Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1989
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1989 film)
Buy Journey to the Center of the Earth (1989 film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Journey to the Center of the Earth' is a 1989 fantasy film. It was a nominal sequel to the 1988 film 'Alien from L.A.', both of which are (very) loosely based on the 1864 novel 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' by Jules Verne.
Plot summary
Newly hired nanny Crystina arrives in Hawaii to discover that her charge is the dog of Nimrod, a rock star. Two brothers accidentally take the dog's basket to a local cave with their sister. The group of young people get lost in a cavern while exploring a volcano. The volcano explodes and while fleeing they discover the lost city of Atlantis, at the center of the Earth. Atlantis is inhabited, and view the arrival of the group along with a separate visitor from the surface, Wanda Saknussemm, as an invasion. This leads the Atlanteans to prepare to invade the surface. The children, nanny and Saknussemm must stop the invasion and escape to the surface.
Cast
*Emo Philips as Nimrod
*Paul Carafotes as Richard
*Jackie Bernstein as Sara
*Kathy Ireland as Wanda Saknussemm
*Janie du Plessis as Gen. Rykov
*Nicola Cowper as Crystina
*Lochner De Kock as Professor Galba
*Ilan Mitchell-Smith as Bryan
*Albert Maritz as Mago/Kepple/Lab Assistant
*Jeff Celentano as Tola
*Simon Poland as Roderman / Hairdresser
*Jeremy Crutchley as Billy Foul
Production
The production of the film was noted to be troubled and was stopped when the film was about halfway completed. Two years after the filming stopped, director Albert Pyun was hired to complete the film with little budget to complete the project. Pyun brought in Ireland and decided to make the film a sequel of sorts to 'Alien from L.A.'
Reception
Moria noted that the film was a hodgepodge and a mess. What seems to have been an attempt to do a teen age version of the Verne book ends up with little to do with the book other than the underground setting. Creature Feature gave the movie 1 out of 5 stars, calling the film a mess and something that only vaguely resembles a feature film.Stanley, J. (2000) Creature Feature: 3rd edition Common Sense Media stated that the film's "plot is absurd and at times hard to follow, the acting is bad, and the film overall looks very low-budget" but that it was appropriate for most children.
References
Buy Journey to the Center of the Earth (1989 film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1989