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18 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :- It's OK...., 17 September 2005 Author: ragreen259 from United States
But I have to say, it takes a set of balls the size of ostrich eggs to make a movie and put a title on it that belongs to an entirely different story. Jules Verne is spinning in his grave on this one, believe me--this isn't even vaguely in line with the book. None of the characters even have the same name, fer crying' out loud! There's tribes of lizard men and humans living down there, AND THE HUMANS SPEAK English!! I did find the movie entertaining however, my only real issue with it is blatantly stealing the name of one of the greatest science fiction fantasies ever written in history and dropping it on another story in the blatant interest of tricking people to come in and think that they're about to witness the real thing. For God's sake, they even credit Jules Verne!!! For what, writing the title? On the up side, the women are all beautiful, but on the other hand, the men don't look like any of them, at least the subterranean dwellers, have bathed in years. What IS that stuff on them, anyway, if not dirt.I hear that they're remaking Plan 9 From Outer Space next year, and they're going to call it Gone With the Wind.
9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :- What's the deal with all the women?, 12 August 2006 Author: Michael DeZubiria (miked32@hotmail.com) from Luoyang, China
I should start off and say that I have no problem with women in the movies, I like to think that no one would have taken the above statement that way. But in the two adaptations of Journey to the Center of the Earth, women have been added to the expedition, this time in spectacular fashion, and to the overall detriment to Verne's story, which was about exploration and discovery and not about romance. But whatever, being what it is, the 1999 version at least had a moderately interesting story, although one which had little to do with the source material.Sadly, this made for TV movie is packed with cheesy sets, goofy acting, ridiculous caricatures and atrocious special effects. Obviously, they had to make the film with what budget they had available to them, and I imagine they probably did a great job for what they had to work with, but this three hour epic takes great care to follow some parts of Verne's novel, and in other parts, the entire second half, for example, it flies off on a tangent and goes in a totally different direction. I'm all about creativity, but ever since I read JJules Verne's novel I have been dying to see a film adaptation that was at least moderately interested in adapting the actual story to the screen. So far no such luck. Among the many things that I found disappointing about this movie, and the one that I had most hoped would have been improved upon from the 1959 version, is the subterranean sea and the surrounding environment. There are some fairly impressive special effects shots that show that there is a ceiling of granite over this massive ocean, but then the rest of the movie that takes place in this underground cavern was simply filmed outside, sunshine and all. You literally have to keep reminding yourself that this all takes place underground because it is so obviously not. And the thing that kills me is that if they had altered the color of the light that was lighting everything they could have solved that. It's right there in the book, it was described as a sort of luminescent, soft, electrical glow, I'm picturing something with a greenish tint. All that natural coloring just kills the whole effect. Then you have the creatures that they ran into in the novel, literally they caught glimpse of some strange looking humanoid creatures and then took off running, but this movie turns them into an entire society of English speaking people, a full on culture of tribal inhabitants, the interaction with whom provides the majority of the conflict in the movie, and thus is where the real point of the novel is lost completely. The story is no longer about journeying to the center of the earth, but is instead about these outsiders arriving out of nowhere into this society, causing some dangerous conflict with the humanoid underground dwellers that live in the woods near them, and the ultimately trying to make everything right.Oh yeah, and of course everyone in the movie has some love interest, except for the Scottish, ah, tour guide with the mysterious tattoo on his nose. But he's really only there for comic relief and brute force when needed, so that's to be expected. Needless to say, the young subterranean lover that Jonas, the strapping young explorer, meets in this underground kingdom is not the vaguely humanoid kind of creatures that were described in the book, but a stunning redhead who speaks perfect English. Now, it doesn't bother me that they speak English, because there is a sufficient reason given for that. But to have English speaking people on the journey to the center of the earth is a little distracting. As soon as Ralna say something in English you know the rest of the book is out the window. I just really don't think that anything like this is even remotely what Jules Verne had in mind…
9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :- Diabolical, 30 July 2006 Author: Marcus Eden-Ellis from United Kingdom
Oh my, such a great tale so artlessly told. Verne, for those of you that don't know, is (or rather was)one of the true visionaries of science fiction literature. JTTCOTE is one of his evergreen tales that has been endlessly re-made and re-worked by Hollywood. It even spawned a long-forgotten 70's cartoon series.This film is does not serve the Verne's legacy well. There has clearly been money spent on it - some of the special effects are workmanlike - and a few of the c-list actors can turn in a decent performance when put to it. Here however, they are there for the paycheck and nothing more. I could live with that if they were at least working with a good script but everywhere you look there is cliché piled upon cliché and sloppy directing and production design.I guess if you really want to know about this film, watch it and see for yourself but I warn you now, it's about fifteen hours long. At least that is what it felt like! But I guess the best flavour of the piece comes from the fact that the women of an underground undiscovered tribe of natives wear make-up, speak English in a late 20th century idiom and shave their armpits with some kind of incredibly close shaver. And they dance disco style! All this in the nineteenth century...Go on, try it. It's one of those "so bad, it's good" type movies...
