New Line Cinema

Jules Verne’s ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ With Brendan Fraser Stars Film’s 3-D Effects

HollywoodChicago.com — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:59:06 -0700

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Jules Verne’s classic 1864 science-fiction novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth” has been adapted well in excess of a dozen times into films, radio and stage plays along with several made-for-TV movies and video games. It has even been adapted into two amusement-park rides.

So what new approach is taken with the Brendan Fraser 2008 remake of “Journey to the Center of Earth”? Well, 3-D glasses. Also, it isn’t so much an adaptation of the book but a very weak narrative film that uses action sequences from the book to make for cool, 3-D effects.

Brendan Fraser stars as Trevor in New Line Cinema’s release of Eric Brevig’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.
Photo credit: Sebastian Raymond, New Line Cinema

Trevor (Brendan Fraser) is a volcanology professor at a college where he’s about lose his research lab. His sister-in-law drops off his nephew, Sean (Josh Hutcherson), to spend 10 days with Trevor. Sean’s mother also drops off a box of items left behind by his late father.

Left to right: Brendan Fraser stars as Trevor, Anita Briem stars as Hannah and Josh Hutcherson stars as Sean in New Line Cinema’s release of Eric Brevig’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.
Photo credit: Sebastian Raymond, New Line Cinema

In it, Trevor finds a copy of Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” with notes from his brother and lab partner. Deciphering the notations, Trevor believes the correlation between the seismic readings he has found in his lab and the notes in the book mean something.

That’s why he and Sean travel to Iceland where Trevor’s brother went missing to investigate. There they meet a guide, Hannah (Anita Briem), who’s the daughter of another Verne follower and scientist.

She leads them into a cave where they begin to discover that everything Verne wrote seems to be fact. All of the personalities of these characters seem thrown together quickly and without enough depth.

The narrative itself feels like a forced way to do things that take place in Verne’s novel without actually doing a literal adaptation. The story, which is credited to three writers (Michael Weiss, Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin) along with Jules Verne, seems like one of those 40-minute films you watch in IMAX at a museum that’s chock full of science facts.

Left to right: Anita Briem stars as Hannah, Brendan Fraser stars as Trevor and Josh Hutcherson stars as Sean in New Line Cinema’s release of Eric Brevig’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.
Photo credit: Sebastian Raymond, New Line Cinema

Since the film is released for the regular multiplex cinemas, the cheesy and dramatic scenes and corny laugh lines are almost groan worthy. Luckily, these are few and far between to make room for the film’s strongest assets: the action and use of 3-D imagery.

The best thing to be say for “Journey to the Center of the Earth” is that it’s completely self-aware of what it is.

In a time when every “kid” film tries to speak on two levels to not alienate adults, this film seems to make no attempt at being anything more complex than a “PG”-rated, action-adventure movie.

There’s no attempt to make the characters overly sexual, to include bad slapstick violence or to use spicy language. If you have young kids, you could do no better for a good, clean summer movie than these fun-packed 92 minutes.

The character of Hannah is especially interesting because she’s portrayed as weak damsel in distress who finds safety in Frazer’s big and muscular arms. Briem’s character transforms “Grrrl Power” into a bright, funny and strong woman, which is something that’s not portrayed enough in movies for kids.

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But the real star of this film is its 3-D effects, which were created by the new RealD Cinema format.

Gone are the days of glasses that are red and blue. Those days have been replaced by stylish, clear-tinted spectacles. The film itself could almost be seen as a 92-minute product pitch to make more 3-D movies. This is a gimmick that hasn’t caught on since the fad hit in the 1950s.

Fans of the book or one of the other many remakes of “Journey to the Center of the Earth” shouldn’t look to this film to do anything that really highlights Verne’s masterpiece.

However, families wanting to see something light this summer while avoiding more aggressive films like “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” or “Hancock” could find some solace at the movies with this picture. People uninterested is seeing Brendan Fraser run from dinosaurs, though, can wait until Aug. 1, 2008 when he’ll be running from mummified corpses in “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”.

“Journey to the Center of the Earth,” which stars Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson and Anita Briem, opened everywhere on July 11, 2008.

