At The Earth's Core Details

Enjoyable fantasy romp

This was one of four films in which Doug McClure appeared in an action role in a fantasy/creature feature film in the '70s, of which three, including this one, was based on work by Edgar Rice Burroughs. As a lad I had read his Pellucidor series of tales, so I was aware of the story outline beforehand. This a fast paced romp, with some nice eye candy and not-too-effective matte scenes, but the pace of the film means that you do not have time to worry over cheapo effects. McClure produces a solid if not brilliant acting performance (I first saw him in a TV Western series called The Virginian - he acted the same there) and Peter Cushing hams it up in the manner he adopted when he played Dr Who in the dalek films of ten years previously. Monsters and grotesque creatures abound, but they are hardly up to the standard of contempory Harryhausen films and are laughable compared to modern CGI effects. If you've been brought up on modern films with digital sfx you probably won't like this film, but if you enjoyed films such as Sinbad or Jason and the Argonauts I think you'd like this, even if the sfx aren't up to Harryhausen's standards!

[Highly rated reviewer]

Oh dear Peter

Peter Cushing is one of the greatest actors of all time. This is a terrible film. Cush plays a very poor parody of something or other. Was this really the same director and star that brought us the magnifcant From Beyond the Grave a few years earlier? Where did it all go wrong?