As I understand it, Ib Melchior and Dave Hewitt had a falling out over 1964's The Time Travelers. Both are credited with coming up with the story, but Hewitt left the production and Melchior wrote the screenplay and directed this little sci-fi B-film classic himself. Hewitt wrote his own version of the movie and later directed it as 1967's Journey to the Center of Time, making just a slightly different version. I can't remember ever seeing what is essentially a remake arrive just three years after the first movie's release. But then again, both films were grist for drive-ins where few people probably noticed the similarities. These movies had me scratching my head wondering if I had seen it before on TV where, after repeated viewings, I was able to make the connection between the two films.
48 Reviews
A really wild movie, terrible yet a lot of fun
susanj501 January 2001
This one is really bad yet it was fun to watch. It is a story about time travel with an absurd plot, a dreary script, a hokey set, illogical actions, and a strange and bizarre ending. Nevertheless, it was fun to watch. I purchased it on a two sided DVD with H.G. Wells "Things to Come" on the other side. This movie too is strange, but it was worth buying. What is worth noting is that the actor who plays "Doc" Gordon in Journey is also in "Things to Come" as the Jew.
If you enjoy hokey science fiction this is worth looking at.
If you enjoy hokey science fiction this is worth looking at.
I watched the movie for a laugh, and man I got it!!
Anonymous_Maxine15 April 2008
There is definitely a place for movies like Journey to the Center of Time. I really believe that if it weren't for astonishingly bad movies like this, it would be harder to really appreciate the good ones. I also, on the other hand, wonder what the people were thinking when they were making movies like this, because no one makes famously bad movies deliberately, do they?
At any rate, the movie starts out with a whole dialogue of scientific mumbo jumbo. A lot of it went right over my head because I have no background in science, but I don't think much of it makes sense anyway, because would a movie like this really make a serious argument about the logistics and technical aspects of time travel? I doubt it, because their destination, as you know, is the "center of time." Whatever or wherever or whenever that is.
Early in the movie they describe their destination as "the balance between past and future," which until now I had always assumed to be the tenuous and fleeting place known generally as "now."
But not in this movie, here there are enormously complex time travel experiments being conducted using enormously simple equipment. It's not long before we are given the bizarre explanation that this is a $14 million project to create a satellite that can show pictures taken 24 hours ago. Is that how much $14 million buys? 24 hours? That's really too bad. Maybe that's why most people can only afford surveillance cameras. The cheap, boring time-travel- less ones. No one makes movies about those!
Then again, for all the cardboard simplicity of the lab, they did have a hydraulic lift built in to raise and lower people about 18 inches from the upper platform to the lower platform. A more frugal team would have installed the two stairs, but maybe these guys weren't quite sure what to do with all that money.
There is a scene about 30 minutes into the movie where the crew, under a surprisingly effective 24-hour deadline, finally manage to conduct a successful experiment using the, ah, temporal displacement device they have been working on, and they are all shocked to see, on the characteristically 1970's oval-shaped big screen TV in front of them (and after more than a minute of pictures of galaxies, b-roll, and random head shots), what one of the scientists describes as "the test area. Time central!" I'm glad they knew what they were looking for, the rest of us may have reached the center of time and passed it on by without even knowing to stop!
But soon they notice that they've opened a window through which they can see 5000 years in the future, so I reckon it's going to be a good idea to stop about then. But soon we learn that it's a window that matter can pass through, so it's not going to be long before some silver guys in shiny jumpsuits mosey on into the lab and say come with us if you want to live.
They say that good science fiction movies, especially time travel movies, show us the future to comment on the present. This is a bad science fiction movie, but it still makes sure to comment on the present, specifically man's seemingly endless capacity and drive to kill each other in war. Even super-advanced future-people can be killed by man's "primitive" nuclear weapons!
The last third of the movie seems to consist of nothing but seemingly endless montages shown on that video screen, mostly of modern wars, and yet there's still only enough here for an 82 minute movie. And don't miss the hilarious hand-to-hand combat scenes! Classic!!
At any rate, the movie starts out with a whole dialogue of scientific mumbo jumbo. A lot of it went right over my head because I have no background in science, but I don't think much of it makes sense anyway, because would a movie like this really make a serious argument about the logistics and technical aspects of time travel? I doubt it, because their destination, as you know, is the "center of time." Whatever or wherever or whenever that is.
Early in the movie they describe their destination as "the balance between past and future," which until now I had always assumed to be the tenuous and fleeting place known generally as "now."
