Movie Review Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D

Directed by Eric Brevig

Written by Mark Levett, Jennifer Flackett

Starring Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, Anita Briem, Seth Meyers 

Release Date July 11th, 2008

Published July 10th, 2008

3D remains nothing more than a novelty at the movies. An amusement park attraction that can thrill briefly but only occasionally. For every Robert Zemeckis who wants to use 3D to its most artistic limits, as he attempted in Beowulf, there is a movie like Journey To the Center of the Earth which brings nothing but amusement park thrills to the table.

Brenden Fraser stars in Journey to the Center of the Earth as Dr. Trevor Anderson. A geologist, Trevor has spent recent years tracking the path of his late brother who disappeared as he searched for entry to the center of the earth using the text of Jules Verne's legendary novel as a real life guide.

With funding for his experiments dwindling, Trevor is facing the prospect of losing his brother's legacy forever when his nephew Sean (Josh Hutcherson) arrives. Sean couldn't care less about geology, his dad disappeared when he was very young. However, it is on a tour of Trevor's lab that Sean stumbles on a clue that may lead them to the place where Dad disappeared.

Taking off for Iceland, Trevor and Sean follow Jules Verne's novel and find themselves climbing the side of a possibly active volcano. Finding his brother's former campsite, Trevor and Sean encounter Hannah (Anita Briem) whose father also disappeared in the same pursuit. She offers to be their guide and quickly the trio are repelling into a hole in the earth that leads to an astonishing adventure.

Directed by Eric Brevig, making his feature filmmaking debut, Journey of the Center of the Earth makes no pretense of being anything other than a series of amusement park thrills. The use of 3D is often forced and at times awkward but once we are in the center of the earth encountering chases and dinosaurs and other such dangers, you likely won't care about the forced moments.

Brenden Fraser is the perfect actor for this role. Both a big galoot and a goofball, Fraser has the good nature and the action chops to make this journey a lot of fun. I am getting excited for his next battle with Mummies coming in August. Journey to the Center of the Earth is the perfect reminder of why I'm so excited.

Like the Mummy movies, Journey to the Center of the Earth is pure fun and excitement. Cheap amusement park thrills? Definitely, but who cares when they are real thrills.

Movie Review: Yogi Bear

Yogi Bear (2010) 

Directed by Eric Brevig

Written by Brad Copeland, Joshua Sternin, Jeffrey Ventimilia 

Starring Dan Akroyd, Justin Timberlake, Anna Faris, Tom Cavanaugh, T.J Miller

Release Date December 17th, 2010 

Published December 19th, 2010

Straight to the point, Yogi is a talking bear living in Jellystone Park with his pal Boo Boo. Together, they execute radical schemes to steal picnic baskets, or in Yogi's parlance 'pic a nik' baskets, from park patrons. Attempting to stop them is Ranger Smith (Tom Cavanaugh) and his doofusy second in command Ranger Jones (T.J Smith). Along for the ride is a nature documentarian named Rachel (Anna Faris) with whom Ranger Smith has puppy dog crush.

Those are the good guys just having fun with Yogi's shenanigans while keeping the park open. The bad guys are Mayor Brown (Andrew Daly) and his sycophant Chief of Staff (Nate Corddry). They plan to plug the holes they created in the budget with their extravagant spending by closing Jellystone Park and selling the forest to logging interests.

Naturally, the good guys will have to try and stop the bad guys and along the way many more shenanigans will occur, people and bears will fall down and big laughs will be had by all. Give credit to director Eric Brevig, his narrative is clean, concise and to the point. That's better than a lot of other kid’s movies that waste a lot of time just to fill feature length.

So, is “Yogi Bear” funny? Yes, at times all of the goofy effects come together to create moments that you cannot help but laugh at. Also, Tom Cavanaugh is an actor that, for me anyway, has an endless amount of charm even when saddled with a CGI talking bear and T.J Miller. Anna Faris is sweet and cute and can pull off a pretty good flying tackle while pretending to be a snow leopard, I'm not kidding.

There are minor pleasures to be found in “Yogi Bear,” not the least of which is in the special effects which have become so commonplace that even an effect as ridiculous as Yogi and Boo Boo melts into the background and becomes unquestionably part of the action. I'm not saying the effects are great but merely that you can accept them with ease and that's rather something isn't it.

In the end, you could take your kids to something far worse than “Yogi Bear” a goofy but inoffensive little movie with an appealing cast, a few minor laughs and best of all, a throwback cartoon short at the beginning. Right in front of Yogi is a terrific little Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon that puts you in just the right mood for the low watt loopiness of “Yogi Bear.”