Brendan Fraser is perhaps the lowest ranking star to have as many high profile films per year as he does. When it comes to action films, Fraser is one of Hollywood’s go to guys alongside Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson. Throw him in something effects laden, and relatively inexpensive to make, and Fraser will inevitably draw enough crowds into theatres to justify the expense.
2008 especially seems to have been a good year for Fraser, as he had two high profile summer films. The first has come to DVD in Journey to the Center of the Earth, based on the Jules Verne novel.
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Fraser stars as Trevor Anderson, a volcanic and tectonic studies professor whose brother disappeared looking for the center of the Earth as detailed in Verne’s classic novel. With his nephew (Josh Hutcherson) in tow and a beautiful guide (Anita Briem) showing them up a mountain in Iceland, the trio find themselves trapped in the center of the Earth trying to find a way out.
Filmed to take advantage of the new 3D format, this is a special effects heavy vehicle like no other this year. It’s a visual spectacle like none other, as the film goes from one absolutely gorgeous sequence to another. There are tons of things to look at and experience, as the film’s visual effects technicians have created the most intriguing film visually of 2008 by far. It’s full of great cinematography as well, as the film takes full advantage of the abundance of great visuals by not screwing up the one thing that would ruin all the work they put into it. Its truly a visual spectacle, complete with a great score, and in terms of the a/v its brilliant.
If a good film can be made by just throwing money at it, every single one would be a masterpiece, but the problem with Journey is that its story doesn’t hold up to its visuals. This is a pretty standard, clichéd adventure film that doesn’t offer much new to the genre, but has all the standard chase scenes and even throws a new wrinkle on the mine shaft escape sequence first made famous in the Indiana Jones franchise but ultimately doesn’t have anything that wasn’t done already. It does it better and perhaps more spectacularly than in recent years but it doesn’t reinvent the wheel.
Journey to the Center of the Earth is a nice, big-budget remake and markedly innocuous entertainment.
Presented in a Dolby Digital format with a widescreen presentation, this is a beautiful transfer onto DVD. This is a film that breathes on it’s a/v and the transfer brings it out marvelously.
The DVD’s flipside has the 3D version, complete with four pairs of glasses, so you can watch it at home in 3D. Both the 2D and 3D copies have the film’s Commentary by director Eric Brevig and Fraser.
A World Within Our World is narrated by Briem and is an educational piece on the “Hollow Earth” theory. Postulating that the Earth is hollow on the inside, with potentially other spheres and worlds inside it, the piece gets lots of experts in tectonic theory to discuss the film in a piece that’s educational but isn’t dry.
Being Josh is a piece on the day in the life of Josh Hutcherson. Going through a day of stunt work, the rock jumping scene, he discusses his life as an actor as well as his life as a teenager. It’s interesting to hear him discuss how the movies keep him from doing certain things, like playing football or prom, but he discusses it in a frank manner and doesn’t seem to mind going without for the sake of being an actor.
How to Make a Dinosaur Drool and Adventure at the Center of the Earth are two other making of features.
You can’t go wrong with some mindless entertainment on occasion. And Journey to the Center of the Earth is good, mindless entertainment that doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. It just makes it look prettier.
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New Line Home Video presents Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008). Directed by Eric Brevig. Starring Brenda Fraser, Josh Hutcherson. Written by Michael D Weiss, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin, Jules Verne (book). Running time: 92 minutes. Rated PG. Released on DVD: 10.28.2008. Available at Amazon.
