About the movie
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Rating: 
Cast:
Brendan Fraser; Anita Briem; Josh Hutcherson
Directed by:
Eric Brevig
On the web:
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READER FEEDBACK
It's a carnival-ride, 3-D journey back to 'Center of the Earth'
Fasten your 3-D glasses and mind the gap.
Contact movie critic Carrie Rickey at 215-854-5402 or crickey@phillynews.com. Read her blog, Flickgrrl, at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/flickgrrl/.
Cheesy, cheesy, cheesy but fun, fun, fun, Journey to the Center of the Earth, a retro-update of the Jules Verne adventure novel, takes audiences to the planet's core via the corniest route imaginable.
Free fall through glacier. Roller coaster down mine shaft. On tiptoe across molten lava.
Through 3-D glasses, the planetary pith variously resembles melting crushed-ice or reheated pizza. Oddly, the experience stirred my inner 6-year-old. And the company is . . . companionable.
Brendan Fraser stars as a bumbling professor who suspects Verne's adventure is nonfiction. Everyboy Josh Hutcherson supports as Fraser's troubled Everyboy nephew, whose father died on a similar adventure a decade previous. And fearless Icelandic hottie Anita Briem kicks as . . . a fearless Icelandic hottie.
On their subterranean (or do you say intra-terrestrial?) travels, our heroes encounter fanged fish, T. rex drool, and bioluminescent bluebirds - which respectively nip, plop and flutter in our faces.
It's silly sport, diverting as an extended theme-park ride, and immediately forgettable.
Journey to the Center of the Earth **1/2 (out of four stars)
Directed by Eric Brevig, adapted from the Jules Verne novel. Distributed by New Line Cinema. With Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson and Anita Briem. Distributed by New Line Cinema.
Running time: 1 hour, 33 mins.
Parent's guide: PG (scary dinosaurs and fanged fish)
Playing at: area theaters
Contact movie critic Carrie Rickey at 215-854-5402 or crickey@phillynews.com. Read her blog, Flickgrrl, at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/flickgrrl/.
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