Journey to the Center of Time (1967)

Please don't spend money on this.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of countless low-budget sci-fi films to come out of the 50's and 60's, this one collects a few mid-level stars who had apparently fallen on hard times and pits them against some very poor sets and special effects. Sofaer (who has the distinction of receiving "Special Guest Star" status in the billing) is scientist who, along with his comrades Eisley and Perreau, is attempting to master the art of time travel. When the blow-hard new owner of the research company (Brady) informs Sofaer that his experiments are going to be cancelled unless some results are forthcoming, the team gives the project one last go. This results in them careening through time, hopping back and forth from the future to the distant past and back again. One trip puts them in the company of alien Waggoner who introduces the team to his leader, a silver-faced lady in a plastic hat played by Gamin (billed in the credits as "Introducing", though she was done and gone from the biz within a year. Another trip has them besieged by a prehistoric creature (basically, a lizard.) Brady, looking startlingly bloated and rotund, gives his role a lot of aggression and pigheadedness, but emerges looking rather foolish. Eisley pretty much walks through his part, though there certainly isn't much to work with. Perreau, sporting a large bouffant, is equally bland. Sofaer resembles Henry Kissinger in some ways and, though he isn't very good, provides a modicum of acting talent to the movie. Davis and Olsen play two technicians who work in the present day to return the team to their correct time. Davis is handsome and not too hard to take, but Olsen grows tiresome quickly with her various exclamations and her endless fiddling with the controls (as a completely worthless and unintentionally hilarious collection of female technicians piddle around in the background.) Irwin Allen's TV show "The Time Tunnel" (from which this film draws some degree of inspiration, to use the word loosely) also gave Lee Meriwether and others this same type of tedious, repetitive role. It's a safe bet that Waggoner conveniently leaves this film off his resume, though he isn't in it long enough for it to matter much. The entire production looks cheap and dull. During the time travel sequences, the camera rotates inside a model of the lab with little DOLLS of the lead characters spinning around and holding on for dear life! This is worth one good chuckle alone. It isn't a harmful film. It's just a fairly pointless and useless one.

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

Low-budget romp through the backwaters of time and space. The distant past and far-off future collide in what amounts to a fiery blast furnace of ideas and images. A trio of scientists, on the threshold of a major breakthrough in time travel, race against the clock and a funding cut. Stanton, the main source of cash, played by a blustery Scott Brady, behaves like an ignoramus. He doesn't see a profit margin in such an endeavor. At first glance, this remake of A.I.P.'s The Time Travelers, would appear to be a poor relation. Not so fast. I think there are some good ideas spinning around here. You might notice that Star Trek helped themselves to a few. One plot device, involving a time-displacement and frozen duplicates of the main players in a conference room, was lifted for "Wink of an Eye." And the dark and minimalist set for the alien leader must have inspired "The Empath." Any takers? The one love scene, strangely, involves a time travel limerick and a lengthy kiss. Uncomfortable. The mutant attack has an Andy Warhol feel to it. Abstract. Cockeyed. Out of whack. The door to the lab breaks into quarters when opened. Cool effect. Even stranger is the small elevator that takes Stanton down four feet, when he could have easily walked down the four steps on his own. A very quick shot of the infamous bat-rat-spider-crab from Angry Red Planet, a previous writing credit of the director, is a shout out to that film's director. The opening credits reveal time pieces from the past. Good touch. So where's the original flick. Put it out on DVD now. Let's compare. The sands of the hour glass are running out. At warp speed.

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?