Mysterious Island

Rating:
Summary: WHAT IS A PHORORHACOS ??
Review: A PREHISTORIC PHORORHACOS,YOU'LL HAVE TO SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT. ONLY THE LEGENDARY SPECIAL EFFECTS WIZARD RAY HARRYHAUSEN COULD COME UP WITH SUCH A CREATURE. ONCE AGAIN HARRYHAUSEN'S IMAGINATION AND DYNAMATION PROCESS BRING TO LIFE CREATURES WE COULD NEVER IMAGINE. THEY USED TO SHOW THIS MOVIE EVERY SO OFTEN ON SATURDAY AFTERNOONS AND IT WAS ALWAYS A TREAT TO WATCH. THE PICTURE IS CLEAR AND THE COLORS ARE VIBRANT. TOO BAD THE SOUND ISN'T 5.1 DOLBY DIGITAL,BUT IT'S STILL GOOD. FILL UP THE POPCORN BOWL AND TURN OUT THE LIGHTS. NOW SIT BACK AND TAKE A JOURNEY TO THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND.YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED!!.NOT A BAD EFFORT PUT OUT BY COLUMBIA THIS TIME AROUND.

Rating:
Summary: One of Harryhausen's BEST!!!
Review: After "JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS", this has always been one of my favorite pictures by special effects guru RAY HARRYHAUSEN. The story is great, the monsters (especially the giant crab) look fantastic and HERBERT LOM is wonderful as CAPTAIN NEMO ("Contact with my species has always disappointed me"). The picture and sound on the DVD is most pleasing. My only complaint (and its a minor one), is I'm tired of seeing the hour long special "THE HARRYHAUSEN CHRONICLES" as a bonus feature. I think its on every Harryhausen disc except "JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS". Its a nice feature (don't get me wrong) but does it have to be on EVERY DISC? But the movie is what's most important and this is a very enjoyable film given a nice presentation on this DVD. Buy it and enjoy!!!

Rating:
Summary: What book was this based?
Review: Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the book. Verne did not
write about women, they were only very minor characters in
a couple of his books. There were no giant critters in the
book. But the movie was very enjoyable saturday matinee
fun when I was a kid. Ray Harryhausen's stop-action special
effects were state of the art at the time, but now look
quite primitive. This movie is not an early classic like
Forbidden Planet, but is a good B movie.

Rating:
Summary: From the man who inspired Lucas and Spielberg.....
Review: Both Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have gone on record as saying they were inspired to become film makers from watching many of Ray's movies. Mysterious Island is another great movie that Ray was able to acheive through both good casting and screenplay, as well as Bernard Herrmann's music which accompany the effects quite well. Ray started drawing some storyboards for this movie about five years before they actually filmed it. It was a talent that he had to draw and paint various scenes for his films as much as possible. In a time when storyboarding a movie was unheard of, Ray's drawings were nothing like the more detailed storyboarding approach that film makers would use later, but they did help him plan effects shots and how to later blend the live action photography with his effects shots. This DVD does have a film which pretty good covers how it came from Ray's drawing to film. Thanks to Colombia/Tri-Star for putting out a good DVD on this movie.

Rating:
Summary: From the man who inspired Lucas and Spielberg.....
Review: Both Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have gone on record as saying they were inspired to become film makers from watching many of Ray's movies. Mysterious Island is another great movie that Ray was able to acheive through both good casting and screenplay, as well as Bernard Herrmann's music which accompany the effects quite well. Ray started drawing some storyboards for this movie about five years before they actually filmed it. It was a talent that he had to draw and paint various scenes for his films as much as possible. In a time when storyboarding a movie was unheard of, Ray's drawings were nothing like the more detailed storyboarding approach that film makers would use later, but they did help him plan effects shots and how to later blend the live action photography with his effects shots. This DVD does have a film which pretty good covers how it came from Ray's drawing to film. Thanks to Colombia/Tri-Star for putting out a good DVD on this movie.

Rating:
Summary: JULES VERNES' CLASSIC TALE....
Review: Entertaining fantasy-adventure based on Jules Vernes' story about escapees from a Civil War prison who hijack a hot air observation balloon during a thunderstorm and get blown off course. They crash land on a strange island and discover it's inhabited by giant creatures. They are joined by two female survivors of a British ship wreck and forge together for survival. They battle a giant crab, a giant bird and a giant honeybee before they encounter the islands' oddest inhabitant---the infamous Capt.Nemo who has invented a submarine and learned to move about underwater with special equipment fashioned from giant sea shells. They are soon set upon by pirates whom Nemo dispatches when he sinks their ship. Nemo agrees to help them escape before a huge local volcano erupts. Great score by Bernard Herrmann and imaginatively filmed with a spirited cast. Only problem is the DVD transfer---it's not very good. Kind of a disappointment since this is a very colorful and stylish film. But since this is the best we can do for now I'll have to recommend it for lovers of escapist fare and Ray Harryhausen fans. The creatures are wonderful and the individual set pieces involving them are great. There's a marvelous underwater encounter with a giant tentacled shell creature near the end of the film that's mostly done in silence to great effect. The film is grand entertainment even if it's not the best quality DVD it should be.

Rating:
Summary: Another Harryhausen DVD disappointment
Review: Finally got this DVD,and again I was disappointed with the less then great remaster of this movie. Just like the " 7th Voyage Of Sinbad" DVD, this one's soundtrack really let me down, especially when I had the vhs version where the picture and soundtrack was really remastered. The soundtrack on the vhs had a great surround sound quality, even though it never mentions it on the box cover,and this DVD sorely lacks this. Columbia Pictures really got sloppy with this like they did with "7th Voyage",and when they claim remastered in high definition sound and picture, and then its not,I think you should get your money back. The only reason I give it 2 stars is being in widescreen, and thats a shame as this is one of my favorite Harryhausen movies.

Rating:
Summary: Love this movie!
Review: Finally we are treated to another Harryhausen/Herrmann masterpiece. How about a widescreen DVD of Journey To the Center of the Earth to go along with Jason and the Argonauts and the Time Machine? (The original versions, of course!)

Rating:
Summary: DISCOVERING NEMO
Review: From its opening raindrenched hot air balloon sequence to its catastrophic volcanic eruption, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND is one of Ray Harryhausen's most brilliantly realized films. The master special effects wizard who long before CGI defined stop motion animation brings us fantastic sequences, including the giant crab, bees, chicken (or whatever) and squid. By 1961, Harryhausen had honed his art to where one can only marvel at how much a single man and his team could do.
Herbert Lom (Phantom of the Opera, the Pink Panther series) is remarkable as the gentlemanly Captain Nemo, whose only goal is to rid the world of war; Gary Merrill is the crusty newspaper correspondent who admires Nemo; Michael Craig is the dashing leader of the Union soldiers; teen hearthrob Michael Callan is the somewhat cowardly young man who achieves his manhood after rescuring the fair Beth Rogan from the aforementioned giant chicken; Joan Greenwood is the snooty but earthly Lady; Percy Herbert, one of Britain's finest character actors, shows up as a confederate stowaway; and Dan Jackson is the black naval officer who helps everyone out. The revered Bernard Hermann offers one of his bombastic, but brilliant, scores, and the movie just sails along on its own energetic level.
Children should be delighted to watch this movie, simply because it doesn't rely on gore, and one can show them what movies were like before computers.

Rating:
Summary: MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
Review: Highly enjoyable action yarn with great Harryhausen creations! Especially liked the giant bee!