But not in this movie, here there are enormously complex time travel experiments being conducted using enormously simple equipment. It's not long before we are given the bizarre explanation that this is a $14 million project to create a satellite that can show pictures taken 24 hours ago. Is that how much $14 million buys? 24 hours? That's really too bad. Maybe that's why most people can only afford surveillance cameras. The cheap, boring time-travel- less ones. No one makes movies about those!
Then again, for all the cardboard simplicity of the lab, they did have a hydraulic lift built in to raise and lower people about 18 inches from the upper platform to the lower platform. A more frugal team would have installed the two stairs, but maybe these guys weren't quite sure what to do with all that money.
There is a scene about 30 minutes into the movie where the crew, under a surprisingly effective 24-hour deadline, finally manage to conduct a successful experiment using the, ah, temporal displacement device they have been working on, and they are all shocked to see, on the characteristically 1970's oval-shaped big screen TV in front of them (and after more than a minute of pictures of galaxies, b-roll, and random head shots), what one of the scientists describes as "the test area. Time central!" I'm glad they knew what they were looking for, the rest of us may have reached the center of time and passed it on by without even knowing to stop!
But soon they notice that they've opened a window through which they can see 5000 years in the future, so I reckon it's going to be a good idea to stop about then. But soon we learn that it's a window that matter can pass through, so it's not going to be long before some silver guys in shiny jumpsuits mosey on into the lab and say come with us if you want to live.
They say that good science fiction movies, especially time travel movies, show us the future to comment on the present. This is a bad science fiction movie, but it still makes sure to comment on the present, specifically man's seemingly endless capacity and drive to kill each other in war. Even super-advanced future-people can be killed by man's "primitive" nuclear weapons!
The last third of the movie seems to consist of nothing but seemingly endless montages shown on that video screen, mostly of modern wars, and yet there's still only enough here for an 82 minute movie. And don't miss the hilarious hand-to-hand combat scenes! Classic!!
If he could turn back time
bkoganbing19 January 2013
Scott Brady is the star and villain of Journey To The Center Of Time, a rather cheaply made science fiction work that compromised mostly of one set and a bunch movie clips to show the past and future on planet earth. Brady is a rich industrialist who wants to shut down an experimental lab where scientists Anthony Eisley, Gigi Perreau, and Abraham Sofaer are working on time experiments. Brady thinks the experiments are a waste of time and his money.
So imagine when things go a bit haywire and Brady finds himself on a rapid journey to our distant past and distant future with the others.
This independent film was apparently something none of the major studios would touch. The usual time travel conundrums are here and the players give rather dispirited performances like they were anxious their salary checks wouldn't clear.
Not the best of the genre, not even close.
So imagine when things go a bit haywire and Brady finds himself on a rapid journey to our distant past and distant future with the others.
This independent film was apparently something none of the major studios would touch. The usual time travel conundrums are here and the players give rather dispirited performances like they were anxious their salary checks wouldn't clear.
Not the best of the genre, not even close.
Journey to the Center of Awfulness
Bogmeister4 September 2005
Others may call this the worst film ever made without offering reasons; perhaps it's time to analyze why this is so bad. Well, let's put analysis aside for a bit. This seems to be almost a remake of "The Time Travelers" from '64. Or perhaps, it's a parallel depiction of events in the space-time continuum, utilizing stock footage from that earlier film. But we can save such scientific observations for later. Where "The Time Travelers" was low budget, this is EXTRA low budget. This means most of the movie has to take place on the same set, in the same room. Any other sets are bare bones; anything in the background is just black space, a very minimalist approach. But we can describe such things later.
The plot has to do with traveling into the future, to just before around the year 7000 AD. The group of 4 travelers chat with some visiting aliens there for a few minutes during a nuclear attack, then run back to their capsule and head back to a prehistoric past. Scott Brady, as a rich irresponsible businessman, manages to wreck everything he touches, including the cave they take refuge in (I was surprised by the set design here, which was beyond the $50 I'd been convinced had been spent up to this point). I give this more than one star due to the unique manner in which Brady manages to kill himself. But anyone should be forewarned by the credits in the beginning, which introduce a 'Poupee Gamin' as 'Vina.'
The plot has to do with traveling into the future, to just before around the year 7000 AD. The group of 4 travelers chat with some visiting aliens there for a few minutes during a nuclear attack, then run back to their capsule and head back to a prehistoric past. Scott Brady, as a rich irresponsible businessman, manages to wreck everything he touches, including the cave they take refuge in (I was surprised by the set design here, which was beyond the $50 I'd been convinced had been spent up to this point). I give this more than one star due to the unique manner in which Brady manages to kill himself. But anyone should be forewarned by the credits in the beginning, which introduce a 'Poupee Gamin' as 'Vina.'
