Rating: 
Summary: run, lizard, run
Review: As a kid I would wait for this to appear on Million Dollar Movie on T-V. But, man, was it ever a long wait to get to the opening of the earth. Spinning on the magnetic pole was thought provoking. My favorite part, of course, was the giant lizard with the sail on its back. Now that's entertainment. Eating the duck was a heartbreaker from which my cousin never fully recovered.
Rating: 
Summary: Pathetic.
Review: Sometimes the aura of a movie overpowers its actual quality.
This is a joke of a movie. Having read and loved the book, I was excited when I saw that there was a movie. Saw it on TV.What I saw had nothing to do with the book. Nothing. At all. I'm not kidding. IT DOESN'T HAVE ANYTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH THE BOOK. The only thing it has in common with the book is the journey to the center of the Earth. Some girl that tags along? A pet goose? A love story? A band of rogues chasing them all the way? Good lord. Monsieur Verne must be rolling in his grave; bless his heart.
Rating: 
Summary: A classic...that's kinda hard to watch now.
Review: Let me state right off that as a child, I couldn't get enough of this movie. When it played on TV in the '70s (and it was already dated then) I just loved it. It really grabbed my imagination, and I loved James Mason (and yes, even Pat Boone was inoffensive...odd casting choice, but it works). You can't go wrong with the story...ridiculous as it is. The party making the journey goes through a lengthy and diverse series of adventures and discoveries. And today's viewer gets a great lesson in what state of the art special effects were 50 years ago. So, I recommend the movie for some decent acting and a compelling storyline...but the special effects make it hard to truly suspend ones disbelief. So don't expect to get truly emotionally involved. And a kid today would probably HATE you for making them watch. But it's fun to "go back in time" to my childhood and revisit this classic of its time (see also, WAR OF THE WORLDS).
Rating:
Summary: Thank God for the 4:30 movie (NYC natives of the 70s only)
Review: I would never have seen this film as a youngster if it hadn't been for the local weekday afternoon 4:30 movie in the NYC metro area - that was something that I looked forward to every winter afternoon. They had several theme based film festivals, one of which featured JTTCOTE. Once I had seen it, I tried to always catch it again anytime that I saw it would be on - it's that much fun. Now seeing it as an adult some 25 years later, the movie is STILL a lot of fun. I would highly recommend it for kids aged 5-10 but probably it would be enjoyed by people at almost any age. In addition the quality of this DVD print is quite high considering the film is almost 45 years old. The musical score is also excellent, and anything with James Mason is virtually a must-see (at least once - this one will be enjoyed repeatedly for years). Have fun!
Rating: 
Summary: Journey To The Center Of My Youth...
Review: I had fond memories of this for 30+ years. Sitting in front of the TV, cross-legged, stuffing popcorn in my mouth, while watching the greatest sci-fi/ adventure flick of it's time. I just watched it again and loved it! James Mason (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Lolita) is professor Lindenbrook. He leads an expedition to the earth's core after uncovering a strange artifact encased in lava rock. The group of underground explorers includes Pat Boone as Macuen, Arlene Dahl as the wife of Lindenbrook's rival (who was murdered early on), A giant icelander named Hans, a duck named Gertrude, and two evil sabotuers who plan on knocking off our heroes and cashing in on their discovery. This movie has earthquakes, rockslides, floods, a giant whirlpool, a thundering styrofoam boulder, an explosion, a volcanic eruption, AND not 1, but 2 giant lizard attacks!! Be still my heart! James Mason is pleasantly irrassible. Pat Boone is astonishingly believable (I'm not a big Pat fan). Arlene Dahl is, well, absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend JTTCOTE. Get that corn a-poppin'...
Rating:
Summary: Fox could have added a "behind the scenes" feature....
Review: It's very surprising that Fox (which is known for putting together good DVDs) kind of played the cheap route for this movie. I would have liked to have seen a "Behind the Scenes" feature on how this movie was done. I'm sure they could have put together something for it, like they did with "The Day The Earth Stood Still". This is a good movie and deserves better treatment on the DVD format. I feel like I wasted my money.
