Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Neil Welch Professor Lindenbrook takes a small party exploring towards the centre of th earth, and encounters various underground adventures including sea monsters, giant gorillas, giant turtles etc.On seeing the title The Fabulous Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, and knowing how I love this sort of movie, I wondered how come I had never heard of it, let alone seen it. Answer: it is a Spanish production, never really available in the UK.All-purpose stolid British protagonist Kenneth More holds things together in a moderately effective adaptation of Verne's novel. The rest of the cast are unknowns, but do OK.The visuals are a real curate's egg. There is some nice location work, and much of the underground material is shot in genuine caves, not sets. Stock footage is effectively used, all of which gives the impression of high production values.Then we come to the fact that the underground ocean sequences are all shot from a high camera angle: we sea the water, but we never see the background, thus eliminating the need for special effects. Because, when we do see special effects - the battle between two sea monsters, for instance - they are shockingly and hilariously bad.It doesn't mean the film isn't entertaining, but it certainly drags it down.

belleinboots A cheaper remake of the 1959 classic, with more cheesy dialogue and effects (guy in a gorilla suit) Although in a way, the more campy nature helps it along somewhat. The female character (Glauben) does tend to whine a lot and gets lost and at one point almost swallowed up in a subterranean mud-pit, which with hindsight might have been a blessing. Sadly she helped out by a stranger, who promptly disappears when the others arrive and they don't believe her (who would when she's so annoying?)Later he makes himself known and helps them out of other perilous situations. They encounter a forest of giant poisonous mushrooms, build a raft to cross an inland sea, avoiding sea monsters along the way and managing to outrun ravenous killer tortoises! Overall this is a storyline that deserves more respect to Jules Verne, the characters are very much token here. Here's hoping a newer version is on the books soon.

BA_Harrison Very nearly qualifying for 'so bad, it's good' status, Spanish director Juan Piquer Simon's take on Jules Verne's classic tale is poorly acted, has some truly awful effects, and features the most inept bunch of explorers ever to be committed to celluloid. With a touch more manky monster action, and its tongue a bit further in cheek, this one could have rivalled 70s favourite At the Earth's Core for schlock value; as it stands, it is a fairly entertaining low budget adventure flick that is just about enough fun for it to warrant a viewing.Kenneth More plays Prof. Otto Lindenbrock, a geologist who sets out on an expedition after discovering a secret route to the centre of the Earth. Together with his niece Glauben (Ivonne Sentis), a Prussian soldier, Axel (Pep Munné), and a shepherd named Hans (Frank Braña), Otto braves dangerous cave-ins, poisonous mushrooms, a perilous sea journey and prehistoric creatures.Unlike James Mason's more than capable Oliver Lindenbrook (in the far superior 1959 movie Journey to the Center of the Earth), More's character is something of a bumbling fool. He is totally unprepared for the trip he undertakes and doesn't seem at all fazed by any setbacks (he loses his guidebook and water supply along the way, but continues regardless). His companions, who all seem quite happy to tag along, are equally irresponsible; they frequently wander off on their own with absolutely no regard for their own safety.On discovering a huge underground ocean, the travellers build a raft, bump into some sea monsters (rubber glove puppets filmed in a bath), visit an island full of man-eating tortoises (the world's slowest predators) and get attacked by a giant ape (played by a man in a fancy-dress monkey suit). They eventually emerge from an erupting Stromboli, none the worse for wear.All of this, believe it or not, is fairly faithful to Verne's novel, but Juan Piquer Simon, apparently not content with its level of silliness, ramps up the ridiculousness even further. Halfway through their journey, our intrepid gang meet a mysterious stranger called Olsen, who eventually turns out to be a time-travelling scientist! Fans of bad monster movies and silly 70s sci-fi cinema will probably want to check this film out; everyone else would be better off giving it a miss.

junagadh75 "Where Time Began" is an adaptation of Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth", with some variations to make it more salable (such as a love interest). It seems to have been aimed at a juvenile audience and is in the same vein as the Kevin Connors/Amicus Studios adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Like many genre films, "Where Time Began" has very hokey characters and dialogue. The ineptitude with which the journey to the center of the earth is conducted is quite startling, in fact. The stupidity of their dialogue (especially the exchanges between Glauben and her idiotic fiancee Axel) gives the film a strong tone of campiness and unintentional humor. When Olsen shows up to rescue them midway through and complains that he's had to listen to their stupid chatter for the past ten miles, the viewer can commiserate. However, given the fact that it is a low budget film, the sets, photography and giant creature special effects are actually pretty good, and they manage to maintain some atmosphere throughout the production. Once the characters arrive in the pseudo-prehistoric world at the center of the earth, the film especially picks up, and the revelation of the origin of Olsen provides an interesting twist. For this reason, "Where Time Began" is a reasonable entry in the journey-to-a-lost-world genre.