"OK, see you day before yesterday."
classicsoncall26 December 2005
Warning: Spoilers
It's hard to believe that movies as bad as this were being made as late as 1967. It's about as technologically advanced as any "B" grade film from the '40's, but done in color. However the garish orange of the lab setting and time capsule is so bright it will make you grab for a pair of sunglasses. So much for the high points.
"Journey to the Center of Time" would be an embarrassment for a fledgling film student, that it was made at all with real money is to be questioned as much as the film's star Scott Brady questions his company's funding of research in the science of time travel. For two years, Doc Gordon (Abraham Sofaer), Mark Manning (Anthony Eisley) and Karen White (Gigi Perreau) have only managed to navigate twenty four hours into the past. That's all about to change, as the trio, along with owner Stanton (Brady) kick start their time travel gizmo five thousand years into the future for a rendezvous with aspiring screen star Poupee Gamin, surely you recognize her name. One of her futuristic aides is Lyle Waggoner, who fortunately managed to survive this mess to earn a spot on the Carol Burnett Show and later, "Wonder Woman".
The time lab can best be compared to a time travel boomerang; from the future the gang whips back to one million years B.C. to pick a nice round number, where the greedy Stanton grabs a jewel and takes off in the lab once again, stranding Manning and White in the past. In a series of frenetic flashbacks and flash forwards, the entire movie is relived for those of you who dozed off the first time.
Getting beyond the embarrassment, you can have a fun time with this one as long as it's with a bunch of friends and the right mix of refreshments. The film can be enjoyed on many levels; I know because it made as much sense played in reverse as it did played forward.
"Journey to the Center of Time" would be an embarrassment for a fledgling film student, that it was made at all with real money is to be questioned as much as the film's star Scott Brady questions his company's funding of research in the science of time travel. For two years, Doc Gordon (Abraham Sofaer), Mark Manning (Anthony Eisley) and Karen White (Gigi Perreau) have only managed to navigate twenty four hours into the past. That's all about to change, as the trio, along with owner Stanton (Brady) kick start their time travel gizmo five thousand years into the future for a rendezvous with aspiring screen star Poupee Gamin, surely you recognize her name. One of her futuristic aides is Lyle Waggoner, who fortunately managed to survive this mess to earn a spot on the Carol Burnett Show and later, "Wonder Woman".
The time lab can best be compared to a time travel boomerang; from the future the gang whips back to one million years B.C. to pick a nice round number, where the greedy Stanton grabs a jewel and takes off in the lab once again, stranding Manning and White in the past. In a series of frenetic flashbacks and flash forwards, the entire movie is relived for those of you who dozed off the first time.
Getting beyond the embarrassment, you can have a fun time with this one as long as it's with a bunch of friends and the right mix of refreshments. The film can be enjoyed on many levels; I know because it made as much sense played in reverse as it did played forward.
David L. Hewitt's American General fails to salute
kevinolzak14 June 2020
David L. Hewitt's American General Pictures strikes again with 1967's "Journey to the Center of Time," following on the heels of cofeatures "The Wizard of Mars" and "Gallery of Horror" but lacking the presence of John Carradine, whose agent did manage to provide Scott Brady and Anthony Eisley for the project, something of a remake of Ib Melchior's "The Time Travelers" from 1964, made to coincide with Irwin Allen's teleseries THE TIME TUNNEL. Call it a waste of time, but with another quartet of scientific adventurers venturing into Earth's future (6968 to be exact) before going way back to 1 million B.C. (complete with giant lizard from "One Million B.C."), whatever hoped for thrills are dashed by excessive talk and virtually no action. Scott Brady's self centered industrialist is strictly out to make a quick buck, while Anthony Eisley, Abraham Sofaer, and Gigi Perreau are forced to prove that they can travel further than 24 hours into the future if the project is to maintain funding. Only a single shot from "The Time Travelers" is used (the rocket ship ready for takeoff), the actual arrival coming only at the half hour mark, the tale of alien invasion lasting but 15 minutes in front of a black backdrop before moving forward into the past (endlessly represented by footage from war movies, Westerns, and gladiator entries), a typical low budget jungle/cavern set with only the threat of molten lava keeping viewers awake (there's a very brief shot of the bat-rat-spider creature from Melchior's "The Angry Red Planet" flashing by on the viewing screen so fast one might easily miss it). Ray Dorn's Hollywood Studios still give off the same barren feel as in "Gallery of Horror" or "Blood of Dracula's Castle," but at least it proves better than Hewitt's "The Mighty Gorga" a sad reunion for Brady, Eisley, and Kent Taylor.
