Conference ljsrv1::tv_chatter

491.0. "Hallmark's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" by UFP::BOBB (Janet Bobb dtn:339-5755) Mon Mar 24 1997 18:16

    Hallmark Presentation of  "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"
    
    Opinions from others?
    
    Was shown Sunday night, CBS tv. Starred Ben Cross as Captain Nemo,
    Richard Creno as the scientist (Prof. ?, my mind in blanking). His male
    assistent was replaced by a daughter, sophie (can't remember the
    actress's name) who was a learned zoologist but couldn't get any
    institute to take her seriously (including potential fiancee). Ned the
    harpoonist was played by Paul Gross. directed by the same person who
    did Gulliver's Travels with Ted Dancin.
    
    Location of the story was in the North Atlantic sea and the Carribean
    (though it was filmed in the Red Sea, on a London set and through
    the use of some computer graphics).
    
    Nemo's sub was updated and had male/female crew. 
    
    General story about Nemo vs. the world the same....  Some creature is
    attacking/sinking both military and pleasure boats. the professor is
    hired because he is the leading authority on marine life and since the
    military doesn't have any underwater ship capability, it can't
    possibly be a ship, but a creature. Ned is hired to harpoon the
    creature, once the professor helps find it. sophie goes along as her
    father's assistent, but pretending to be male. The ship they are on
    encounters the creature, main characters get knocked over board during
    the fight and left. Picked up by nemo and taken aboard. various
    interactions between nemo/professor, nemo/ned, nemo/sophie, etc.
    
    Ok family entertainment - no more violence then a road runner cartoon.
    But unfortunately not much of the Jules Verne story was present. One
    cute tidbit - the passenger cruiser diasabled in the beginning was the
    same cruise line as the titanic (white line/white star), with the
    captain making re-assuring noices to the passengers about how safe the
    line is. Ben Cross and Richard Crenna did an ok job for the roles. the
    actress who played sophie was just barely tolerable. Paul Gross was
    definately no Kirk Douglas, but probably ok. some scenery was really
    nice. the other chuckle was I think the Seal in the Disney version was
    called Sophie, so kept thinking of that when the daughter's name was
    used!
    
    Overall - I was dissappointed. expected a great deal more from what is
    usually very good from Hallmark.
    
    more comments after formfeed
    
    possible spoilers ahead
    
    
    since I happen to like the original Jules Verne story (and even the
    Disney adaptation of it) this piece was as major dissappointment. They
    added a female to bring in a love triangle aspect between Nemo and Ned
    (quoted in a tv schedule interview with the writer). Even though Nemo
    explained to the professor he was hunting the european and US ships
    because they had taken over his country and killed his
    mother/father/family/wife/children and once he had crippled them, he
    was going to take his country back - the original motivation was lost
    with the love tension. Nemo falls hard for sophie, saying he had given
    up ever finding an intelligent woman to pair with, provides her with a
    variety of beautiful cloths, asks for her hand in marriage and then
    sulks when she says no. so a good part of the plot is taken up by this.
    
    My major gripe is that they felt they had to "improve" on the story. 
    Does Hollywood really think the average watcher couldn't handle
    something that didn't include some sort of love tension? Is the average
    watcher that pitiful?
    
    Other than the title, some of the main characters, the sub name and
    that it takes place in the water - they didnt' use much of the JV
    story.  Even though disney took liberty with the story decades ago it
    was still much better. And considering we are talking decades later of
    technology - I don't think they did anything in this presentation which
    surpassed the Disney version. Like I said before it was no Kirk Douglas
    and James Mason!
    
    Oh well, another time when reading the book would have been a better
    evening. And I usually like the Hallmark Presentations.
    
    janetb.
    
    

    I didn't bother watching it since ever review I heard was awful.
    
    Mo
    

I'm sorry to say that we watched the whole thing ... and I thought it was 
pretty bad.  Kept saying, "Ben Cross is in THIS??"  The female lead was 
appealing, but Paul Gross was certainly underused, and the special effects 
were pretty poor.

    
    I taped it, and was able to watch the entire movie in under
    15 minutes.
    
    Fast-forward...FF...FF.
    
    A real waste of time.