At the Earth's Core

Rating: **/*****, or 5/10

Based on an adventure story by Edgar Rice Burroughs (the creator of both Tarzan and John Carter of Mars), this fairly low budget movie features clumsy Victorian scientist Peter Cushing (for once doing comedy instead of scaring people to death; he was sincerely much better at doing the latter) and Doug McClure taking a trip to the Earth's core in a giant drilling machine, where they discover the Hollow Earth type underground world called Pellucidar, which is inhabited by huge reptilian beasts and primitive men alike, and is harshly ruled over by vicious telepathic humanoid Pterosaurs. A half decent adventure flick, though suffering from unconvincing (though at times still charming) special effects, a messy plot and the general feeling of redundancy for being the least appealing in a cycle of four very similar movies from the same creators based on Burroughs' property and all starring McClure. Still, there's a few things to enjoy here, including good fantasy set dressing, an overall sense of playfulness and Caroline Munro in a skimpy outfit.

Starring: Doug McClure, Caroline Munro, Peter Cushing

Directed by Kevin Connor

USA/UK: American International Pictures, 1976