A study in badness
loaloaloa12 June 2002
This is definitely one for the books - the book being "Bad movies to laugh and point at." It's simply an endless fountain of badness; bad acting, writing, plot, sets, dialog, special effects - and how wonderful to find all that in one place.
It's quite possible this movie has some redeeming features but who really cares?
Oh an the best line from any movie ever!
Says the handsome, plastic looking scientist guy to the scientist girl in the impossible heels:
"You're very pretty. For a girl."
After that - how can you not love this marvelous mess?
It's quite possible this movie has some redeeming features but who really cares?
Oh an the best line from any movie ever!
Says the handsome, plastic looking scientist guy to the scientist girl in the impossible heels:
"You're very pretty. For a girl."
After that - how can you not love this marvelous mess?
I've seen the future, and boy...does it SUCK!
ddc3007 February 2011
A movie that starts out boring you to tears with a conference room sequence where the main scientists are trying to explain the technical aspects of time travel to a narrow-minded corporate exec. Turns out the audience ends up more confused by all the verbal masturbation than Jim Brady as the exec.
The budget here is so small that the time machine seen in long shots looks like a model of a metallic sphere. But when we see the cast of scientists moving in and out of the thing, it is merely a vault door! Clearly the production team was influenced by Star Trek's Enterprise Bridge (classic series) when they built the interior set of the time machine: it is round with a lowered floor, complete with a railing that runs around the edge of the upper platform, with a large viewing screen at the other end of the room.
After landing thousands of years in the future we're greeted to Lyle Waggoner and some other actors looking rather goofy as 'men from the future' wearing vests, silver 'Hammer Time' pants and over-sized boots. In the future, for some reasons, people stand around and orate on pedestals of varying heights.....very odd, that scene.
The only scenes that included anything CLOSE to 'production values' were the prehistoric jungle, and cave sequences. Looked to me like Producer/Director David Hewitt got permission to film those scenes at 20th Century-Fox where TV series like "Lost in Space" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" used fairly impressive cave sets extensively. Likewise, I suspect the jungle scenes were filmed on the "Land of the Giants" set as the JTTCOT similarly had a foggy-type look to it. Otherwise, this film featured schlocky, minimalist sets (aka Limbo sets).
The movie had too many gruelingly long scenes where the crew of the time machine (and the audience) is looking at various periods of time (mostly footage of wars) through the main view-screen. This movie just dragged on and on and on. Finally ending with a twist on the story of 'Adam and Eve'.
Hewitt actually stole a cue from Irwin Allen's "Time Tunnel" series by having a band of young people back at "Time Central", a sort of mission control for the time machine. Funny thing: it was never included in the early scenes prior to the launch of the time machine, making it appear as though director Hewitt shot the 'Time Central' scenes later, as an after thought (or perhaps because he saw Allen's "Time Tunnel" and decided to copy the 'back-at-the-lab' setup for his film). Interesting that similar reel-to-reel type computers seen in "Time Tunnel" appear in JTTCOT.
I guess Producer/Director David Hewitt wasn't thrilled with 'The Time Travelers' and so did this film in 'retaliation' against his former partner, Ib Melchoir. Either that, or perhaps Hewitt wanted to 'cash in' on the time-travel theme since "The Time Tunnel" TV series was in production at the time this movie was being filmed. Whatever the reason, this movie fails on so many counts that -- to me -- it's probably THE WORST movie I've ever seen. It sucks on (1) Acting, (2) Production Design (?), (3) Special Effects (?), (4) Screenplay, and (5) Music. It literally has NOTHING to offer. And yet both Brady and Abraham Sofer are true character actors that have done much better before and since this turkey.
I bet you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who would actually ADMIT to sitting through this garbage when it was originally run in theatres.
Sadly, I can only recommend this celluloid monstrosity to a true insomniac.
The budget here is so small that the time machine seen in long shots looks like a model of a metallic sphere. But when we see the cast of scientists moving in and out of the thing, it is merely a vault door! Clearly the production team was influenced by Star Trek's Enterprise Bridge (classic series) when they built the interior set of the time machine: it is round with a lowered floor, complete with a railing that runs around the edge of the upper platform, with a large viewing screen at the other end of the room.
After landing thousands of years in the future we're greeted to Lyle Waggoner and some other actors looking rather goofy as 'men from the future' wearing vests, silver 'Hammer Time' pants and over-sized boots. In the future, for some reasons, people stand around and orate on pedestals of varying heights.....very odd, that scene.
