20,000 lieues sous les mers

I recently purchased this movie on DVD from Brazil. As for the DVD, the Portuguese subtitles can not be removed, and the opening titles and end credits have been cut off. The movie (2 part TV mini series) has some really nice aspects to it. For one, Ned Land (Kirk Douglas in the Disney Version) is not the hero. Really Not the Hero! In the Australian cartoon from 1980, Ned Land is an also ran. In this version he is one of several villains. This version also has 2 women on the Nautilus, which is 2 more than in Disney's take. And one is the Daughter of Nemo. Very cool. This version also includes Atlantis, although Atlantis could be more fantastic. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is great in this. Usually he plays villains or heavies, but this time he is searching for an opportunity to be a hero. There is also a whole running back story for Pierre Arronax with family issues reminiscent of Edward Malone in The Lost World. It does have its weak moments, but I was impressed with its different take.

jules verne makes imaginative books, but let's face it, the attempts to move them to the big screen are destined to fail. especially if you're lacking money. jules had such wild ideas that they cannot be produced anywhere but inside the readers mind.

this particular one has a great cast, but the mini way too long compared to the boredom it arouses. i had to use three days to watch it because i kept falling asleep.

the special effects look amateurish, and all the intensity from the book has vanished somewhere in the production. all i felt about it was a little claustrophobia.

a tip to the crew: you should have asked the champ, kevin costner, he could have probably told that it's not automatically an epic if you make it long. you need some events, too, you know.

Could this film have been made in the 50s? Was the black guy in Jules Vernes novel? I don't think so, but then it's been a while since I read the Classics Illustrated version of this one. The special effects are outstanding, in fact gives me even more incentive to go for that big screen TV I keep trying to buy. This one is movie theater material.....the romantic interests are there--still going white on white, colored on colored...but we can't have everything at once. The ugly father's mistress plants one on his son, but that's all in the background.

The primary star here is the submarine and Nemo, looking just like the funny book. We never find out why he is the 'man without a country', self-exiled, but it seems to have cost him his wife. The fellow obsessed with freedom and his redundant escape attempts is a hunk, and his brainlessness is well acted.

I don't think he is of the same cut as the brutal, humiliating father though. Verne must have had some parental issues, as they say. The father hates the son cause he lost his wife in childbirth.

There was some attempt to bring in Civil War issues as well, but they are cloudy. The suspense is wonderful, as Nemo and crew attempt to bring the sub up from under the ice. As I watched the diving bells (so up to date, yet written in 1899) and the divers fighting the giant squid (in the same costume practically as I saw in today's Boston Globe), I couldn't help but think of the brave divers who are about to risk their lives down in that murky, human-hostile area south of Nantucket....seeking to answer the question of why yet another jet went down.

The age-old but new questions are well demonstrated in this movie: What price glory...as the pseudo-scientist/father steals the sub in order to board the submarine first? How strong is the drive for freedom in men's souls? Of course, some of us have to have the bars clang shut and the leg-irons on before we understand how much freedom we've lost.

But the REAL question: Who was that hunky black guy and why haven't we seen him in other movies since? He was a good actor and beautiful!!!

And great going, Michael the acting is right on!!!

I was in the seventh grade when I saw this movie and going through a Jules Verne/Robert Louis Stevenson phase. I loved the original movie and when I found out the cast for the remake my face must have just lit up because my parents gave me a blank tape for when it came on. I didn't have a chance to watch it the night it was on, so I saved the movie for a rainy day. What a waste of a rainy day. It started off well, the acting was great and they were trying to hold onto the original message. Then, it kept going and going and soon I wasn't sure what the point was anymore. The ending was the worst part and I found myself taping over it a year later. Oh well, another remake that fell short of the theme.

This version of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" is by far the best version. Michael Caine is an excellent Captain Nemo and Brian Nelson made Pierre Arronax into an interesting and complex character. Pierre, who is constantly under the criticism of his father, searches for the sea monster and ends up on board the Nautilus. The submarine is an excellent design - it is beautiful and yet menacing and has plenty of space for its occupants. (The Model Smiths did a superior job on the models for this film.) The story follows some of the same lines as Verne, with the exception of depth to the characters and the addition of characters to add to the plot. This movie is definitely a "must see"!!