Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Matt Otter James Mason was great in this, most of the sets and effects were also wonderful, even hold today, unfortunately this movie is just sunk (no pun) by Douglas and Lorre and.....the seal.I mean, sure, any movie needs a little bit of comic relief, but 2 problems here: 1st, they tried to put in way too much comedy and 2nd, none of it was even remotely funny, I didn't even know half the time I was supposed to be seeing something funny, that's how bad they miss the mark.The Professor was at least likable and had some relevance to the story, and I could even have stomached Lorre, but Douglas is just plain terrible, he's not funny, he's not thrilling, he's not much of a hero, and quite frankly I found myself over and over again rooting for Nemo which I know is the opposite of what they were going for.This movie completely failed to make any sort of moral dilemma, it was just "Nemo bad". Why? Don't people sink enemy ships in a war? Was Nemo not allowed to make war? If not, why? Who decides when it's OK to make war, to take life? Well, don't get any hope you'll find these questions debated in this film.This movie is worth a watch, but as a whole it offers nothing to really make you want to watch it again.

reddragonhero17 It's not often one finds a movie that was made 60 years ago hold up today and this is one of them. As an adaptation of the famous Jules Verne novel (yes, I have actually read the book before, in elementary school once), this movie does the source material justice and a lot more. The cast does a great job portraying their characters; Kirk Douglas makes a charming Ned Land (the harpooner) with some doses of humor thrown in this dark tale, Peter Lorre is a convincing Council, but it is James Mason perfectly capturing Captain Nemo's balance of genius and madness. The real show stealing scene so happens to be the giant squid attack. Even today, the squid looks and acts convincing (even the first tentacle attacking the deck looks frighteningly real!). Disney made this trip a real adventure, and although some parts of the book were taken out (such as the part where the Nautilus is under antarctic ice), the movie is still magnificent to look at, plus some insights on humanity worth adult supervision in the family.