6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- Not a great Verne's adaptation!, 20 December 2001 Author: gazineo-1 from Brasilia, Brazil
This one is an unimpressive adaptation of one of the most important novels of Jules Verne known as the writer who creates science fiction as a literary genre (in fact, Journey to the Center of the Earth is credited by Arthur C. Clarke as the best novel of Verne). This version have some good special effects but lacks impact and originality. If you want to see a better view of the same novel, see the version with James Mason instead. I give this a 4 (four).
7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :- Very disappointing dinosaur movie:(, 2 May 2003 Author: Movie Nuttball from U.S.A.
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Minor SpoilersThe following is in My opinionI thought this film was going to be spectacular with all kinds of dinosaurs and action!Boy was I disappointed:(I don't mind films that have a lot of dialogue but this was supposed to be an adventure/dinosaurs film and is I got was the relationships between the people.This was well over two hours and I believe it was about three in a half or so and I was so disappointed about this.If want to rent or purchase this film please don't rush it because if you like any Jurassic Park film of any dinosaur film for that matter I think just about any dino movie would beat this any day because at least even the worst dino films had the guts to show the dinos and don't let the box of th film fool you because that great looking T-Rex on the box is no where to be seen in this never ending no-dino fest:(Avoid this movie!
3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- Hokum: entertaining if viewed with no more expectations, 30 December 2007 Author: Ray Girvan from Devon, UK
This is a grab bag of elements of the Verne story filled out with various Rice Burroughs staples: fights, captures and escapes surrounding a patriarchal tribe whose men dress caveman-style and whose flawlessly-complexioned women wear little leather skirts and bikini tops; Amazon warriors; humanoid lizards; and a seasoning of dinosaurs. The whole thing is given a weird gloss by filtering out greens - presumably a cheap way to get the blue-foliage jungles - so the whole thing is in a blue/brown/red palette. I sort of enjoyed it; but being in hospital the day after an appendix operation, I guess I wasn't in a critically demanding mood.
3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :- slow moving; mediocre, 22 October 2006 Author: davidarmbruster from United States
A slow moving, made for TV movie. The acting, while not quite abysmal, never is convincing enough to develop any degree of concern for the principle characters. The animated creature special effects look really fake, though the rubber suits look pretty good considering the other production values. Some of the landscape backgrounds are pretty interesting, and there is one actress who is stunningly attractive. This would be a great film for "Mystery Science Theater 3000" to parody. "Oh, no! We're being taken prisoner by the Chipendale Dancers!" My wife brought this home, her latest selection in a run of made for TV movies she has found at the video store. She said this one was a Hallmark Hall of Fame piece; no wonder it sucks. Take a pass on this, it is a complete waste of time.
