Plot: What’s it about?
Based on the classic novel by Jules Verne, Journey to the center of the earth is a timeless story now brought to digital video by Hallmark entertainment. The story (for those of you who never read the book) is about Theodore Lytton played by Treat Williams (The Phantom, HBO’s The Late Shift). Theodore is a scientist, paleontologist, and dabbles in a little prize fighting for some extra cash. Theodore’s nephew, Jonas played by Jeremy London (Party Of Five, Mallrats) is Theodore’s college graduate assistant and sidekick so to speak. Jonas is engaged to be married and already planning his honeymoon when a small detour appears in his road of plans. Theodore is approached by a woman named Alice Hastings who wants to hire Theodore for a job. Alice’s husband Casper played by Bryan Brown (Cocktail, Gorillas in the Mist) went searching for gold and treasure some seven years back and was never heard from again. Where did he go searching? In the center of the earth. That’s how Theo becomes involved, Alice wants to hire Theo to find her husband. Now between Mrs. Hastings funding the expedition and Theodore’s constant thirst for exploration, he’s not about to turn her down.
So after persuading his young nephew to delay his wedding, the two set off for their journey. When arriving in the port town the two are sailing out of, Theodore gets a surprise visit from Mrs. Hastings, she insists on accompanying the two on their trip and since she is paying for it, she wont take no for an answer. Throw in a surly ship captain named Mc Niff , who helped the two men from being robbed in town, and you’ve got an adventure! There are many sub plots in Journey, and I will go over a few briefly. The group finally find their entrance to the beginning of their quest, which comes by way of a cavern that goes down some 2 miles! After exploring deeper and deeper into these catacombs, the heat rises and the water supply falls. But the group decide to press on in hopes of finding an exit or fresh water supply. They do in fact find both and much more! Giant prehistoric birds and dinosaurs, fire red skies, and of course local natives. Heres where the story starts to take shape, When the group discovers these “civilized savages” there amazed by their manner and ability to speak English. So Theo and the group do the whole “take me to your leader” thing, only to find that man leading them is the very man their searching for! Casper Hastings has been leading these people since he arrived seven years ago, he taught them English, manner, customs and so on. The fact that Casper arrived with guns might have something to do with the reason for his being worshiped as a God but nevertheless, he does seem to treat them well and fair. Casper has stayed here for two reasons, first a ready supply of gold which is pretty much useless down there and second a blue herb that grows in abundance in one of the neighboring tribes fields. This herb has the power to heal anything and anyone and Casper knows this herb would be worth more that all the gold in the world back in the civilization. There are many sub plots like I stated earlier and they are very interesting but don’t make for a sensible review because it would give away the whole movie and drop the viewing value to zero! But all in all id say this is definitely one to add to your personal collection.
So basically what we have is a great rendition of a classic tale and some good acting and effects as well. The film was directed by George Miller who also did The man from snowy river as well as The never-ending story part 2. Even though this is another “made for T.V movie”(of which I happen to be a fan of) you cant oversee the fact that this is a great story with good acting, directing and great plots to keep you wanting more. The acting talent assembled for the film is good, Treat Williams is perfect for the role and does an amazing job as playing the nerdy yet robust Theodore. Jeremy London plays the perfect assistant and his acting although cheesy at times is still good enough. Same goes for the supporting cast, just a good effort from all the actors all the way around. The special effects although its sometimes too obvious that they are computer generated are still very good and this movie is just visually stunning in every way. Defiantly one to check out if your into the book, sci-fi or just a great tale with the talent and visual effects to pull it off on screen. The film, being made for T.V is unrated and just goes to show that you don’t need explicit violence, nudity or hard language to have a great movie. This is one that you and your kids will both enjoy.
Video: How does it look?
Full screen reformat job, but believe me when I tell you, you’ll be so engulfed in the awesome color palates and other stunning visuals, you wont care. The story does a good enough job of keeping you interested that you forget your watching a fullscreen presentation. As far as the colors and image sharpness, just a great job, lush greens, bold blue’s and hellish tones of red make this one something to look at. Maybe the slightest touch of pixels at times but beyond that just a spectacular visual film.
Audio: How does it sound?
2.0 surround sound. A little low but very clear and the surround sound is a nice touch in a film that could have easily gotten by with a simple stereo track. Great sound all the way through and even though you wont be blown away with the surround sound, you will know its there.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Cast and crew bios and even though they are pretty informative, that’s all we get. This category really did disappoint me when I think about all the possibilities there are for extras that go along with this classic film.
