U.S. rubber stock must have tripled with the creatures here from the land of the lost. Giant reptiles (or birds) which roam the middle of the planet looking for cavemen snacks are some of the silliest creatures to pop up on movie screens in decades. With middle earth having English speaking cavemen in addition to other walking creatures obviously wearing pig masks, there's a lot for these creatures to snack on. With Peter Cushing and Douglas McClure invading the earth's core aided by Cushing's boaring device, they find themselves trapped in this nightmare world where Cushing's biggest horrid seems to be not able to have a decent cup of tea. The creatures allegedly have mind control ability over the pig people, but perhaps it's all those gigantic magic mushrooms located all over this strange universe.

At the Earth's core 1976 21.1.15Impressive opening titles lit by the flickering red light of furnaces speak of vast engineering enterprise, which of course such an incredible machine would have required. The very distinctive silhouette of the tall extremely thin figure of Peter Cushing in high collar and top hat very neatly identifies the period, his character and him as the quirky genius behind it all. So far, very good. The opening scenes are quite impressive showing the vast machine in the distance and in close-up parts of the massive support structure it required. Such a marvel was this fictional Victorian machine (130 years later still science-fiction) that it would have been world wide news. On its first trial - a short burrow into a Welsh hillside, it suddenly though takes an unexpected precipitous downwards dive. Unfortunately so too at this point, does the film. Peter Cushing throughout gives an excellent thoroughly animated consistent performance as the elderly and rather frail and fussy inventor. He acts throughout as if the journey, the film and the role - mattered. In contrast a cigar-chomping Doug McClure behaves like world-weary freighter co-pilot on just another routine flight in just another routine film.In sci-fi its is always a question as to how much science and plausible fact to include. In the masterpiece 2001, a very great deal - it gave weight and logic to the story. In this, its complete antithesis, very close to zero. In something like 3 minutes' screen time the giant machine has burrowed approximately 4000 miles downwards through the Earth's core. It gets a little hot then a little cold but otherwise causes little more fuss, fatigue or fear for the crew than an trans-Atlantic flight. They arrive after this incredible journey, open the hatch only to find themselves in what appears to be the middle the complete cast of aliens and set in an average Dr Who episode. What ensues are chases and fist fights, the things that have filled time in brainless films since the dawn of cinema. The giant burrowing machine does manage to recover from its catastrophic downwards dive. The film however never does. 7/10 for the titles 3/10 for the rest

A scientist and a macho hero type burrow into the Earth in a mechanical mole, and find a hidden world where stone age humans are subjugated by hypnotic pterodactyls (yes, really).At The Earth's Core sneaked in about half an hour before Star Wars rewrote the manual for fantasy cinema. So we don't have motion control, high quality travelling mattes, fantastic model work, state of the art make up, seamless interaction between real and fabricated backgrounds - no, what we have are blokes in rubber costumes, lurid set lighting, and unconvincing miniatures.Thing is, it captures Edgar Rice Burroughs Pellucidar quite well. Oh, it's all terribly unconvincing (especially the pterodactyls, even more so when they indulge in wobbly flying on all-too-visible wires), but the original books are written in prose which is even more purple than some of the set lighting.Peter Cushing and Doug Maclure play the two protagonists efficiently enough, and Caroline Munroe is beguiling. But then, she always was.

Due to the fact that in 1976 there were no CGI I felt that the movie was quite watchable. The studio productions were very good and very elaborate. The background effects were very believable and always appeared as if they were part of the whole set. The actors did OK considering the premise of the film being set in a type of Jules Vern atmosphere where imagination and possibilities of future exploration were at most improbabilities. Had I watched this film in 1976 I probably would have been in awe of the ability of man to build a machine that could travel to the earths core. I still wonder to this day why we are not all flying around in our cars but I digress. McClure and Cushing have their funny moments, mostly from their facial expressions toward each other which of course makes the film somewhat campy which I loved. The 'monsters' left something to be desired but the story had a good premise although I feel as though some other sort of 'thing' could have been more believable under those circumstances. All in all quite watchable for its time and fun now.