Matthew Kresal There are films that not only stand the test of time but become icons in their own right. They are films that define a genre, sometimes without meaning to. This 1954 Disney film of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea is one such film. It is so thanks to an unlikely combination that has managed to help it pass the test of time beautifully despite the passing of more than sixty years since its original release.One of the biggest factors lies in its casting, especially of Captain Nemo. James Mason had already established his career in films like Odd Man out and The Desert Fox but it was with the role of Nemo that he earned cinematic immortality. Mason's Nemo is an incredible character: a man who is equal parts genius and haunted by a past that hinted at but never quite revealed. There's a maverick nature to Mason in the role and he plays all of these elements beautifully. Yet there's a softer, more human side to his performance where he's almost a poet laureate of the deep, such as in a scene about half-way through the film where Nemo explains why he won't share his technology. It's a wonderful performance and a measured one that rises above the potential clichés of the genre.The rest of the cast is solid, if not always up to Mason's level. There's Kirk Douglas as harpooner Ned Land in a performance that varies from comic foil to action hero, a combination that's unlikely but that works for the most part though the comic elements stand up well for a film made six decades ago. Paul Lukas as Professor Aronnax and Peter Lorre as Conseil round off the four main characters and both do decently though it's perhaps Lorre, cast against type as an academic rather than as a villain, who comes across the better of the two. With the addition of the crew of the submarine Nautilus who have a few lines here and there, it's a solid cast all around.What stands out more than even Mason's Nemo is the production design. Decades before the steampunk genre had been founded, this film established much of the feel of that genre with its design of the Nautilus both inside and out. While Verne described something that was quite akin to the modern submarine, the production design of Harper Goff came up with something that was far more cinematic that combined Victorian style with more futuristic technology. Combined with some excellent costume design for the Nautilus crew, especially the diving suits, it's something that gives the film not only one of its biggest strengths but also perhaps its most iconic element.Outside of these elements, there's plenty of other things to recommend the film for. There's the Oscar winning special effects that bring Goff's visions to life for example. Using a combination of old- school techniques including some incredibly effective model shots, the film beautifully brings to life some great moments and visuals. The effects are perfect though as can be seen in some of the back projection shots used to illustrate what characters are looking at are a bit dodgy at times. Those instances are rare and, on the whole, the effects stand up very well for a film of this age.Then there's the combination of the script by Elmer Fenton and the direction of Richard Fleischer. Anyone who has ever read the original novel will know that, by virtue of it having been written as a serial originally, it's quite episodic with little in terms of an actual plot. Fenton's script manages to bring many of the incidents from Verne's tale together while also adding new elements here and there as well as changing the occasional piece of detail such as Nemo's hinted background. With this in hand, Fleischer's direction helps to keep the film moving throughout while also adding an occasionally campy tone that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.Elsewhere, the film shows some strong production values that illustrate some of the finest big-budget Hollywood work of the era. The cinematography for the film is fantastic throughout, highlighted perhaps by the sequences inside the Nautilus which are a sight to behold. There's also the excellently filmed underwater sequences which expertly mix together shots with doubles and inserts with the actors to bring sequences to life. The film's score by Paul Smith, while definitely a product of the era with a sound that only classic Hollywood could produce, serves the film well throughout, creating a strong sense of atmosphere from the early scenes aboard the US Navy warship the Abraham Lincoln to the underwater sequences which portray both the extreme beauty and the mystery of the deep.Nowhere though does this all of these elements come together better than in the film's signature sequence: the fight with the giant squid. Combining performances from the actors, effects ranging from model shots to a full sized attacking squid as well as practical rain and lightning, excellent cinematography and the music of Paul Smith, the results were gripping for audiences both then and now as man battles beast with not only their lives at stake but the fate of the Nautilus as well. It's something that gives the film it's best sequence as well as presenting one of the most incredible action sequences ever produced for the screen.The term "classic" can be thrown around quite easily but there's little doubt that it can be applied here. From Mason's Nemo to iconic production design that continues to influence the steampunk genre, it's a film that has become iconic in ways that Disney and his filmmakers could never have imagined. As well as remaining one of the best adaptations of a classic into a film, it also remains as watchable today as it was then. If that doesn't make this a classic, I'm not sure what does.

v_haritha_in Disney's take on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Natural historian Prof. Pierre Arronax (Paul Lukas), his assistant Conseil (Peter Lorre) and harpooner Ned Land (Kirk Douglas) set out on a government funded ship, in search of a rumored sea monster. The three of them get separated from the ship and stumble across the supposed "monster", which is in fact a highly advanced submarine called Nautilus. It is led by the enigmatic Captain Nemo (James Mason). He and his devoted crew have shunned civilization and adopted to the aquatic way of life. The visitors are not allowed to go back as Nemo does not want his secret to get out. Prof. Arronax has no objection as he is deeply fascinated by the underwater world and wants to study it. But as Captain Nemo starts showing his brutal side, Land is desperate to escape.This movie is dated, be it its political incorrectness, the science depicted in it, Prof. Arronax's method of study, or its special effects. A sautéed unborn octopus would be an environmentalist's nightmare today, yet it was a delicacy in its time. Similarly, no present-day natural historian would want to kill a rare species and place it in a natural history museum, but that is exactly what Prof, Arronax intended to do with the sea monster. It also depicts American natives as cannibals. The Nautilus defends itself by passing electric current over its surface when we now know that electricity and water should not be mixed. Disney made quite a few changes to the original material and ironically, the novel, written more than eighty years before the movie came out, has aged better.However, the movie has its own charm. Its heart is in the right place. We find yourselves smiling at its quirks as they remind us of the time when it was made. Kirk Douglas is the life of the movie; he is winningly riotous, effervescent and his energy pervades the entire movie. Another highlight of the movie is Captain Nemo and Prof. Annorax's stately friendship.Good to watch once.