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Rating:  - Five Weeks in a Balloon
I love this movie. Not only is it exciting and adventurous, it also has a rather catchy theme song. This movie also has an allstar cast (well, at least they were big stars in 1962). The characters are perfect: from the always calm and collected Professor with a dry sense of humor to the pompous general whose last request before his execution is some hot water to fill his prize teapot. I recommend this to anyone looking for a fun adventure movie.
Rating:  - Could, and should have been much better.
This movie is best watched in a letterboxed version, as it wasfilmed in Cinemascope. -That is, if you should bother at all. Withfantasy movies it's either hit or miss, and this comedy is a miss. Most of it, anyway. Because amongst all the embarrassing and unfunny moments; like a laughing sultan, two hysterical and screaming women, a shamelessly wasted and mis-cast Henry Daniell, the obligatory cute monkey, Peter Lorre and Fabian, it actually has a weird charm of its own which makes it wachable. -But these thrown-together characters come from nowhere, and seem to have no past, so you don't care for them at all. Less slapstick and more suspense would've been most welcome, too. It just goes to show it takes more than good will to make a decent movie of a Jules Verne story. -Barbara Eden's always lovely, though; widescreen or not.
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