DVD Things to Come/Journey to the Center of Time
Digital Life Average Rating:

Rating: - good films; horrible quality
Things to Come is a fascinating film with dialogue that seems suited better for the stage than for the silver screen....it is poignant and interesting to watch, even if it seems to drag a bit at times. Also, the futuristic scenes at the end of the film are fun for fans of elaborate urban future sets. Journey to the Center of Time is a fun '60s sci-fi film for the old skool fans, maybe not on the philosophical level of the first film, but it does toy with time travelling theories, which some will find intriguing... it is a good late night flick for hanging out, at any rate... however, I write this review mainly to let folks know that the picture quality on the first film was horrible, and also lacking on the second. What is worse is that the audio is messed up (on both films) and the left channel seems distorted, like it was recorded improperly, with high-end clipping and crackling almost constantly... trying different speakers (Bose, Alesis) as well as different players made no difference... If I didn't know better, I'd say that the company got the analogue originals out of a dumpster, and then remastered the audio with their ears plugged or something. Due to the poor quality of the DVD, especially the audio, I would recommend waiting or looking for different editions/releases of these films unless you absolutely have to have them now.

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Rating: - Half of an masterpiece...!
Let me explain. How a 1936 anticipation movie could be more acurate than one made in the 60's? "Things to come" is a masterpiece, I think. The tone is a little bit emphatic, over dramatic, but it seems to correspond to the author's point of view: human race's future is a solemn matters. Astonishing to realise that this 1936 movie expect a catastrophic war to come around in the following years (compare with "Citizen Cane" which touch this matter at one point too). The rest of the prediction for the human history is not exact as for the dates, but it depicts profound realities. The monumental faith placed by the author into the structuring strenght of science and democracy appears questionable but a choice anyway, clearly expressed. As for "Journey to the Center of Time", what to say: if you take it as a festival of surrealist theater, it could be entertaining or even enlightening. But, if it was supposed to be a sci-fi thriller... it's catastrophic. The comogony of the 60's would be an extraordinary study matters and this film is a kind of delirium that can help look in the subconscient of this period. Look at it after a play from Ionesco...

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Rating: - But is it any good?
The big question, obviously, is:

Is this version any better than the Hollywood Classics version. I could buy it, and answer that question. But instead I'm going to wait until someone else buys it, and answers that question for me.

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Rating: - Classic Si-Fi Flick
The soliloquy by Massey at the end of this movie will stay with you forever. This is a great movie with a great message.