Rating:
Summary: Pat Boone Rules!!Where are his other movies?!!
Review: Pat Boone Rules in this superb film"Journey to the Center of the Earth"but where are his other great movies including musicals that his starred in that unfortunately never been released on video during the 50's and 60's including Bernardine-1957,April Love-1957,Mardi Gras-1958,All Hands on Deck-1961,The Main Attraction-1962,The Yellow Canary-1963,The Horror of It All-1963,Never Put it in Writing-1964,The Perils of Pauline-1967.Video Distributors both large and small including Fox Home Entertainment should aggressively inquire about releasing these very,very long overdue and overlooked movie gems on vhs/dvd.I mean Elvis as great as he was shouldn't get all the glory!!!
Rating:
Summary: I had very good taste at the age of 8!
Review: Seeing this movie at a kiddie matinee one rainy Saturday afternoon was a formative experience. My brother and I played "Journey to the Center of the Earth" for weeks afterward on the hill behind our house. And most of it has worn extremely well, although being the jaded, post-Spielberg adult that I now am, I can't help noticing the difference between the authentic Carlsbad Cavern locations in some sets and the styrofoam rocks on Hollywood sound stages in others. But who cares? In my childhood, I already knew that the geological premise here was mistaken but happily suspended disbelief, and I'm glad to do it again for an enthralling, well-acted adventure story, especially one featuring interesting characters like an eccentric professor, a gallant young man who can sing, a beautiful, spunky woman, a loyal strong-man and a duck with a terrific sense of direction. Oh by the way, for you younger viewers, did you think Indiana Jones was the first action hero to flee a huge, rolling boulder in a narrow chasm? Find out where Lucas and Spielberg got that, along with a lot of other set-pieces, when you watch this great old flick.
Rating:
Summary: Gertrude? Gertrude..?
Review: I first saw Journey to the Center of the Earth as part of a dusty collection of VHS tapes our local library would roll out on rainy Sundays for the kids (another classic was Mysterious Island). I enjoyed it then, so I decided to pick up the DVD. Not only has the film held up over time, I actually find it more entertaining now than when I was a lad. The plot, wherein an esteemed Scottish geology professor and his earnest student (Pat Boone) discover a clue that leads them to the center of the Earth, along with a rogue's gallery of other companions, is actually almost believable. I think that's probably the best that can ever be said about this sort of film, and something that is almost never said of more recent versions. Along the way naturally the intrepid explorers overcome dangers and obstacles, encounter fabulous natural wonders, and generally have a good time. The actors really make this film stand out; the special effects are still good but it's the dialogue that speeds the plot along. I still find myself swept up in their initial hunt for the entrance to the underground caverns, as well as the interactions of our heroes with the primary villian..and of course there is a fun one. The film also has a well-manicured but playful sense of humor, including a scene where our heroes desperately try in any language to communicate with the tappings of a presumed rescuer, which turns out to be a duck, and another where one love interest is horrified when she (gasp!) accidentally reveals her shapely ankles. Also, this film has a great sequence that catapults it high into the ranking of that little-known and vastly underappreciated sub-genre: the "giant" lizard film. You know the ones I mean. They all have iguanas, typically blue-screened and made up to look like prehistoric dinosaurs of some form, which bound around the place and generally menace our off-screen actors. Look for close-up shots of "giant" lizard mouths and then listen for the screams. Ahh, it's great. The DVD itself is fine. Some of the other reviews take issue with obscure coloring and soundtrack elements that, frankly, I don't think are even noticeable. The soundtrack is delightfully strident and yet often solemn/morbid, conveying the gradual suffocating effects of hundreds of miles of earth piled above your head as you move deeper. All in all, I think this is about as entertaining and enjoyable as you're going to get for a premise as patently absurd as walking to the center of the earth. And that, of course, is why it's such a great film.
