2

Overall average 3.4 out of 10