Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)

On a quest to find out what happened to his missing brother, a scientist, his nephew and their mountain guide discover a fantastic and dangerous lost world in the center of the earth.

Director:

Eric Brevig

Writers:

Michael D. Weiss (screenplay), Jennifer Flackett (screenplay),

Stars:

Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, Anita Briem

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Brendan Fraser	...	Trevor Anderson
Josh Hutcherson	...	Sean Anderson
Anita Briem	...	Hannah Ásgeirsson
Seth Meyers	...	Professor Alan Kitzens
Jean Michel Paré	...	Max Anderson
Jane Wheeler	...	Elizabeth
Frank Fontaine	...	Old Man
Giancarlo Caltabiano	...	Leonard
Kaniehtiio Horn	...	Gum-Chewing Girl
Garth Gilker	...	Sigurbjörn Ásgeirsson

Storyline

Professor Trevor Anderson receives his teenager nephew Sean Anderson. He will spend ten days with his uncle while his mother, Elizabeth, prepares to move to Canada. She gives a box to Trevor that belonged to his missing brother, Max, and Trevor finds a book with references to the last journey of his brother. He decides to follow the steps of Max with Sean and they travel to Iceland, where they meet the guide Hannah Ásgeirsson. While climbing a mountain, there is a thunderstorm and they protect themselves in a cave. However, a lightening collapses the entrance and the trio is trapped in the cave. They seek an exit and falls in a hole, discovering a lost world in the center of the Earth.

---

Plot Keywords:

lost world | cave | guide | mountain | missing brother | 

---

Taglines:

Same Planet. Different World.

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for intense adventure action and some scary moments

Details

Official Sites:

Metropolitan Films [fr] New Line Cinema [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Icelandic Italian

Release Date:

11 July 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D

Filming Locations:

Cité du Cinéma, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£953,878 (UK) (11 July 2008)

Gross:

$101,702,060 (USA) (5 December 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Walden Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Trevor character's brother is named for famous playwright Maxwell Anderson.

---

Goofs

As they are flying the kite, there is a closeup of the rope feeding quickly through the carabiner yet in the next shot of Prof. Anderson (Brendan Fraser) holding the rope, it is not moving at all.

---

Quotes

Sean: [seeing a deserted field in the center of the Earth] Dang, I wish I read that book.

---

Crazy Credits

At the end of the movie, the bird flies out of the picture and creates a bright flash. Following it, are the end credits where the bird's feathers drift slowly down.

---

Connections

Version of Journey to the Center of the Earth (1999)

User Reviews

Silly, but surprisingly enjoyable anyway

The reviewers of "Journey" are probably all correct: the logic is spotty, the premise is silly, and the requirement of the audience to suspend disbelief is beyond a typically successful film. However, despite all of that, I liked it! I went to see it because in my small town the offerings are rather slim, and I had seen everything else (is it me, or did this summer's films seem a bit clichéd and lame?).

Brendan Fraser has always been a great actor, with an agreeable presence. That he was the star here helped a lot. As did the newcomer actor, the Icelandic lady- Anita Briem. Somehow, one never seems to think of film stars as coming from Iceland. But she is comely and interesting to watch, and she looked good with Fraser. The supporting cast (and there wasn't much of them, as it was mostly CGI stuff, and not really populated with many humans, except for brief appearances) was also adequate, albeit they had little to do.

Overall, then, this was science fiction with an emphasis on the "fiction." Little here was even remotely believable. Yet taken together, it made an interesting visual contemplation of "what if?" and an enjoyable couple of hours at the cinema (for example, the characters free-fall to the "center of the earth," which would be 4,000 MILES down. Allowing for the rather slap-dash explanation of "magma envelopes" and all, we are nonetheless asked to believe they fell thousands of miles in a few seconds. The lava tube they fell down, fake as it was, was kind of evocative--- it did bring to mind a sense of mystery, and the powers of nature that are WAY beyond our everyday experiences, even if it was rather silly).

Oh, BTW, an obvious logic flaw--- if there really was a magma envelope surrounding the interior ocean and lush tropical paradise--- why didn't the free-fall take them through that, it being a sphere and all? Don't even think about it! Just enjoy the fairy tale.