Vernes didn't envisage this particular journey... but it was still quite fun!

Journey to the Centre of the Earth is a 1999 TV movie based loosely (very loosely in places!) on the Jules Verne novel of the same name. It won’t please purists by any means, but for a TV movie it really isn’t that bad. (Though on another message board I see that this film has attracted a good number of “I utterly hated it” rants… which could show that they’re too pick, or I’m too forgiving when it comes to TV movies!!)

The movie starts with maverick scientist (there seem to be so many of them around in the literary and movie worlds!) explaining his theories about what lies towards the centre of the earth to an extremely sceptical scientific community. Not much hope of funding there then. All hope seems lost, but then a woman whose husband secretly embarked on an expedition to the centre of the earth and never came back comes up with a proposal. She is willing to fund the venture - the only catch is that she wants to come along. With money being such a necessity, she ends up winning the fight. So along go Theodore Lytton (Treat Williams), his under-the-thumb nephew Jonas (Jeremy London), and Alice Hastings (Tushka Bergen) on their great adventure.

As already mentioned, there really isn’t much similarity to the book. As you might expect, there are people and creatures aplenty under the sea; an old acquaintance turns up to the surprise of nobody who’s watching the film; passions become inflamed, old loves are forgotten then remembered, great acts of bravery and diplomacy need to be performed… There are no great shocks in the script and it’s pretty easy to predict what happens, but it’s all done with some gusto and a sense of fun, so it was quite enjoyable. People have complained about the special effects and this is admittedly low budget stuff, but I really didn’t think it was that bad. The acting isn’t too bad either, with Treat Williams and Jeremy London giving it their best shot. Alice’s character isn’t very well written so Tushka Bergen is quite often having to play the part of a wet blanket, so she struggles to give us a character that we can really warm to. Bryan Brown puts in a somewhat mediocre performance as… well I won’t tell you who he plays, but really if you don’t see his character coming a mile off you must have never seen a film or read a book before!

The film lasts around 3 hours and for some reason I can’t fathom was given a 15 rating in the UK (not to be watched by anyone under the age of 15). I don’t remember any swearing and there isn’t all that much violence. I guess the natives’ costumes are rather skimpy and there is a scene that, while it doesn’t show you any sex, makes it plain what’s about to happen. I’ve seen worse in 12A (equivalent to PG-13 in the US) rated films… a lot worse, in fact.

For a low-budget, made-for-TV tale of derring-do that doesn’t owe much more than the title to the book it’s allegedly based on, it’s really not too bad. There are some decent action scenes, some nice moments of humour, and a plot that, while holding all the traditional clichés of the genre, is put together well enough. Since I got this as a freebie with a newspaper, I wasn’t’ at all disappointed with it. Of course if I’d paid a tenner for it, that would be a different matter altogether… if you like adventure movies, this is one to catch on TV more than anything.

Directed by: George Miller



Related Links

Jules Verne novels:

Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Around The World in 80 Days
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Other films or TV series based on Jules Verne’s novels:

Around The World in 80 Days (film version starring Jackie Chan and Steve Cooghan) - not exactly faithful to the book, but I found this movie to be a lot of fun.
Around the World in 80 Days (mini-series starring Peirce Brosnan) - a slightly weird version of events which was entertaining enough but never really got out of second gear.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Kirk Douglas gets his shirt off (now there’s a surprise) in Disney’s screen version of the film that has wonderful sets but doesn’t do the book much justice, though children are likely to enjoy it much more than adults.