The only scenes that included anything CLOSE to 'production values' were the prehistoric jungle, and cave sequences. Looked to me like Producer/Director David Hewitt got permission to film those scenes at 20th Century-Fox where TV series like "Lost in Space" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" used fairly impressive cave sets extensively. Likewise, I suspect the jungle scenes were filmed on the "Land of the Giants" set as the JTTCOT similarly had a foggy-type look to it. Otherwise, this film featured schlocky, minimalist sets (aka Limbo sets).
The movie had too many gruelingly long scenes where the crew of the time machine (and the audience) is looking at various periods of time (mostly footage of wars) through the main view-screen. This movie just dragged on and on and on. Finally ending with a twist on the story of 'Adam and Eve'.
Hewitt actually stole a cue from Irwin Allen's "Time Tunnel" series by having a band of young people back at "Time Central", a sort of mission control for the time machine. Funny thing: it was never included in the early scenes prior to the launch of the time machine, making it appear as though director Hewitt shot the 'Time Central' scenes later, as an after thought (or perhaps because he saw Allen's "Time Tunnel" and decided to copy the 'back-at-the-lab' setup for his film). Interesting that similar reel-to-reel type computers seen in "Time Tunnel" appear in JTTCOT.
I guess Producer/Director David Hewitt wasn't thrilled with 'The Time Travelers' and so did this film in 'retaliation' against his former partner, Ib Melchoir. Either that, or perhaps Hewitt wanted to 'cash in' on the time-travel theme since "The Time Tunnel" TV series was in production at the time this movie was being filmed. Whatever the reason, this movie fails on so many counts that -- to me -- it's probably THE WORST movie I've ever seen. It sucks on (1) Acting, (2) Production Design (?), (3) Special Effects (?), (4) Screenplay, and (5) Music. It literally has NOTHING to offer. And yet both Brady and Abraham Sofer are true character actors that have done much better before and since this turkey.
I bet you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who would actually ADMIT to sitting through this garbage when it was originally run in theatres.
Sadly, I can only recommend this celluloid monstrosity to a true insomniac.
I've seen some great time travel movies...this wasn't one of them
doppleganger196924 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
If you are a fan of bad movies, you're going to love "Journey To The Center of Time". Interesting premise, but one that requires more money than the paycheck for the kid who sells "Grit". A set that looks like an orange-colored poor version of the bridge on the Enterprise, using a few surplus electronics - including an oscilloscope - for "high tech" equipment, stock footage from other movies for the time travel sequences along with spinning the camera on a tripod, repeating previous scenes for no apparent reason, horrible dialogue, stiff acting (Scott Brady really slumming it here), absurd "Adam & Eve" denouement.....you get the idea. I made better movies when I was ten with my 8mm camera and friends in the neighborhood. There are "good bad" movies (think "Plan 9 From Outer Space") and "bad bad" movies - like this one - which are only for the truly masochistic viewer.
Journey to the Waste of Time
jgesselberty-125 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Where do I begin? This is a movie made in 1967 that, except that it was filmed in color, cannot compare with many similar efforts made in the 1950's. Good grief! Bad acting. Scott Brady stands around with hands on hips, sporting his bulk. The sets are as cheesy as an amusement part fun house. Special effects consisted of spinning the room, setting off firecrackers, and viewing old films of the past on a screen. The sets of the past were right out of a grade school play. Even the music had no value. This movie should never have been made and is an insult to the B movie genre. The best scenes were the shots of old timepieces during the opening credits; that is how bad the rest is. Don't waste your time.
Great door - shame about the movie.
junk-monkey9 February 2005
In the future all doors slide - this is a given fact of all SF movies from the days of Flash Gordon (possibly before that, it's a while since I've seen Metroplis) but this piece of junk goes one better than having the standard elevator sliding doors... the door of the "Time Vault" opens vertically as well as horizontally! it's the grooviest SF movie door since the The Monster from Morbius' Id came through the 'Krell metal' door in Forbidden Planet. I wonder where they stole it - because more time, effort, and invention went into making that door than into the whole of the rest of the movie put together and believe me it's the only reason to watch this really stupendously awful film.
Having said all that I am giving it a 9 because it deserves more recognition as a classic bad SF film. It is up there with the Ed Woods. If you are in the mood for a masochistic do-it-yourself trepanning /lobotomy type movie then this is the one for you. It's great. I have drool coming from the corners of my mouth. Why do I do this to myself?
Having said all that I am giving it a 9 because it deserves more recognition as a classic bad SF film. It is up there with the Ed Woods. If you are in the mood for a masochistic do-it-yourself trepanning /lobotomy type movie then this is the one for you. It's great. I have drool coming from the corners of my mouth. Why do I do this to myself?