By DUSTIN LEVELL
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
dustin@hollywoodchicago.com

‘Sex and the City: The Movie’ a Frilly University For Understanding the Human Condition

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:14:47 -0700

CHICAGO – To its voracious universe of cult-following fans, it feels like a television marathon that spans an entire season. To everyone else who bats an indifferent eye at the religion that is “Sex and the City,” it may surprise you to find that all the glam and glitz has something even for you to learn, too.

Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Carrie Bradshaw in “Sex and the City: The Movie”.
Credit: Craig Blankenhorn, New Line Cinema

The thorniest proposition for “Sex and the City: The Movie,” though, is opening the minds of all the anti-fashionistas (such as yours truly) and those who habitually bottle up their emotions for safekeeping.

After all, “Sex and the City” is often about a word that hurls the masses off in a scurry: feeling. For those who embrace all that is “love and labels,” though, the film begins by succinctly flashing back on plotlines avid followers know all too well.

Season watchers are nearly forced and relatively brainwashed into securing a theater seat, and unfortunately, followers and non-followers alike arrive to the theater with having already been told much too much from the trailer.

Will Carrie marry Big? Will Charlotte – who’s thought to be infertile – have her own baby? What will become of Miranda and the cheating Steve? Will the scurrilous Samantha actually settle down with Smith? Will the predominantly white cast finally paint some color into the picture?

To the last question, Chicago’s Jennifer Hudson (who on the film’s “pink carpet” said she gets bronzed by rubbing on her “Dreamgirls” Oscar) says yes. As for the other questions, the film would have injected even more “what’ll happen next?” revelation by not giving such an initial peek up its own dress.

After initially cursing the all-too-telling trailer, I planted myself in my theater seat prepared for a 142-minute commitment. Not so. At our press screening, we were treated to another 30 minutes of a live satellite feed that counted down to the Chicago screening with the pink-carpet coverage.

Left to right: Kristin Davis as Charlotte York-Goldenblatt, Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw, Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes and Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones in New Line Cinema’s “Sex and the City: The Movie”.
Photo credit: Craig Blankenhorn, New Line Cinema

Combined, the experience even neared the 195 minutes it took Steven Spielberg to give justice to the entire Holocaust in 1993’s “Schindler’s List”. Writer and director Michael Patrick King could have cut nearly 30 minutes of screen time had he met with an editor by the name of No Cheese For Me, Please.

Alas, though, this critic indeed scores “Sex and the City: The Movie” with a relatively positive rating of 3.5 out of 5.0.

Despite the aforementioned relatively trifling gripes, the film indeed gets to the heart of the human matter. In consistently exploring and explicitly discussing what women feel and what men need, the subject matter has a higher purpose.

It’s a purpose that’s to be commended in entertainment today because while it’s still certainly entertainment, everyone – no matter what race, religion, sexual orientation or relationship status – has something to take from these four women and the characters who surround them.

Chris Noth as Mr. Big in “Sex and the City: The Movie”.
Photo credit: Craig Blankenhorn, New Line Cinema

Of course, the “Sex and the City” style is to offer a carrot in the beginning and then change that story morale into, say, broccoli so we’re left with something to reflect deeply about. The process of delving into a woman’s head – for a man and even another woman – is ultimately a healthy exercise in understanding the human condition.

When women constantly compare themselves to Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda, they’re forced to ponder who they really are and who they want to become. Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon themselves know most women are a combination of the foursome as a whole.

The film also explores a primary fifth character that – while not credited among the cast – is as large and tangible as any one of them: New York. Director Michael Patrick King has made the claim that this story couldn’t have existed anywhere else. While that’s debatable, what’s fact is that the show has brought some people to New York not only for the American dream but for the romance of falling in lasting love.

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Cast as Sarah Jessica Parker’s assistant, Jennifer Hudson has a convincing moment where she expresses exactly that pursuit. But with everyone trying to get hitched, hasn’t this story’s thesis rested squarely on the allure of being a single woman? No longer.

That said, what is it about television and film that hooks us into wondering whether someone will fall in love, break up, get married, have a baby, stop drinking or kick that drug habit?

While these celebrities are people the everyman will never associate with in their lifetimes, they’re actually more like messengers conveying portions of who we really are and hoping we find ways to improve ourselves.

That, at least, should be the point. Michael Patrick King (who also wrote various “Will & Grace,” “Cybill” and “Murphy Brown” episodes) succeeds at dangling that carrot and leaving us with something to chew on.

“Sex and the City: The Movie” opened on May 30, 2008 everywhere.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com