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This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Fresh and Exciting

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

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.

Back in the mid 70's there was a bit of a cycle of fantasy adventure b-movies. Quite a few of them were British and seemed to always star Doug McClure. One typical example being At the Earth's Core (1976) which was an adaption of sorts of the Jules Verne novel 'Journey to the Center Of the Earth'. Well, it can be of no real surprise that there were also some continental offerings in this sub-genre, and so from Spain we have The Fabulous Journey to the Centre of the Earth. While the British films were made on a fairly low budget, this Iberian equivalent is decidedly cheaper still. It was directed by Juan Piquer Simón who is probably best known for directing a couple of psychotronic 80's horror movies, namely the demented slasher Pieces (1982) and the crazy creature-feature Slugs (1988). I definitely wouldn't say that this film is up to the deliriously entertaining standards of those two but it is still a half-way decent effort.Set in Victorian times, the story has a scientist discovering a secret entrance to the centre of the earth. He assembles a small party and they navigate down into the abyss where they encounter a mysterious stranger called Olsen (played by Jack Taylor who was the go-to American actor for a plethora of cheap Spanish productions at the time). A little later they encounter prehistoric monsters, giant turtles, a giant ape and...big mushrooms! The low budget hampers things a bit and it isn't directed with much impetus but essentially, any movie which throws in dinosaurs and various other creatures can't be all bad. And this one isn't. Its probably one on the lower side of the prehistoric fantasy sub-genre scale but it still essentially offers the goods, so fair enough.

That is probably why I loved this movie as a child. The movie was called "Where time Began" when I saw it and it is based on the Jules Verne novel, but it is so absolutely different that it makes this movie almost unique. I prefer it a bit more to the 1959 version, granted I liked that one too. This one just has such curious elements that make it to me a more strange and different film. It is cheesy to be sure, but I have said many times that I enjoy cheese so I do find this film fun. The film is like any other "Journey to the Center of Earth" adaptation to start out with. However, the film has points where it goes totally crazy, I recall giant turtles or something, strange dinosaurs and a weird facility and a strange man called Olsen. Of course, that is a problem with the movie as well, there are many questions surrounding this strange individual and as a kid I did not understand what was with that character. I would love to see this one again and perhaps now that I am older, maybe I can see what the movie was trying to convey in regards to that character. This one pretty much ends on the same note though as the 1959 version. Then it has a very surreal ending involving Olsen. So while the film is not without its faults and while others may not like this one, I find this cave movie really entertaining to watch.

VIAJE AL CENTRO DE LA TIERRA was a Spanish live-action coproduction that received limited distribution in 1978 in the United States by International Picture Show under the title WHERE TIME BEGAN; it was initially titled JULES VERNE'S FABULOUS JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. Made for $2 million, WHERE TIME BEGAN was shot over a period of five months, and uses most of Verne's major incidents. WHERE TIME BEGAN opens with a pre-credit discussion of the interior of the Earth by a group of geologists, with Professor Otto Lidenbrock (Kenneth More) commenting that the only way to prove any of the theories is through an actual descent. The credits follow, superimposed over a pleasant salute to the Vernian visual style of Georges Méliès, but marred by an inane song on the soundtrack.The date of the story is shifted to 1898, to make it more contemporary for the audience, in both technology and social mores (such as the place of women). In Hamburg, an aged man tries to sell several old volumes at a book store; they are bought by Lidenbrock. Arriving home, he finds the soldier Axel accidentally kneeling before his niece Glauben, and assuming there has been a marriage proposal, gladly but offhandedly offers his consent. Glauben notices the small note that falls from the book, and together Lidenbrock, Axel, and Glauben, with the help of the cinematically referential device of a magic lantern, discover the key to Saknussemm's code.Under the same necessity to add a feminine lead as other versions, WHERE TIME BEGAN follows a vastly simpler method. Glauben wants to go on the trip, and her practicality proves a valuable assistance to the absent-minded Lidenbrock and equally ill-prepared Axel. By contrast, it is Axel who is uncertain, hesitant, and reluctant; the juxtaposition of his equivocation with Lidenbrock's certainty and Glauben's eagerness provides humor that was not in the novel.The exteriors of the expedition's beginning and exit through craters were taken at the Lanzarote volcano in the Canary Islands, providing a barren, other-worldly appearance that almost resembles a moonscape. Although the reddish plains scarcely resembled Iceland, a series of extreme dramatic zooms impressively isolates the cast amidst the desolate location, providing a more dynamic lead-up to the descent than in the 1959 movie. The plunge into the Earth was shot a half-mile inside caves near Madrid, with the lighting effectively dark and claustrophobic.When Hans's pickaxe thrust releases boiling water, it burns the hand of the man Glauben had seen in the darkness--who finally introduces himself as Olsen (Jack Taylor). The underground sea seems to have a healing physical power over the members of the expedition. Glauben notices that Olsen never seems to require sustenance, and his only tool is a copper-colored metal box he carries with him (which unfortunately resembles in size and shape nothing so much as a metal tea-kettle).The sequence around the underground sea is, as in the novel, the centerpiece of the story, and the full treatment of this setting and the incidents around it--the island, the dinosaurs, the storm--with a large degree of fidelity to Verne, make WHERE TIME BEGAN noticeably different from other films of the novel. Filters turn the ocean a deep shade of greenish-blue aqua, contrasting with the orange of the land; the striking color combinations make the setting all the more convincing.Washed ashore with the wreckage of their raft and their equipment after the storm, Axel and Glauben go in search of Olsen, passing through a field of fossils and into a forest. At this point, WHERE TIME BEGAN becomes increasingly far-fetched. Axel and Glauben are suddenly attacked, not by the ten foot prehistoric man of Verne's imagination, but by a giant ape, failing to connect with Verne's evolutionary link. Olsen comes to the rescue, and allowing them to glimpse a whole city of men who resemble him.Olsen sets off an explosion that will open an escape for Lidenbrock, Axel, Glauben, and Hans, saying he will find his own way to safety. The scene comes rather suddenly, and is confusing in its brevity and lack of explanatory dialogue. WHERE TIME BEGAN avoids saying whether the expedition actually reached their destination or not, so there is no sense of the downward distance they have traveled.In a coda, Axel and Glauben have married, Hans is once more a prosperous sheepherder, and Lidenbrock still haunts the old bookshop. One day, he learns that a parcel has been left for him, and, unwrapped, it proves to be Olsen's metal box. Looking toward the shop window, Lidenbrock sees an aged man, the same one who brought in Saknussemm's journal--and recognizes that he is "Olsen." This parallel closure brings the film back to where it began.Is Olsen perhaps meant to be Arne Saknussemm himself, or a representative of his pioneering spirit? Either or both could be true; Olsen stands in for the absent predecessor whose earlier journey they are recreating. Significantly, Olsen appears after Lidenbrock loses Saknussemm's original book, and will rescue the travelers at the point where Saknussemm's last carving of his initials appears. He is less of a full-fledged character than a symbol, a vivid reminder of the theme of time that, in the form of evolution, was such a motif of the novel.The cast credibly enact their roles, particularly Kenneth More, despite his age. The special effects (by Emilio Ruiz) are variable; the dinosaurs are far less convincing than those of the 1959 version, but WHERE TIME BEGAN also attempts to do far more with them, the previous film not even attempting to stage the battle at sea. The most consistent virtue is the impressive photography by Andres Berenguer, especially the volcanic surfaces, the caves, and the underground ocean. Judged by its own standards and scale, WHERE TIME BEGAN must be rated a very satisfactory although uneven effort.