Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)

An heiress hires an anthropologist/adventurer to track down her husband who has disappeared while searching for a mythic passage to the center of the earth.

Director:

T.J. Scott

Writers:

Thomas Baum (teleplay), William Gray

Stars:

Ricky Schroder, Victoria Pratt, Peter Fonda

Cast

Cast overview:
Ricky Schroder	...	Jonathan Brock (as Rick Schroder)
Victoria Pratt	...	Martha Dennison
Peter Fonda	...	Edward Dennison
Steven Grayhm	...	Abel Brock
Mike Dopud	...	Sergei Petkov
Jonathan Brewer	...	Wakinta
Elyse Levesque	...	Emily
Richard Side	...	Solomon Smith
Carmen Moore	...	Priestess
Ken Kirzinger	...	Fighter
Jorge Vargas	...	Wakinta Guard (as Jorgito Vargas Jr.)
Simon Baker	...	Wakinta Rescuer (as Simon R. Baker)

Storyline

Set in the late 1870's - A woman hires an anthropologist/adventurer to track down her husband, who has disappeared while searching for an elusive passage to the center of the earth.

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Plot Keywords:

center | heiress | remote | lantern | volcano | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Family | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English Russian Latin

Release Date:

27 January 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die Reise zum Mittelpunkt der Erde

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

RHI Entertainment, Reunion Pictures, Province of British Columbia Film Incentive BC

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[first lines]
Abel Brock: [just knocked to the ground] Uncle! Uncle!
Sergei Petkov: What time is it Abel?
Abel Brock: 4:30.
Sergei Petkov: Well, I think I played with this guy long enough.
Abel Brock: No, not this time.
Sergei Petkov: Bet the wad...

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Connections

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

User Reviews

slow, uninteresting, and mediocre adaptation

Here we have yet another film adaptation of the popular Jules Verne's novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Here, the cast is led by Rick Schroeder as it again tells of explorers finding a passage into the core of the planet where dinosaurs, primitive people, and a whole lost world still exist. I am not that familiar with the novel or many of the movies based upon it, but this 2008 version is a poor adaptation. There were many things I had to complain about it and few to compliment about it. Performances were good, but just about everything else fell short of expectations.

The best part of the movie, believe it or not, was not while the characters were in the center of the Earth. Rather, it was while they were on the surface and even then, it wasn't that entertaining. I strongly felt the cinematography was too bright and gave the movie a feeling of schlock and no authenticity. The screenplay was rather poor, unorganized, and many scenes had little or no point. Such as this part where a bear allegedly attacks the characters and scares away the horses. We see the characters shooting, hear a bear growling, and that's all. Special effects weren't that great either. For dinosaurs, we see giant birds (not pterodactyls) and a plesiosaurus. Both were achieved with rather shoddy computer graphics. The creatures took up very little of the film and created no sense of marvel or majesty about themselves, which is what one wants to see in a movie like this. A lost world should be treated with majesty and magnificence.

Bottom line, the 2008 film adaptation of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" was a very bland uninteresting film that took its time at developing itself and made very little sense. I suppose it is worth looking at once, but I'm in no itching hurry to view it a second time.