I was entertained
Yxklyx10 September 2006
I wouldn't say this movie is "bad" because I was entertained for the most part though probably not in the way the director intended. The cast is pretty hilarious. Just watching these four "characters" wandering about is a sight for sore eyes. I liked the Kissinger-look-alike Scientist, the white-machinist-looking businessman Stanton (reminds me of the guy who does/did the horoscope for The Onion), and especially his buddy who stays behind looking over the shoulder of "Dave" while making the most inane comments and looking cheerful throughout. The memory of the women standing by the computers out in back brings tears to my eyes. There's also an pseudo-intelligent little twist towards the end - and the ending was cool.
Ed Wood was better than this director.
1bilbo22 August 2009
Warning: Spoilers
This is a dreadful waste of opportunity.
We have a group of scientists who have developed a time travel machine and then proceed to travel through stock footage of whatever bit of b/w film the director was given. Because of the total lack of soul on the director's part the film doesn't even have the quaintness of some of the awful 1950s sci fi. There is no plot and it seems like it was made up as they went along.
Lack of budget is no excuse - watch "The Rhythm thief" which was made recently for under $1000 and is excellent.
Ed Wood would have done better.
We have a group of scientists who have developed a time travel machine and then proceed to travel through stock footage of whatever bit of b/w film the director was given. Because of the total lack of soul on the director's part the film doesn't even have the quaintness of some of the awful 1950s sci fi. There is no plot and it seems like it was made up as they went along.
Lack of budget is no excuse - watch "The Rhythm thief" which was made recently for under $1000 and is excellent.
Ed Wood would have done better.
Why?...
azathothpwiggins29 April 2022
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME seals us into a dull room filled with dull people doing dull things. This is where we are doomed to stay, interrupted only by a few giant lizards and Lyle Waggoner.
This movie is boredom captured on film.
Few movies dare to hit us over the head so continually with utter nothingness. So little goes on that time itself stops, ceases to be, ends forever. Our hearts seem to shrivel with our brains as we watch.
Watch this only if you have lost all reason to live, or if you are among the teeming throng of Lyle Waggoner fanatics.
Otherwise, your soul shall die...
This movie is boredom captured on film.
Few movies dare to hit us over the head so continually with utter nothingness. So little goes on that time itself stops, ceases to be, ends forever. Our hearts seem to shrivel with our brains as we watch.
Watch this only if you have lost all reason to live, or if you are among the teeming throng of Lyle Waggoner fanatics.
Otherwise, your soul shall die...
The worst movie ever made.
Koskosov6 October 2000
This is the worst movie ever made. I don't want to hear about any of Ed Wood's pictures. This is it, this is the one. Right here. The bottom of the deepest pit of cinema hell. To watch it is pure anguish from beginning to end. You are in too much pain even to be able laugh at it.
Truly Bad Sci Fi Movie
warenstein29 April 2018
I like old sci-fi movies, even the bad ones, which were numerous. Some are bad enough to be good. But this one is so bad it hurts to watch it. Dialogue is worse than a middle school play, as is the acting. I tried to love this for being so bad it's funny, but it's not funny, just sad. Watcher beware!
Timeless Classic
HSauer1 December 1998
Cheap but slightly imaginative temporal fantasy
jamesrupert201412 October 2020
Researchers discover that their experimental time 'window' can actually transport their entire diving-bell shaped lab into the far future or the distant past. The brightly-coloured film was clearly made on the cheap and uses a lot of filler (e.g. stock footage, repeated scenes, borrowed material (such as the alien 'starship' from 1964's 'The Time Travelers' (1964), of which 'Journey to the Center of Time' is considered a remake) to pad its running time, but otherwise is an OK time-travel story. The characters, especially the weapons-obsessed, penny-pinching, 'corporate boss' (Scott Brady) are simplistic (and are played that way) and the script border-line amateur (especially the romantic repartee, the pseudo-technical chatter, or the time-passing explanations of terms such as LASER). The film opens with a pretentious voice-over prologue that concludes with a predictably portentous uttering of the title but the following credits-sequence, presented over images of historical time-pieces, is eye-catching. At times, the film has an odd chiaroscuro look, with a brightly lighted and colourful foreground against a featureless black background, that is almost surreal and reasonably effective (and, I suspect, cost-saving), and there are some clever details in the lab set (such as the four-piece sliding door). The 'lost in time' plot doesn't make much sense and primarily serves to link the 'future' and 'past' scenes with time-filling shots of fretting lab-technicians trying to rescue the drifting time-space travelers. I first saw 'Journey to the Center of Time' on TV in the early 1970s and, while most of it is decidedly unmemorable, I never forgot the scenes in which the time machine encounters itself travelling along the continuum. I'm a sucker for time-travel stories (which my rating likely reflects), so despite the film's limited production values and occasional lapses into ludicrousness (such as the giant gemstones in the prehistoric volcano), I still enjoyed it. Boomers will spot 'The Carol Burnett Show' (1967) regular Lyle Waggoner as one of the pasty-faced aliens. The film's poster is a classic example of unfulfilled promises (so don't expect to see "Alien death rays turn Earth into a dead planet!").
