Having read the book several times and being a real fan of this and other Verne novels, not to mention, travel in general I can wholeheartedly recommend this movie. If you have read the book and enjoy watching movies then hire, borrow or buy this film if you would like to see a fairly faithfully adapted version of the book starring an agreeable cast and featuring a varied number of far flung and pretty faithful looking locations. Brosnan may be a little younger than the Fogg I'd seen in my minds eye when reading but he performs very well and is suitably dashing and stiff upper lipped where he should be whilst also exhibiting a believably self-conscious even shy air around the very beautiful Julia Nickson. She plays her part very well also and the only negative comment I can make is that she isn't very Indian looking. But that isn't a problem, she looks wonderful anyway. Eric Idle and Peter Ustinov provide the comedy, the former giving rise to a number of laugh out loud moments for those of us with a sense of humour and being on the whole, very enjoyable to watch. Ustinov provides a few light hearted moments also, but I will admit he is a little to hammy for my liking, mumbling and shrieking a little too much. The cameos are right out of a who's who of 80's TV and it was fun to see some old TV favourites, such as Quincy's Jack Klugman, popping up in unexpected places. As previously mentioned the locations impress. And I wasn't disappointed, for example having been to Hong Kong myself on several occasions the sampans and the junks were set in a location that looked to me just as I'd imagined the now heavily built up modern city to have looked in the 1800s. The extras too look suitably indigenous to the parts of the world our heroes are passing through.
So on the whole if you are looking for a movie that relays a sense of travel, a sense of adventure, a strong element of romance and above all a real honest sense of fun - just as the book did - then seek out this movie. It may have taken a few liberties here and there and it does take a few scenes from the Niven version that didn't appear at all in the book, but it still relates the story as told by Verne and in my opinion it does it very well indeed. Some would have you believe that it doesn't bare much resemblance to the book and is poorly acted but this is patently untrue. Its a great version and well worth the five odd hours of my time.
So on the whole if you are looking for a movie that relays a sense of travel, a sense of adventure, a strong element of romance and above all a real honest sense of fun - just as the book did - then seek out this movie. It may have taken a few liberties here and there and it does take a few scenes from the Niven version that didn't appear at all in the book, but it still relates the story as told by Verne and in my opinion it does it very well indeed. Some would have you believe that it doesn't bare much resemblance to the book and is poorly acted but this is patently untrue. Its a great version and well worth the five odd hours of my time.
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