This week on the FAN marks a return to the infamous Asylum, with the release of a movie that features both scientists in an Arctic research station, along with everyone’s favorite FPS fodder, the Nazis. Direct to DVD Dissection takes a look at NAZIS AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH.
Released April 24th, 2012
The Story:
During a search for some missing colleagues, a group of scientists discover a hidden base, frozen deep in the ice. They find that the place inhabited by Nazis, who capture the team and force them to continue their experiments, lead by the notorious Josef Mengele. While the Nazis prepare to make themselves known to the world and take over, the team must find a way to stop the eventual Nazi World Order.
The Cast:
Jake Busey as Adrian Reistad, a doctor with some previous medical history that doesn’t sit well with Lucas. Son of actor Gary Busey, he’s appeared in various films, from STARSHIP TROOPERS, ENEMY OF THE STATE, and THE FRIGHTENERS and has carved his own career path in Hollywood.
Josh Allen as Lucas Moss, a researcher who has relationship with Paige and goes looking for her after her disappearance. His first movie role here, with only a few credits to his name.
Dominique Swain as Paige Morgan, one of two researchers that go missing after discovering a crashed Nazi plane frozen in the ice. Probably best known as the title character from LOLITA, she’s worked on and off since 1997 in various film and TV series.
Christopher Karl Johnson as Josef Mengele, the famous Angel of Death, known for performing experiments on prisoners, and continues his work in this movie. While looking like a veteran actor, Johnson has only been in show business for 5 years, in various uncredited roles in big movies and some bigger roles in some direct to video releases.
The Dissection:
For the most part, Nazis in popular culture have waned over the last few years. They were originally the popular bad guy for mostly any movie set in the past, like the Indiana Jones films and various war video games, like the Medal of Honor series. Nowadays, they’re replaced with zombies for the most part, though several properties did combine the two occasionally. Recently, some new properties have arisen to start up again the old exploitation genre of using the atrocities caused by the Nazis to stage horror movies, or Nazisploitation. With this, along with IRON SKY(with Nazis on the Moon), it feels like it is going to start up again.
The Angel of Death himself, Josef Mengele (Christopher Karl Johnson)
NAZIS AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH features several actors, some rookies,and some Asylum regulars on the cast & crew. If you’ve seen an Asylum movie in the last few years, you know what to expect from it in terms of visuals. If you aren’t familiar, the basics are that they generally feature CG animation that, while not very realistic, gives you something absurd enough to make it enjoyable. The production quality of an Asylum film is not a priority, but depending on the film in question, it may have a big impact or none at all.
This movie is really strange, but in a good way. The movie starts with Josef Mengele in 1945 being a badass Nazi, killing various Allied soldiers by himself while escaping from an airfield. He’s hitting head shots with a small pistol from miles away and using a rocket to destroy a tank single-handedly. He then spends the rest of the movie in the role of the evil doctor, performing experiments where he skins a person alive and creates undead Nazis. All this works well with how Christopher Johnson delivers his lines and acts while giving his speeches. Then, half way through the movie, it goes batcrap crazy, with Nazi Flying Sauces and Adolf Hitler himself in a giant robot suit, armed with laser cannons! Yes, this is all inthe movie, all presented to you in classic Asylum style. It feels less like a movie and like you popped in some DLC for a Wolfenstein game.
However, the movie has some drawbacks, namely in the opposing side. While we got the Nazis all set up for a kick ass “USA!” strike back moment in the end, the heroes we’re given to root for .are lacking, to say the least. Most of the people in the expedition serve as red shirts, serving only to die in horrible ways. You have the rest, consisting of mainly 3 actors, serving as the main people we’re following. Jake Busey and Josh Allen give some decent performances here at moments, nothing to write home about, but nothing horrendous to avoid. However, the same cannot be said of actress Dominique Swain, the lead female in the movie. Her role as a researcher feels diminished with her lines approaching valley girl levels of acting, sort of how Denise Richards’ role of Dr. Christmas Jones was criticized in Bond movie THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH. The worst thing, though, is that she soon transitions into the action girl of the movie, and it really stretches the suspension of disbelief to its limits.
" A bipolar movie that's premise is more rewarding than its execution"
Another issue lies in the fact that the movie seems schizophrenic at times. It’s like the Asylum wasn’t sure if thy wanted to go between the horrifying image of the Nazis with the experiments and how some of the explorers die, or going the extremely silly and out there vision with the alien ships and LASER SHOOTING ROBOT HITLER. Plus, with the lack of any credible heroes, the comeuppance we expect to be given to Mengele and the rest of the Nazis is diminished by just not caring about it. There is a set up for a big showdown late in the movie, but it leads nowhere. If the film had concentrated on the rest of the film as it did with the whole technologically advanced Nazis, these issues could have been resolved.
Before moving on to the DVD features, one thing to note is this movie has a sort of Asylum regular, an actress named Lilan Bowden listed in the cast. She plays one of the researchers named May Yun. She was also in the movie ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE as one of the expert archers the survivors run into. With the lackluster female leads in those movies had, having one played by Lilan Bowden might help to improve the issues with the characters and the actresses playing them not working with the material. Hopefully, she will have her time to shine in a future Asylum release.
Now, dealing with the extras, the disc features a lot of them. The movie has four featurettes, based on pre-production, the cast & crew, the production itself, and a gag reel. The movie also has a director’s commentary track. However, the only language available is English and there’s no captions, so no alternate language options. Also, as all Asylum films do, there are several trailers for other movies on the disk. Besides the trailer for the film itself and a 15th year anniversary video, the trailers include:
AMERICAN BATTLESHIP – Thealiens vs navy film that caused The Asylum to get a lawsuit at the hands of Universal Pictures over their own aliens vs navy big budget movie, BATTLESHIP
AMERICAN LINCOLN VS ZOMBIES – A take on the big budget ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER movie, with the President fighting zombies during the Civil War.
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE – Reviewed here.
2 HEADED SHARK ATTACK – Shark movie featuring Brooke Hogan. Not that good at all, in a nutshell.
GRIMM’S SNOW WHITE – Also reviewed here.
AIR COLLISION – Airport drama with Reginald Vel Johnson about a malfunctioning smart airport system.
THE AMITYVILLE HAUNTING – A found footage filmed based on the famous haunted mansion in Northern NY.
CELEBRITY SEX TAPE – A sex comedy featuring teens shooting porno films.
The Verdict:
A bipolar movie that’s premise is more rewarding than its execution, and suffers from too much attention on the antagonists, and not enough on the protagoinsts needed.
Recommended only to fans of Asylum or Nazi exploitation films. Most others would probably be satisfied waiting for an IRON SKY release on DVD.
Rent NAZIS AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH at Redbox:
http://www.redbox.com/movies/nazis-at-the-center-of-the-earth
View NAZIS AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH on Amazon Instant:
http://www.amazon.com/Nazis-at-Center-Earth/dp/B007X6NPE2/ref=tmm_aiv_title_0