Rating:
Summary: Good DVD restoration of an uneven film
Review: To anyone considering this DVD, know that the gentleman claiming this DVD was colorized from black-and-white prints is quite mistaken. This DVD is from a new internegative, and what that means is that they made a new color film using what is known as "black-and-white separations." These separations are a B&W film of each of the 3 primary color spectrums (cyan, magenta, blue - tech talk for these separations is Y-C-M) which put together make real full color. They are made that way to preserve a color film. The B&W doesn't fade like color negatives and most prints do (the color spectrums also fade unevenly). So you'd always be able to put them together to make a fresh new color print. You can also control the color better by blending the intensity of each color spectrum. They used this technique for this movie in order preserve the badly aged and neglected negative and to use the blending ability in making a new print to compensate for much of the fading of the negative. Separations should exist for all color films but sadly they don't. You can now figure out that the question of how this will look depends on how bad the negative was before making the "separations" from it, the quality of workmanship, and how carefully they blended the separations when making the film we see on this DVD. They did a good job. It isn't perfect, but it does more or less reflect the color scheme the filmmakers went for in 1959, which is why it might seem a little like fake color to some. If you have a good monitor, it looks colorful in a slightly artful way that many older films intentionally strove for. The sound is a bit out of synch at times but not much. Many videos have that problem. It could be better but most people won't notice. The hiss is fine since it doesn't distract and is better left in than having the sound muffled by filtering it. There are some other strange artifacts in the sound that shouldn't be in there. What is sloppier is that they get the left and right channels reversed at times! This is also not uncommon in the second rate attention usually given older films. In fact this DVD sounds unusually good! It even allows the bass end to remain intact, a big plus in the music for this film. Fox needed to proofread this DVD. It says it is modified (cropped to fit the TV) while in fact it is in its original widescreen on this DVD. This DVD is a commendable job and far superior to the horrid junk this studio released in previous releases of this movie. You must have an appreciation of the absurd to enjoy this movie. If you like absurd or have an appreciation of the absurd, you will find this movie amusing and enjoyable. If you expect clinical or hyper-reality, hyper-violence or gritty realism, you will not like this film. You should also be able to enjoy a story that is in no hurry and be able to enjoy hand-made special effects and some simple stage-like backdrops. I did enjoy the Atlantis setting, it's a shame it didn't make more use of that. There are many things it glosses over in favor of things I wouldn't have bothered with. You may agree. Of course the lady stays a '50's movie lady, and extravagantly made-up and coiffed no matter how long away from a salon. As you no doubt know, many shows still pull that trick. At least she is given a backbone. If the handling of the villain is a little dubious, at least the lead, James Mason's role, is well played and easy to associate with if you have that appreciation for the absurd. If you are fine with all that then you should enjoy this movie. The score is the best element of this movie. I'm not talking of the transient ditties Pat Boone throws off. I mean the scoring by Bernard Herrmann. Many people like the score far better than the movie itself. I agree. Music and film students will find this score a must. Particularly of interest is the instrumentation. There are superb uses of organ including the seriously low registers (a subwoofer is worth using for this film). Another interesting thing is the extremely rare use of the distinctive, long-obsolete medieval instrument called a "serpent." This instrument is used for the unnerving tones portraying the (what else!) giant serpent. This movie is not as dramatically valid or creatively solid as Walt Disney's 'Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the Sea' (1954). 'Twenty-Thousand Leagues' has also aged better. If you want a classic Jules Verne film, get the excellent DVD of 'Twenty-Thousand Leagues'. Then consider this one. 'Mysterious Island' is another, but I'd suggest it after the aforementioned. Also of possible interest to you is a film also requiring an appreciation of the absurd and a taste or tolerance of the "cheesy" in even larger measures, but possibly also stronger in its strengths than this film, 'In Search of the Castaways' (1962 - not on DVD at this time). 'First Men in the Moon' (1964) is also in a similar spirit to this. I hope you'll now be able to chose whether to buy this DVD and what to get if you enjoy this film. - C.J.
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