Bad remake of The Time Travelers
Kingofbad8 July 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Remake is too kind a description for this rip-off of The Time Travelers (1964). This rehash steals not only the concept of TT, but even uses the same graphic of the future spaceship-in-the-crater. The budget is much cheaper and the effects inferior, so instead of walking through the time portal they have to exit the time pod through a door. They then use the cheap ploy of traveling to the distant past, the standard indoor jungle set, to save money. The makers rip off the frozen time idea, but without the cool foreshadowing used in the original, as well as the repeated scenes at the end but without the acceleration and at a ploddingly slow pace. Standard time wasting montages are used to increase running time gratuitously, but not bad enough to be funny (like They Saved Hitler's Brain). I strongly suggest that if you like campy old sci-fi you watch The Time Travelers instead. Same story, better effects, better use of the concept, and has humor and light sexual innuendo that makes it campy fun. If you are like me and can enjoy a bad movie for just the appreciation of its intrinsic badness, all the tricks bad movie makers use to get their cheap movie made, you might want to see this once. Otherwise go with the original.
Filmed like a Saturday afternoon kiddie show.
mark.waltz24 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Too bad about the high tech dialog which makes little sense, mixing with the cheapest looking of sets. Time is irrelevant here because it's all a complete waste of time, giving veteran actor Scott Brady a pompous character to boss and bellow at everyone underneath him, and a one dimensional character to play.
An egg shaped television screen takes Brady, Gigi Perreau, Anthony Eisley and others on the team both into the future and back to the past, and the pompous dialog just gets more ridiculous. The laughable pale face of comic heartthrob Lyle Waggoner is a campy highlight with the "Carol Burnett Show" veteran playing some sort of weird futuristic alternate human.
Early 50's TV sci-fi was an improvement on this, and coming early in the "Star Trek" years (and during the "Lost in Space" years), this just looks ridiculous. The women of the future according to this look more like cartoon characters, all bald, big busted (uncomfortably so), and one note. Time has never been so wasted outside a few laughs at this film's expense.
An egg shaped television screen takes Brady, Gigi Perreau, Anthony Eisley and others on the team both into the future and back to the past, and the pompous dialog just gets more ridiculous. The laughable pale face of comic heartthrob Lyle Waggoner is a campy highlight with the "Carol Burnett Show" veteran playing some sort of weird futuristic alternate human.
Early 50's TV sci-fi was an improvement on this, and coming early in the "Star Trek" years (and during the "Lost in Space" years), this just looks ridiculous. The women of the future according to this look more like cartoon characters, all bald, big busted (uncomfortably so), and one note. Time has never been so wasted outside a few laughs at this film's expense.
Delightfully cheesy
sguzman1113-120 February 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I just saw this movie today. What a delightfully schlocky movie with deliciously cheesy special effects and wonderfully tacky, minimalist sets. I thought Anthony Eiseley was better used in "Navy vs. The Night Monsters" though he did give a believable performance. Scott Brady was gruff and menacing. I'm not sure what his character was thinking in attempting to return the ship back to it's original time. He didn't seem to scientifically inclined. Gigi Perreau was sweet, but just a bit of window dressing. I think a stronger female would have been more suitable and created some tension with the men.
The end of the story left me just a bit confused as to how the ship managed to meet itself twice, get blown up twice and still return to the future. Overall, a decent movie in it's genre and budget.
The end of the story left me just a bit confused as to how the ship managed to meet itself twice, get blown up twice and still return to the future. Overall, a decent movie in it's genre and budget.
Sheer Sci-Fi Poetry, a Mind-Altering Trip to Another Dimension!
Atomic_Brain4 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
As with his previous effort, The Wizard of Mars, with Journey to the Center of Time whiz-kid producer-director David L. Hewitt takes a fascinating concept and mounts it brilliantly within severe budgetary constraints, showing that talent and imagination can overcome many financial shortcomings. In many ways, Journey is a remake or riff on Ib Melchior's excellent The Time Travelers, a film which Hewitt had much to do with in regards to the f/x and general ambience of the film. As shown elsewhere, Hewitt is primarily an idea man, and here is where the strength of his delightful mini-epics lie.