5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :- Nice try, but extremely BORING!, 7 September 2000 Author: Renaldo Matlin from Oslo, Norway
Now let's get one thing straight before I fire my gun: I'm a BIG fan of Treat Williams (and I am not ashamed to admit I LOVED "Deep Rising"). I even like both the London-brothers, and fondly remember young Petra Jared from the TV-show "Sky Trackers". BUT what's with all these positive user comments? It doesn't make sense compared to (at the time of writing) a user rating of 4,6!And here's why, I am sad to say, it deserves just that low rating: it's god awful BORING! It goes on for three hours and barely nothing happens!!! Sure, a few cool monsters here and there, some "cavemen", and the presence of Treat Williams, but still: this Hallmark production doesn't come close to the excitement of reading the original Jules Verne classic.1/3 of the time is spent in a monotonous climb through caves (which all look like they are walking through the same studio over and over again). Then they reach to the "center", where another 1/3 is spent on another sound stage made to look like a village surrounded by a deep forest (for the occasion spray painted in blue). Two or three times they are attacked by some badly computer animated dinosaurs. Definitely not what one would expect from any studio SIX years after the lifelike "Jurassic Park".And not forgetting the worst thing of it all: the soundtrack! What soundtrack? It reeks and stinks so bad I could not believe it made it to a production of this magnitude. This is one time I actually believe it was written by a computer! It doesn't fit any of the action, come to think of it: it is so simple, so without charm or any redeeming qualities what so ever it could fit ANYTHING. As a big fan of movie music I can't in my wildest dreams even begin to imagine what creature actually got paid for composing it! The end credits even tell us the crap is available on CD!!! Oh... my... God!A nice bonus however is the appearance of some real maori tribesmen, and the fact that it is shot on location in New Zealand and Australia. All that said, this re-telling of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" isn't that bad. It just has cheesy effects, a laughable "soundtrack", and is presented in an excruciatingly boring way! And this comes from someone who has never had a problem sitting through looong movies, or mini-series for that matter.
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :- Completely ridiculous!, 12 September 2008 Author: Petrushka from Tucson, Arizona
For some reason I thought I was renting (from the machine at Safeway) the LATEST version of this film with Brendon Frazier as they usually have new releases there. How stupid of me. It turned out to be the 1999 version with Treat Williams. Only a few minutes into it I realized it was a made for TV by Lifetime. The producers had a lot of nerve coming up with this comic book adaptation of such a great novel. Poor Jules Verne. It was not too bad until they reach New Zealand and enter the cave leading to what they call the center of the earth that turned out to be a movie set with blue painted trees and studio made mache rocks. They all act as if they're at Disneyland on an underground ride. And when they meet the creatures who speak English it's beyond belief. Obviously there was a ballet school somewhere behind those rocks, even with a choreographer, as a full corps of ballet girls were dancing with ballet steps mixed with disco dancing. Totally ridiculous. The husband of the Carnegie heiress who they were looking for and found, speaks with an Australian accent and doesn't give a damn after finding out that Treat Williams had screwed his wife someplace behind a rock, but more unbelievable is that Treat would fall in love with her anyway as she's not at all attractive besides being one of the worst actors I've ever seen. Where did they find her? In a High School play? Then, of course, there's an evil Queen but I fast forwarded over most of that scene so don't know what she was up to. Should I care? The only thing worth looking at is Treat Williams who seems to have kept his youth remarkably. Now I can't wait to see the Brendon Frazier one that's still playing in the theaters in 3D. I should have known better.
