Onlinewsma
Absolutely Brilliant!
StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Quiet Muffin
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
O2D
I've never read anything by Edgar Rice Burroughs but there is no way his book was anything like this movie.If it was, he would have not been considered a great writer.So anyway, an elderly scientist builds a giant drill so he can drill through mountains and he decides to enlist his worst student to help him.As soon as they start up the drill, they point it down and even if you didn't know the name of the movie you see what's going to happen.They end up in the center of the Earth(and the drill is inoperable) and the scientist makes up lots of lies to explain why it looks the way it does.They get chased by Godzilla with a bird head and end up getting turned into slaves.The other slaves appear to be cave men who haven't bathed in months except for one woman(played by the lovely Caroline Munro) who has perfect hair and make up.As soon as you see her you know she's only there for a love story angle.I never watch romantic movies but I wonder if they always have a sci-fi story line.Sci-fi movies always have a love story angle so they must. For all the dumb stuff that doesn't make sense, it's not really too bad. Give it a chance.
Coventry
Those who thought that the center of our planet Earth only existed of rock, clay and lava should urgently reconsider! The Earth's core apparently is a vividly adventurous place, full of telepathic prehistoric monsters and even an entire civilization of primitive human beings, including some very hot and scantily dressed specimens like Caroline Munro! Professor Abner Perry (Peter Cushing, more British than afternoon tea) and his engineer/sponsor David Innes drill-dive underground in their gigantic mechanical mole and make a lot more scientific discoveries that they bargained for! "At the Earth's Core", based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is a totally preposterous but irresistibly charming B-movie with good old-fashioned campy effects, gloriously over-the-top acting performances and whack plot-twists. I've seen practically all movies in which Peter Cushing starred, but I never saw him overact so badly. That means that also he knew exactly what type of movie this was going to become: a totally undemanding, energetic and joyously entertaining piece of kitsch that you simply cannot detest. Stories about flying reptiles hypnotizing and sacrificing humans to their gods, lumpish guys in hilarious pterodactyl suits, man versus reptile battles, Munro wandering around in a furry bra and Cushing yelling lines like "You can't mesmerize me, I'm British"… What's there to detest, seriously? And even though the costumes and effects may look extremely cheap, the sets and decors are established with craftsmanship and great eye for detail, like for example the interiors of the Kevin Connor directed three more movies based on the writings of Burroughs, namely "The Land that Time Forgot", "The People that Time Forgot" and "Warlords of Atlantis". I haven't seen those yet, but I won't hesitate to pop them in during a next rainy Sunday afternoon.
Neil Welch
A scientist and a macho hero type burrow into the Earth in a mechanical mole, and find a hidden world where stone age humans are subjugated by hypnotic pterodactyls (yes, really).At The Earth's Core sneaked in about half an hour before Star Wars rewrote the manual for fantasy cinema. So we don't have motion control, high quality travelling mattes, fantastic model work, state of the art make up, seamless interaction between real and fabricated backgrounds - no, what we have are blokes in rubber costumes, lurid set lighting, and unconvincing miniatures.Thing is, it captures Edgar Rice Burroughs Pellucidar quite well. Oh, it's all terribly unconvincing (especially the pterodactyls, even more so when they indulge in wobbly flying on all-too-visible wires), but the original books are written in prose which is even more purple than some of the set lighting.Peter Cushing and Doug Maclure play the two protagonists efficiently enough, and Caroline Munroe is beguiling. But then, she always was.
Spikeopath
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 a rating of about 3 to 4 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, the memories that never leave 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 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
