While the naysayers of Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D will point to its 1959 classic predecessor, the new film succeeds in nearly everything it attempts. The only real down side is the fact that never really aspires to be more than a fun 3D escapist romp. To be sure, Journey has at least two major hurdles to overcome: the first film which starred Pat Boone, and the novel by Jules Verne.

Like a lot of films that languished for years in development hell, Journey met with its own bumps and twists, but those two major obstacles would have to be dealt with. In what is a classic modern avoidance tactics, script writers Michael Weiss, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin chose to simply bypass both by referring to a world of “Verneians,” where certain people believe that Verne wrote his book based on fact, not fiction. Although I’m tempted to find out if such a group of people really exists, it’s just not that interesting an idea to pursue, so I’ll just move on.

Such illustrates both the success and the flaws of the film. By not giving into the challenge of adapting a 19th century story to the 21st century, director Eric Brevig is able to work free of any imposing need to meet expectations. This is a good thing, since clearly expectations are not really that high to begin with. Journey is Brevig’s first film as director, and took the helm with more than two decades of experience as a visual effects supervisor of a wide range of films including effects-heavy films like Scrooged (1988), Total Recall (1990), Hook (1991), Peter Pan (2003), and The Day After Tomorrow (2004).

Read more »

Before I spend any significant time in pontificating on just how bad The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (hereafter Mummy 3) really is, I should confess that I have a certain amount of fanboy affection for Brendan Fraser. It’s hard for me to not like one of his films. Alas, in the case of Mummy 3, the film really borders on a level of asinine that makes for downright painful viewing. Even my fondness for Fraser’s presence on the big screen doesn’t save this atrocity from the depths of total celluloid depravity.

Director Rob Cohen takes over the reins from Stephen Sommers, who helmed the first two films. Cohen’s style of storytelling clearly wanted to capture some of the apparent nostalgia of the first two Mummy films. Only there’s one big problem – it’s only been seven years since the last one, and the first two films really weren’t all that great to begin with.

SPOILER WARNING: I’ve long had a personal policy of spoiler-free reviews, but I’ll have to make an exception in this case because it’s just THAT bad.

Try to imagine, if you can, a scene where massive, overly-animated Yeti pounce on the villains only to kick one of the poor heavies over a roof in an impromptu football field goal, with the obligatory referee’s hand sign. If you think such a scene is an exercise of brilliant humor, then there’s not really much hope for you—you’ll probably love this movie. The rest of us will roll our eyes nearly out of their sockets.

Read more »