Fantastic movie (Fantastic Voyage (DVD))

Member Name: moronboy

Product:	Fantastic Voyage (DVD)
Date:	12/10/00 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enormously entertaining

Disadvantages: Wooden acting

One of the all-time great sci-fi ideas, this is the film where a team of crack scientists are miniaturised to perform a complex brain operation on a top politician, and have to battle both the unfamiliar alien territory, and the presence of an evil saboteur on board the microsub (later remade as 'Innerspace').

'Fantastic Voyage' suffers badly from the fact that the hero is Stephen Boyd, an inherently dislikeable actor for being the closet gay villain in 'Ben Hur'. He is crashingly uninteresting, and thus, the heroics lose some of their sting. Moreover, the diaphanous Raquel Welch is required to do nothing more than look stunning (a job she obviously does well), so the lead actors do little but hover in front of SFX.

Nevertheless, the reliable support of Donald Pleasance makes up for a lot, while Richard ('The Vikings') Fleischer contributes enormously stylish direction. Moreover, especially if you see it in its original widescreen, it's a spectacular film with attractive visual effects which are obviously dated, but equally retain much of their effectiveness.

Huge fun.

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