Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

 

By far one of the best versions of the classic tale by Verne. This story tells the tale of a group of intrepid explorers who travel far beyond the surface of the earth to find a hidden world beneath the earth’s crust. There are dinosaurs and an evil genius who believes that he has sole rights to the world trying to stop them. What is wonderful is that there are only practical effects in this movie. The dinosaurs are all komodo dragons and the like, so they look very real, unlike a man in a rubber suit.

Godzilla (2014)

The Godzilla of 2014 breathed new life into this franchise. After the 1998 one bombed so badly, this new adaptation of the classic monster brought back all the charm and fun of the first movies in the Japanese monster saga. It harked back to the 1954 version with it being a more serious movie, but still a fun monster romp. Truly a tribute to its monster predecessors.

Timeline (2003)

Timeline is based on the Michael Crichton’s book of the same name. Both book and movie have a similar premise, a group of modern archaeologists are sent back to medieval France and must survive long enough to make it back to modern times. They must rely on their knowledge of local history in order to not make any of the “natives” suspicious of their activities. But they soon find that they are not alone, another modern timeline is secretly sabotaging their efforts because he is jealous that they have the means to get back. The movie is a lot less complicated than the book, removing the complexities of string theory for a simple time travel movie. Regardless, the movie is a fun time travel adventure.

The African Queen (1951)

The African Queen is one of those movies that is much better than the book, at least in my opinion. I guess why I love the movie over the book is that in the movie Rose and Charlie actually fall in love whereas in the book they get married simply because Charlie “compromised” Rose. The movie is exciting. Taking place during WWI, Rose and Charlie are attempting to get down the river to a large lake where a large German battleship is stationed. They are planning on blowing up the battleship with Charlie’s boat, The African Queen. Rose is played by Katherine Hepburn and Charlie is played by Humphrey Bogart. The movie is great and is fun to watch!

Jurassic Park 3 (2001)

Jurassic Park 3 is the last of the first trilogy of Jurassic Park movies, before it became Jurassic World. Although a lot of people don’t like the movie, I always thought it was fun. It reunites the audience with Alan and Ellie. Alan goes to Site B, promised money. Unfortunately for Alan, Kirby lied to him. He needed someone to help him find his son, so he promised money he didn’t have. Of course, dinosaur mayhem ensues, especially with those ever present Raptors. Quite an enjoyable monster movie.

Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997)

Jurassic Park: The Lost World is the last of the sequels written by Michael Crichton. In it we learn of another island, Site B, where they were also breeding dinosaurs. Audience favorite, Ian Malcolm, returns to this sequel to remind us that chaos shall reign when we mess around with nature. And we have T-Rexes ravaging the streets of San Diego. Afterwards we are able to set up a nature reserve so that the dinosaurs can thrive without human interference. The movie is perhaps not as good as the first one, but still an enjoyable dinosaur movie.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Strictly speaking, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not a fantasy movie. There is no magic, no gods, but the choreography is not of this world. No one in real life fights like that, like they are flying through the air. The sets acting and choreography make this movie one for the ages. It’s beautiful. The movie is not in English, but in Chinese with English subtitles, but the language barrier does not detract from the overall beauty of the movie. You watch it for the beauty not for any sort of coherent plot. But it does have a plot, a beautiful plot that doesn’t need a lot of words to have it make sense. This movie is in the book 501 Movies to Watch Before You Die.