Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Core blimey!, 12 Jun 2005
Pardon the punning title, but I just had to do it. There are reasons for it later though... This isn't half as bad as it could have been - think 70's Doctor Who and that just about sums it up. Entertaining kidstuff. In fact Peter Cushing (compare this performance to Tarkin in Star Wars from the same time - wow!)pretty much reprises his dotty performance as the good Doc here, accompanied by the ever solid Doug McClure (who always seems to lose his shirt sleeves) as heroic interest. Now, I wondered how my dad endured this garish romp back in a mid seventies matinee along with all the others, but a recent viewing revealed something I may have missed as a child . . . Caroline Munro. Never before has a greasy cleavage so captured my attention. It quite distracts from the fairly dull story, thank goodness. Once a boring tribe of jobbing actors appears in this film, it slows down a gear (there's a misfiring anti-racism undertone too). But to be fair, Mike Vickers' score keeps things going (marvellous electronica), the sound design is pretty creative, the monsters are great fun, and there is a knowing humour to the performances. I can only give this three stars, because quite honestly it will only appeal to nostalgic buffers like me, 'retro' junkies and fans of Caroline Munro: if you want it for a modern kid I don't think they'd be quite as captivated or convinced as we were 30 years ago. Try 'Warlords of Atlantis', released on DVD at the same time as this for a more entertaining monster flick.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
At the Earth's Core, 11 Sep 2009
I received this item in a couple a days from ordering it. Very good service.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Burroughs by name, burrows by nature..., 21 Nov 2007
Before Luke Skywalker, there was Doug McClure... His John Dark-Kevin Connor fantasy adventures were a mainstay of Summer holiday movies in the days before Star Wars: they weren't masterpieces, they didn't boast state-of-the-art special effects, but they were exactly what an audience of kids wanted from a film back in the mid 70s.
At the Earth's Core is by far the most enjoyable of the bunch, catching just the right tone for the appropriately named Burroughs' pulp adventure about Victorian inventor Peter Cushing and the inevitable Doug McClure ending up in the underground world of Pelucidar and battling its evil telepathic fighting dinosaurs. This time the puppets are gone in favor of men in monster suits, which is a lot more fun if you're willing to suspend your disbelief, and if you're not there's always Caroline Munro's cleavage to look at. Aside from what may well be Peter Cushing's worst performance, an irritating but dottier rehash of his movie Dr Who ("You can't mesmerize me, I'm British!"), it's easily the best of the John Dark-Kevin Connor-Doug McClure fantasy adventures, surprisingly well directed and boasting an atmospheric use of color. Never especially good at exterior scenes, Alan Hume's photography gains immensely from the control a studio set gives him (the film was shot entirely on soundstages) to paint a luridly vivid world worthy of a pulp novel cover. Not high art but definitely great Saturday matinee fun.
The DVD boasts a decent but not outstanding widescreen print with UK theatrical trailer and stills gallery.
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