Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Action > Literature > Journey To The Center Of The Earth (2008/Blu-ray + DVD-Video/3-D & 2-D versions/Warner Home Video)

Journey To The Center Of The Earth (2008/Blu-ray + DVD-Video/3-D & 2-D versions/Warner Home Video)

 

Picture: B/C+/C     Sound: B/B-     Extras: C-     Film: C-

 

 

Some classics are better left alone and Jules Verne’s Journey To The Center Of The Earth is one of them.  So tired is the idea of retreading it that even rip-offs are tired and the 2008 Brendan Frazer version wastes the talented actor again (hope he got a decent paycheck) in Eric Brevig’s shockingly boring recycling.  The addition of 3-D is not a plus, rarely works, makes this a curio with little to deliver and the effects are used so little that it is as if the 3-D was a mid-production afterthought.

 

Frazer is an expert (whatever) on the subject of the past (that Mummy/Indiana Jones connection is weak and tenuous) who brings his nephew and another young expert on his trip, which turns out to be a life & death adventure, except for all the bad jokes and predictability.  This goes on and on for 92 rather condescending minutes until it is finally over.  In 2-D, you could give this our lowest grade, but this is just a stunt and joke more than a film and your better off seeing the 1959 Pat Boone version in CinemaScope, because that had a better script and more money in it!

 

The 1080p 1.78 X 1 in 2-D is loaded with motion blur, something the 3-D version can hide a bit, but its color and effects inconsistencies are disappointing, if not as outright annoying as the lame, overrated Hannah Montana 3-D Blu-ray.  The DVD’s anamorphically enhanced 3-D version works well enough, but is hardly better than the 2-D and the 2-D only full-screen option (why is this here?) is a disaster.  Both formats offer only Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and are not that impressive in either case, while the Blu-ray has the slightest edge with more room for the antiquated codec.  Extras besides the 3-D are a game, three featurettes and a flat audio commentary by Frazer and Brevig.  Both format copies also offered a paperboard slipcase with a 3-D lenticular cover image.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com