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :- A Version of the Jules Verne Novel That Steadily Departs From the Source in Disappointing Ways, 16 May 2008 Author: briantaves from United States
The achievements of animation in adapting this story in preceding years would continue to overshadow the resumption of live action versions in the 1980s and 1993. In early 1996, executive producer Robert Halmi, Sr., whose Hallmark Entertainment was simultaneously making a new version of 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA for CBS (which eventually formed the basis for a two-hour telefilm and a one-hour children's special the next year) announced a two-hour version of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH for the Sci-Fi Channel, from a script by John Ireland. In the wake of the commercial success of the USA Network's four-hour mini-series of MOBY DICK (1998), the project was switched to USA, the Sci-Fi Channel's parent company, and the two-hour telefilm was expanded to four hours (including commercials) with Thomas Baum enlarging Ireland's script. Director George Miller, already attached to the project, was eager for the change, and produced with Connie Collins. Shooting began in April 1999 in Australia and New Zealand on a $12 million budget, and the miniseries premiered five months later on September 14 and 15.The setting is given as 1868 and adapts the nationality and names of its protagonists to the cast. Instead of the German Professor Otto Lidenbrock, the hero is the American name-alike Theodore Lytton. As portrayed by 47-year-old Treat Williams, Lytton is as much an action hero as part of the world of science, thereby surmounting the unlikelihood of a man of his constitution surviving the expedition. He studied with Darwin in the Galapagos, and is a rather dominating father-figure to his initially fearful young nephew, Jonas, who is indispensable to his uncle for having a facility for languages that Lytton lacks.Alice Hastings, a wealthy American mountaineer and member of the Carnegie family, hires Lytton to search for her husband, Casper (Bryan Brown). Casper had climbed down in a remote part of New Zealand, the Ruapehu caverns, that descend deep inside the Earth and are rumored to be an area of monsters and mystery. This new narrative strand is only one of several changes that incorporate aspects of another Verne novel, his 1867 epic, The Children of Captain Grant, much of which is set in Australia and New Zealand. Just as Mary Grant is part of the trek looking for her father, which will end in her marriage, Alice is part of the expedition in search of her husband, which will eventually bring her a new spouse.Verne's phlegmatic Icelander Hans is replaced with the burly, kilt-wearing MacNiff. He integrates the Scotsman MacNabbs and the underhanded Ayrton from The Children of Captain Grant, and is wily enough to steer the Lytton party through the dangers of a colonial rebellion and hostile Maoris.Unlike previous films of Journey to the Center of the Earth, the descent is in a tropical climate filled with vegetation. Wind blowing Alice's hair reveals a passage emerging on the shore of the underground sea, with the cavern roof supported by pillar-type columns of rocks, perhaps the most impressive visualization yet achieved. A shift of natural colors is used to convey an other-worldly impression, with a yellow sky and blue plants.On the shore, Jonas glimpses and follows Ralna (Petra Yared), a remarkably agile, tattooed redhead, who leads them into a jungle were they encounter two new races. There is a primitive but more physically developed humankind, together with a reptile race, Saurians, that has developed on a parallel path, with its own language, science, and urban centers in a world where human and dinosaur coexist. Alice is abducted by the Saurians, and in the human village Lytton, Jonas, and MacNiff find Casper, living as their ruler, in a manner reminiscent of a cult leader or Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.While the subterranean world is offered as an example of a different outcome of Darwin's theories, the theme is insufficiently explored, and the second half of the miniseries is disappointing, the filmmaker's refusing to allow the journey itself to serve as the goal, as in the novel.Miller's version further demonstrates how films of Verne's novel and Conan Doyle's Lost World, itself inspired by the Frenchman's book, have become a source of shared inspiration for filmmakers. Conan Doyle's novel was even more concerned with the rivalry of races of prehistoric man than the better-remembered perils provided by dinosaurs. During the production of this version, two new films of The Lost World were made, one a pilot for a television series shot in New Zealand, so certainly the ideas from the Conan Doyle novel were very much "in the air."Casper dies on the return journey, and crossing the underground sea again, Jonas, Lytton, and Alice are abruptly sent to the surface by a vortex phenomenon. Lytton and Alice decide to honeymoon in Iceland, and explore fresh caverns that may offer a more direct route to the center of the Earth (which has the curious effect of making the Verne novel seem like a sequel to this film adaptation).Jonas must recover from an unknown virus transmitted by Ralna, that leaves him with dreams of her and causes him to return to New Zealand and a life of adventure--clearly leaving the way open for a sequel. The theme of Jonas's initiatory trajectory and his gradual emergence as a hero during the course of the journey remains from the novel, despite deviating from Verne's own romantic conclusion (which the Lytton-Alice nuptials render superfluous).
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