Search - Things to Come/Journey to the Center of Time on DVD

Cheap Rip-Off

sloan123 | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | 03/08/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This double feature by (shudder) Madacy contains two amazingly poor looking films: "Things to Come" and "Journey to the Center of Time." "Things to Come" is a thought provoking film based on H.G. Welles's book "The Shape of Things to Come," but you wouldn't be able to tell it by this shoddy transfer in which none of the dialogue is even understandable and the picture is dark. A much nicer version is available from Image Entertainment/Wade Williams Collection. Get it.
"Journey to the Center of Time" is a terrible, lifeless, shamefully low budget film in which almost nothing happens. Despite the box's claim that it's "Stimulating, exciting, and great fun!", there is not a speck of entertainment to be had (unless you count Lyle Waggoner's cameo. I didn't). The transfer fares slightly better, but it's still barely watchable.
There are a few extras, too. A Sci-Fi Oscar Winners Index, Sci-Fi Common Themes, Special FX Notes, and Trivia Questions. They're not very good at all, but at least they're reasonably abundant."

A classic and a B-movie.

Michael Valdivielso | Alexandria, VA | 09/19/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Things to Come, the movie, is a mixture of two of H.G. Wells's books. The first part is out of The War In The Air. The idea is that the nations of the world end up starting a war very much like the First World War but with more powerful weapons, mostly in the form of aircraft, which causes civilization to fall. The war scenes, some of them footage of real military equipment and others very cool looking models, seem very realistic. In the end, H.G. Wells's other book, The Shape Of Things To Come, is brought into the movie. The book is about the wonderful, bright, future and the film shows a future where airmen have joined together in their wish to bring peace to the world, using science and bravery, by overthrowing the old ways and the old world. In the end mankind takes the first steps to the stars.

The second movie is called Journey To The Center Of Time. The idea is that scientists are trying to find a way to peek into the past or the future. But an accident breaks the lab away from the present, tossing it into the river of time and space, first far into the future and then back into the past. There seem to be some complaints that dinosaurs did not exist one million years BC but nobody says the giant lizard is a dinosaur. It fact it could be a giant Komodo Dragon.

OK, maybe I am being silly, but outside of the somewhat bad science, the movie isn't that bad. It isn't great but it isn't that bad. I remember seeing a part of it as a kid and being impressed that the bad guy ended up killing himself.

On the other hand I am not too impressed by the new lab coming out of no where. Maybe the movie producers wrote themselves into a corner and they had to find a way out?

This disc was worth getting used but don't buy it new without a REALLY good reason.

"