Watched "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" and "Journey 2 The Mysterious Island" over the weekend.
I'd seen the former before, in 3D, a few years ago at the flicks. As a 3d experience with the family it was okay. We weren't looking for a good plot, acting, or direction - just some "woah" and "ahhh" moments as things fly out of the screen at you. The current generation of 3D was fairly new at the time.
It's more accurate to say I watched the first twenty minutes of each film this weekend. Both terrible.
The former was full of things flying toward (or away from) the camera - enthralling to those watching in 3D on the big screen and not yet jaded by by the way the tech was affecting cinematography. Watching it in 2D you're left with just a very silly adaptation of a classic tale.
Didn't watch much of the latter. Seems to star the same kid, now a few years older. Last time he went with his uncle to try and follow in his dad's footsteps to a mystical place. This time he went with his step-dad to try and follow his grandad's footsteps to a mystical place. If you've got a winning formula don't change it. Seems the same applies to a shit formula.
They found the titular mysterious island by overlaying three incomplete maps from the front pages of Treasure Island, The Mysterious Island, and Gulliver's Travels. Apparently nobody had noticed the maps were each incomplete but formed a complete map of an island when put together. Equally nobody had questioned the random numbers by the side of each map - which when put together gave lat and long of the island. I gave up at that point. Each time I glanced up at the screen (the wife and kids watched both films in full (inexplicable, really - I thought they had better taste)) there was a more ridiculous cgi bastardisation of the aforementioned classic novels.
I'll give each film 3/10.
Will probably re-watch Anchorman this week. The trailers for Anchorman 2 reminded me how much I love Steve Carell's character. (The trailers don't actually give any idea of the story, era, etc - which probably hasn't yet been decided - they just feature Burgundy and his team speaking to camera.)