20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The film talks about the known story from Jules Verne novel and previously rendered in the classic by Richard Fleischer . The oceans are no longer safe , many ships have been lost , the sailors have returned to New England's fishing port with tales of vicious giant whale with long horn . A naturist , marine expert named professor Pierre Aronnax (Patrick Dempsey in the role of Paul Lukas) along with a professional whaler named Ned Land (Bryan Brown in the role of Kirk Douglas) and a helper (Adewele Agbaje) join forces in a perilous expedition that attempts to unravel the mysterious sinking ships by an unknown creature . Aboard the ship called Abrahan Lincoln , they go out to investigate the "monster" roaming the seas . They are captured and get thoroughly involved with captain Nemo (Michael Caine in the role of James Mason) and his daughter Mara (Mia Sara) who take an extraordinary adventure underseas in an advanced submarine called Nautilus .

This fantastic TV movie displays sensational adventures , noisy action , suspense , marvelous scenarios and results to be pretty enjoyable . The great novelist , Jules Verne , described this thrilling tale about a dangerous journey to the darkest depths of the sea with Captain Nemo aboard the Nautilus . Surprise-filled entertainment and with plenty of action on grand scale , including excellent special effects made by means of computer generator and some ship and submarine by maquette or scale model . However , overlong runtime is not boring but turns out to be entertaining and amusing . Memorable and superb casting with Michael Caine plays a magnificent captain Nemo , similar to immortal James Mason ; Patrick Dempsey plays a young Annorax while in Disney version was an old Paul Lukas ; attractive Mia Sara in a new role , she has an excessive romance with Dempsey ; Bryan Brown is an obstinate, stubborn Ned Land just like Kirk Douglas . Atmospheric and vivid score by Mark Snow (X-Files). The television movie was nicely directed by Rod Hardy . Other versions from the classic story for TV are directed by Michael Anderson with Ben Cross and a cartoon movie directed by Arthur Rankin . The motion picture will appeal to fantasy-adventure fans .

I was in the seventh grade when I saw this movie and going through a Jules Verne/Robert Louis Stevenson phase. I loved the original movie and when I found out the cast for the remake my face must have just lit up because my parents gave me a blank tape for when it came on. I didn't have a chance to watch it the night it was on, so I saved the movie for a rainy day. What a waste of a rainy day. It started off well, the acting was great and they were trying to hold onto the original message. Then, it kept going and going and soon I wasn't sure what the point was anymore. The ending was the worst part and I found myself taping over it a year later. Oh well, another remake that fell short of the theme.

Why, why, why!!! Can anyone please explain to me why in gods name screen writers always think that they can write a better story than the original author??? I mean, i might accept that you throw in a love story, although the original story were completely minus women, but why rewrite the whole story? About all that was left was the title and the names of the characters, and a very thin plot outline. Why involve the story of Oedipus(ancient Greek story about a young man who kills his father and makes love to his mother)? Why involve Moby Dick? (the admiral was clearly based on Captain Ahab). Why indeed? The most annoying thing about the whole mess is that it is a great opportunity wasted. The film has the right actors, (Michael Caine is great as Nemo) the right special effects, e.t.c.- everything you needed to make a good adaptation of Jules Verne's novel. But the screen writer decided that he could write a much better story than Jules Verne, although he wanted to borrow the title. Sorry. Not good enough. You must rename this movie to something like "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, very loosely based on the original story"

WHY?

Disney already made the definitive cinematic adaptation of Jules Verne's novel in 1954 (needs DVD reissue badly;) there was no reason at all for Hollywood to crank out this awful piece of television fluff. There are so many things wrong with it, one does not know where to begin. A review is hardly even necessary, a rock-bottom vote should speak plenty:

During the shameless 'creative reimagineering' process they stripped away pretty much everything from the novel save for the basic premise of a rogue skipper named Nemo who has a submarine. Oh, and Nemo is now a cyborg with a metal hand and is "portrayed" by the formerly respectable Michael Caine. A standard multi-ethnic sample of modern teenagers or twentysomethings get on board and there's much Angst and Father/Son conflict and everything goes kablooie in the end with a bunch of cheap video effects. The production design is flat and dull and totally undercooked, but things of course happens very fast. The skewed camera angles, MTV paced cuts and the aforementioned cast of bratty young people all add up to a pre-chewed microwave fluff pastry of a TV movie for the types of young people who were very happy to learn there really was a J. Dawson on board the real Titanic. ("OMG!")

rating : 1 of 10

1997 saw two TV versions of Jules Verne's classic and I suppose which ever a viewer saw first would forever tarnish their view of the second (Warning: I saw the other version first.) This means neither film was all that bad, neither all that great, and neither threw the Disney version off it's pedestal as being the true film classic (James Mason, Kirk Douglas, and Peter Lorre are a tough act to follow). Personally, I will watch ANYTHING remotely associated with Jules Verne so don't get too upset at my review, I did purchase it for my collection. Yet, compared to the other TV version, this version which features Michael Caine as Captain Nemo is overlong and without style. It boasts a great cast (well cast and decent performances), nice sets, and sufficient special effects, but little imagination. While it lights up like a Christmas tree in production values, it pales in making anything seem interesting. I expect remakes to show me something a little different than what I've seen or read and this whole film tries to base itself on things all too familiar. Dig deeper! Please read my review of 1997's other "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" for that film had style and some original additions. In previous versions we were awed by James Mason behind his pipe organ like the Phantom of the Nautilus, and Ben Cross chilled us as he stood atop his submarine like a Russian commander with American gun fire bursting around him. In this version Michael Caine's bags under his eyes suggested he was quite tired and made me feel very sleepy as well. 1969's "Captain Nemo and the Underwater City" with a nothing budget and a bland cast (Robert Ryan, Chuck Conners!!!) was more interesting! But it is Jules Verne and can be proud to be the second best made-for-TV version of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" to be aired in 1997. I may have been a little harsh, but I think Captain Nemo would have it no other way.