Ah yes, to be stranded on a remote deserted island with all those giant oysters and Joan Greenwood, arguably one of the most beautiful and sexy actresses you never heard of.

In this follow up to "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" you first have to get over the notion of 3 Union soldiers and a newspaperman beating up a dozen "Rebels" to escape a Confederate prison in Richmond in an observation balloon, and then being shot at by an entire regiment but we all know what bad shots the Confederate Army was so predictably they didn't hit anything, even missed the balloon, and that said balloon is blown plum out past Tennessee which was where civilization ended in 1862 AFAIC, then this flick settles into some high class adventure. Everybody thought the island they landed on out it the South Pacific was pretty cool until somebody stepped on a giant crab, then all Hell broke loose. Too bad for the crab he was perched on a ledge over a natural hot spring. "Hey, who brought the Chardonnay?"

Well, no desert stranding would be complete without a woman so we conveniently get two tailor made hotties courtesy of a pirate ship ship sinking. Hey wait a minute, pirates in the Pacific???? That's hilarious. Anyway, Lady Mary and her daughter Elena are welcomed by our balloon-wrecked lads and they are all too busy trying to figure out how to build a boat and dig the Panama Canal to fight over these two women. Well, one thing leads to another and giant chickens and bees appear along with pirates that need killing and then Captain Nemo pops up thankfully with a bottle of wine and shells you wear on your back and head so you can breath at the bottom of the ocean. I think the Nautilus threw a rod or something cause Nemo couldnt drive it anymore so Lady Mary had to drain the sap out of a big rubber tree (ooooooooh, metaphors galore!) so that Nemo can raise a sunken pirate ship using the BALLOON and a long bamboo straw so they can escape a bubbling volcanic eruption (metaphor metaphor metaphor). See, ya'll thought Jules Verne was boring and now you find out he was a sex fiend! haw haw haw

This is one of those great movies I remember as a favorite from childhood. It's still just as good, I just had an unexpected heat stroke from the mom this time instead of the daughter. Harryhausen's monsters from 1961 are as good or better than any CGI tech can deliver today. His work was truly amazing, but the mat transfer techniques used for a lot of scenes is betrayed by high definition sources. The film transfer however is terrific, colors and details are sharp and crisp, and the Dolby 2.0 is more than you'd expect, add a making of feature and Ray Harryhausen's personal commentary on storyboarding and you have the makings of a pretty nice DVD package. G rated for the whole family. 4 Subs

From its opening raindrenched hot air balloon sequence to its catastrophic volcanic eruption, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND is one of Ray Harryhausen's most brilliantly realized films. The master special effects wizard who long before CGI defined stop motion animation brings us fantastic sequences, including the giant crab, bees, chicken (or whatever) and squid. By 1961, Harryhausen had honed his art to where one can only marvel at how much a single man and his team could do.
Herbert Lom (Phantom of the Opera, the Pink Panther series) is remarkable as the gentlemanly Captain Nemo, whose only goal is to rid the world of war; Gary Merrill is the crusty newspaper correspondent who admires Nemo; Michael Craig is the dashing leader of the Union soldiers; teen hearthrob Michael Callan is the somewhat cowardly young man who achieves his manhood after rescuring the fair Beth Rogan from the aforementioned giant chicken; Joan Greenwood is the snooty but earthly Lady; Percy Herbert, one of Britain's finest character actors, shows up as a confederate stowaway; and Dan Jackson is the black naval officer who helps everyone out. The revered Bernard Hermann offers one of his bombastic, but brilliant, scores, and the movie just sails along on its own energetic level.
Children should be delighted to watch this movie, simply because it doesn't rely on gore, and one can show them what movies were like before computers.

This is a nice, satisfying telling of the Verne story, with special effects by Ray Harryhausen and a good score by Bernard Herrman. Escapees from a Civil War prison camp are blown way off course in a balloon they stole. They find themselves on an apparently deserted island somewhere in the Pacific, are joined by two women who were shipwrecked, and eventually come face-to-face with Captain Nemo and the wrecked Nautilus.

They have to deal with pirates, an erupting volcano and Harryhausen's creature threats. These include very large versions of a hungry red crab, an aggressive chicken, a bee and an unhappy squid. Some of the creatures turn out to be very good boiled or roasted.

The movie holds up well because of a strong story, good action, and fairly well-defined characters. It features Herbert Lom, in my view an under-rated actor, and Joan Greenwood. By this time Greenwood was taking character parts and doing a lot of stage work. But from the mid-Forties to the mid-Fifties she was, I think, one of the sexiest, smartest and funniest star actors Britain has ever produced. Her plummy, smoky voice is inimitable. She is coy and slightly lascivious in Kind Hearts and Coronets, sexy and brave in The Man in the White Suit.

The DVD transfer is just fine.

However, what movie versions of literature usually are? Instead of criticizing the liberties taken, let's just look at the points of merit of the film: great special effects by way of the stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen, a stirring score by legendary Bernard Herrmann, superb scenery, a tale of survival, and lots of action.

Of course the acting is a little wooden but there are decent performances from Herbert Lom as "Captain Nemo", Joan Greenwood as "Lady Fairchild", and Gary Merrill (the former MR. Bette Davis) as "Mr. Spillet".

The real highlight for this viewer upon the film's release was the inclusion of a pivotal character portrayed by a black man, Dan Jackson as "Neb". The character is in the novel but he is younger and a bit too "subservient," reflecting the times of the book's publication. In 1961 it was notable to see a black man in a fantasy film, portraying an "equal" to his fellow castaways.

The DVD extras, including the documentary "The Harryhausen Chronicles", are adequate but the film holds its own as a wonderful excursion into the fanciful and makes for a fine family film.

A PREHISTORIC PHORORHACOS,YOU'LL HAVE TO SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT. ONLY THE LEGENDARY SPECIAL EFFECTS WIZARD RAY HARRYHAUSEN COULD COME UP WITH SUCH A CREATURE. ONCE AGAIN HARRYHAUSEN'S IMAGINATION AND DYNAMATION PROCESS BRING TO LIFE CREATURES WE COULD NEVER IMAGINE. THEY USED TO SHOW THIS MOVIE EVERY SO OFTEN ON SATURDAY AFTERNOONS AND IT WAS ALWAYS A TREAT TO WATCH. THE PICTURE IS CLEAR AND THE COLORS ARE VIBRANT. TOO BAD THE SOUND ISN'T 5.1 DOLBY DIGITAL,BUT IT'S STILL GOOD. FILL UP THE POPCORN BOWL AND TURN OUT THE LIGHTS. NOW SIT BACK AND TAKE A JOURNEY TO THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND.YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED!!.NOT A BAD EFFORT PUT OUT BY COLUMBIA THIS TIME AROUND.