.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

I am old enough to remember when the 3-D craze tried for a second coming back in the 1980's. Vincent Price's House of Wax came back to local theatres and television programs tried the gimmick while providing glasses via the local convenience store or through the weekend newspaper. Established film franchises such as Jaws and Friday the 13th each rolled out their third installments in spectacular 3-D. Watercooler talk in the office was about how the technology had changed and that it was going to be a standard in multi-plexes going forward.

One year later, the fad faded. And with the exception of a few IMAX documentaries now and again, there wasn't much to talk about.

Not sure when the 3-D novelty started up again. It could have been the 3-D version of Robert Zemeckis' The Polar Express. Or maybe it was the parts of the revamped Superman or the last Harry Potter which had a 20 minute ending in virtual 3-D that got us yearning for the glasses. Whatever it was, James Cameron's Avatar to be released sometime in the next decade in 3-D will likely be the benchmark to which all others are from then judged.

But before Avatar, there's this year's 3-D summer blockbuster entry Journey to the Center of the Earth which boasts a full length feature film in all three dimensions complete with enough things flying at your face that you will be touching the persons head in front of you trying to shoe away everything from birds to dinosaurs.

Journey to the Center of the Earth stars Brandon Fraser as Professor Trevor Anderson. He, along with his nephew Sean (Josh Hutcherson) and a beautiful mountain guide, Hannah (Anita Briem),travel inside the mouth of a volcano in search of both Trevor's brother and the secrets hidden deep beneath the earth's crust.

Their journey which uses the Jules Verne Journey to the Center of the Earth novel as kind of a cheat sheet roadmap will lead them into many perils of heart pumping palpitations all while seemingly escaping the 2-D screen to end up in our laps thanks to some uncomfortable glasses essential for viewing.

Journey to the Center of the Earth isn't as much a movie as it is an event. An amusement ride, if you will. The story is basic and each situation they find themselves in is just an excuse to have a plant, an animal or a rock fly in our faces.

For the most part, it works admirably. The children in the rows to the front and back of my viewing chair were screaming and reaching for things that weren't there. When a yo-yo (which is the oldest and cheapest 3-D trick in the book) is stretched down an airline aisle, the audience jilted their heads back as if one of Moe, Larry or Curly just hit them. And when giant fang snapping fish fly out of the waters to attack our three characters, you forget there are three people trying to navigate themselves out of peril as all you care for is your own safety.

So as an 'event', the film works, but if the film was viewed in 2-D, then I am sure I would have yawned at the man eating flowers or the T-Rex whose spit stole more of the scenes he was in than his menacing presence.

Journey to the Center of the Earth is for kids or for those dates you need to be 'safe'. There isn't a lot of substance and the acting is played for laughs and gags rather than dramatic effect. But the effects are good enough to keep us interested and although the 92 minutes won't fly by, they will be more entertaining than most of the slop out in the surrounding theatres.