Journey inspires one to dream, and ponder the very notion of time, it's circuitous paths, it's amazing destinations. The film starts off on this note, with a magnificent credits sequence set against close-ups of beautiful antique timepieces, and the viewer is encouraged to contemplate the intricate "mechanism" of time, its linear aspects contrasting its more cosmic, expansive qualities.
The main set is the time machine itself, a fabulous construction showcased well when the camera completely circles the device, a stunning post-modern conceit in a film of this vintage. Through the time portal, there are stock scenes from Ib Melchior's fantastic The Angry Red Planet, another film which bears many similarities to the films of Hewitt, as well as the aforementioned The Time Travelers.
The always-intriguing screenplay offers some truly mind-blowing ideas, while the central laboratory is awash with familiar office bric-a-brac like consumer tape drives, and charming if self-evident signage such as "Master Control" and "Laser Overcharge."
The centerpiece of Journey is the amazing and clever montages of passages through various time periods, including some curiously claustrophobic stock-footage battle sequences, and some brilliant editing during the final "time cataclysm". Essentially these great scenes offer an accelerated parade of history via tinted library footage, mostly war films, which is of course, Man' main activity. In a deliciously ironic twist, the bad guys kills himself coming back through time, and Journey ends in a breathtaking, wildly nihilistic montage finale. Another film which looks much bigger than its tiny budget would suggest, Journey is budget Sci-Fi at its absolute zenith.
Journey inspires one to dream, and ponder the very notion of time, it's circuitous paths, it's amazing destinations. The film starts off on this note, with a magnificent credits sequence set against close-ups of beautiful antique timepieces, and the viewer is encouraged to contemplate the intricate "mechanism" of time, its linear aspects contrasting its more cosmic, expansive qualities.
The main set is the time machine itself, a fabulous construction showcased well when the camera completely circles the device, a stunning post-modern conceit in a film of this vintage. Through the time portal, there are stock scenes from Ib Melchior's fantastic The Angry Red Planet, another film which bears many similarities to the films of Hewitt, as well as the aforementioned The Time Travelers.
The always-intriguing screenplay offers some truly mind-blowing ideas, while the central laboratory is awash with familiar office bric-a-brac like consumer tape drives, and charming if self-evident signage such as "Master Control" and "Laser Overcharge."
The centerpiece of Journey is the amazing and clever montages of passages through various time periods, including some curiously claustrophobic stock-footage battle sequences, and some brilliant editing during the final "time cataclysm". Essentially these great scenes offer an accelerated parade of history via tinted library footage, mostly war films, which is of course, Man' main activity. In a deliciously ironic twist, the bad guys kills himself coming back through time, and Journey ends in a breathtaking, wildly nihilistic montage finale. Another film which looks much bigger than its tiny budget would suggest, Journey is budget Sci-Fi at its absolute zenith.
All in All NOT that bad
zdforme-129 November 2006
This movie which I own on VHS is really not that bad as some have stated. Sure it could of been made better IF they had a bigger budget but overall the action and story are quite entertaining. Of course this movie is a lot better IF one drinks a bottle of fine wine FIRST and then gets into the movie.. I still enjoyed it and hope it will be available on DVD and in a 5.1 Surround sound....this a a " B" Science Fiction film not at all in the same league as WAR OF THE WORLD'S or THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL but give it a chance and you just might find it quite enjoyable as I did.
ZD
ZD
What Were They Thinking
hawkstrega15 July 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I have to comment that the ONLY redeeming visual aspect of this movie is Poupee Gamin... just don't listen to her speech on her species and how humanity's only hope is for them to warn the past about how war kills.
The movie is filled with useless and repetitive scenes. So far this is the most redundant movie I have ever seen. The characters are complete idiots! Were the poor folk of the 60's deprived of good writers! They could have made this movie 100% better if only they would have re-written the script! A good story can at times make up for horrid special effects and appalling props.
Should you watch this movie? Of course, you can then see how fun and easy it is to make your own home movies! Grab the wife and kids and a few neighbors and you too can make your own low budget re-make of Journey to the Center of Time (1967) ... and please, send me a copy :)
The movie is filled with useless and repetitive scenes. So far this is the most redundant movie I have ever seen. The characters are complete idiots! Were the poor folk of the 60's deprived of good writers! They could have made this movie 100% better if only they would have re-written the script! A good story can at times make up for horrid special effects and appalling props.
Should you watch this movie? Of course, you can then see how fun and easy it is to make your own home movies! Grab the wife and kids and a few neighbors and you too can make your own low budget re-make of Journey to the Center of Time (1967) ... and please, send me a copy :)
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