Centre terre, septième continent

Funny, I'd read most of Edgar Rice Burroughs' fantasy adventure novels by the time I saw this movie, and knew that this wasn't Pellucidar: where were the vast, open spaces of the hollow earth, the blazing sun, the endless forests and lakes and mountains? Where were the friggin' tarags and thipdars?? And yet, this cheesy movie has managed to stick with me over the years. I love the cramped, fake-looking sets, the dazed actors playing slaves, the hyperactive Sagoths acting like Japanese prison camp guards in some WWII flick. And best of all are the dinosaurs, looking more like something from a medieval bestiary than actual prehistoric animals. They seem to combine aspects of human, rhino, frog, titanothere, you name it. All this, and cave princess Caroline Munro running around screaming, shooting smoky glances at Doug McClure from her sexy, kohl-rimmed eyes. It was TOO MUCH.

I can't help it. At the Earth's Core is one of my all-time great guilty pleasures. I only wish I could see it properly in a movie theater with an audience some day before I die.

Dr. Abner Perry (Peter Cushing) is a Victorian era scientist who is about to take his revolutionary vehicle, capable of boring through the Earth, on its maiden voyage. Accompanying him is former student turned businessman David Innes (Doug McClure). The vehicle is more powerful than they thought, and they end up deep inside the Earths' core. Here they encounter a nonstop assortment of monsters, a kingdom named Pellucidar, a tribe of primitive people, and their subhuman captors / tormentors, who pray to dinosaur gods.

Now how can you resist any hokum featuring those elements? Produced by Amicus, and scripted by Milton Subotsky (based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs), this is decently executed by director Kevin Connor, who was a real go-to filmmaker for this kind of fantasy material in the 1970s. McClure is a jut jawed hero, and Cushing seems to be relishing a rare opportunity to ham it up. His performance may not be one of his most accomplished, but it's certainly a fun one. Caroline Munro is *extremely* alluring as cave girl Dia. Also performing this amiable nonsense with straight faces are Cy Grant as the helpful Ra, Godfrey James as the stolid Ghak, and Sean Lynch as the devious Hoojah (just to be sure we get the point, Hoojah is nicknamed "The Sly One").

The movie begins in grand style, with some striking opening titles and a beautiful, rousing piece of music. It promises a solid diversion, and that's what it delivers. The understandable criticisms often leveled at the production are its obvious budget issues, and rubber monsters. But these monsters are just so damn amusing, especially the exploding fire breathing frog. All of this is done in an agreeable tradition of the Saturday matinée feature. The sets and the visuals are reasonably impressive, and Connor keeps things moving along nicely (the movie hits the ground running), and building to an exciting and destructive finale.

"At the Earth's Core" does put a goofy smile on *this* viewers' face.

Seven out of 10.

The main criticism of AT THE EARTH'S CORE is that it's cheap, the special effects are bad and so on and so forth. Yes, some of the special effects are painfully bad but what a lot of folks overlook about it is that it's actually quite fun, which is very important in my book.

In comparison, just look at the latest STAR WARS films: they have the latest, greatest special effects created by the latest technological advances which are capable in creating stunning visual effects as far reaching as the human imagination can imagine and yet, with all the razzle dazzle, those films were as exciting as a funeral. As Yoda would say, Fun they're not! In other words, who cares if the FX aren't the greatest when the spirit of the film is fast-paced, humorous and clearly set on the side of action. I love everything about AT THE EARTH'S CORE: the contrast between stodgy Victorian England VS the wild other-worldly, colorful setting of Pellucidar, the cast of characters, the concept of a lost underground world, the telepathic Pterodactyls, the human slaves rebelling, Jubal the ugly one (lol!), the inspired teaming of Peter Cushing (who's great!) and Doug McClure, the excellent music (it's really good), cinematography by the amazing Alan Hume and last but not least, Caroline Munro. She's effing sexy in this movie. One of the sexiest B-movie babes ever captured on screen.

Seriously, anyone who doesn't like this movie doesn't know what fun is. Gimme AT THE EARTH'S CORE over any turgid STAR WARS prequels any time! At least it has Caroline Munro, which no CGI fx can ever recreate.

I'm serious as well, I mean don't get me wrong, if you haven't got a bent for this type of Z grade, creaky creature feature (why would you be watching is my first thought?) then it's most likely a rating of about 4 to 5 out of 10 tops, but to me it's a special kind of nonsense that takes me back to a nice time in my childhood. You know the kind, where the memories have never left you. Eagerly taking it all in with youthful wonderment as Doug McClure and Peter Cushing tunnel beneath the mantle to do battle with a host of creatures and sub-human species. And guys! Now we are all grown up we can admire most seriously at the wonder of Caroline Munro and her heaving cleavage. No wonder my older brother was keen to take me to the cinema to see this one!

Yes the effects are bad, men in suits, strings pinging parrot monsters around and exploding rubber frog like thingies amuse us greatly. And yes, Cushing and a surprisingly pudgy McClure (wearing bell bottomed flared trousers) act as if they have truly been mesmerised by the evil Meyhas at the "core" of our film. But it matters not, zany and clunky and awash in glorious colour, At The Earth's Core is a throwback to a special pre ILM time when kids like me queued around the block to see such joyous nonsense. 8/10

This film begins with a wonderful piece of music and an excellently tense and edge-of-seat sequence in which Victorian scientists (played by Doug McClure and Peter Cushing) drill into the depths of the earth in their 'Iron Mole'. You truly believe you're going to see a great film to rival 'The Land That Time Forgot'. But then the two companions arrive in the underground world and encounter their first monster, which is quite obviously a man in an outfit which looks like a dinosaur with a parrot's face. From here it's downhill all the way as the intrepid scientists encounter ovens with tentacles on strings, fire-breathing critters with clearly visible flame-thrower nozzles and pterodactyl-people who, when they fall down, explode for no apparent reason. It's a shame the special-effects are so awful, as the storyline is quite interesting with some good situations and the music is excellently atmospheric. But what we have here is a good script let down by poor execution. All I can say in this film's favor is it's watchably bad. But I'd have been a lot happier if it was watchably good.