That was an excellent one.

Better Late Then Never

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

A team of specialists board a submarine, are miniaturised and injected into the body of an injured scientist in an attempt to save his life. Classic, colourful sci-fi adventure in which the human body looks like a hostile, alien place. Not only are the crew and submarine attacked from their host's immune system but it seems that one of them is intent on making the mission fail (not hard to figure out who). The film's moody musical score helps build the tension. Donald Pleasence is one of my favourite actors, always gives a good performance, and the presence of sex siren Raquel Welch adds to the appeal. This film is over 50 years old, naturally it looks dated but that's not something that bothers me.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel in the human body? Have you ever thought what the human body would like on the inside? If so, then Fantastic Voyage might just be the film for you. The film is a really fascinating look at what the filmmakers perceived the human body to look like in the 1960's. But on the whole, this movie is a wonderful, original science-fiction film ripe with some unique ideas. I really loved the premise of the film. I found the idea of humans being shrunk so they can explore the inside of the human body and stop disease is a very cool and rather unique idea (at least at the film's release date).While I found this to be an enjoyable film on the whole, I was not particularly fond of the visual effects. Believe it or not, the film actually won an Oscar for the visual effects. But 49 years after the film's release, they look very outdated and sometimes downright lame. When first released, the film was heralded for its groundbreaking visuals, which I can understand. Despite me not liking the visuals too much, I do like how the filmmakers imagined the human body. It was quite interesting to see the blood cells or the hair linings and I was particularly interested how they created the heart and brain and it was really cool. I did like the score and the sound effects better than the visual effects. It's interesting because the music composed for the film were essentially sound effects. I would originally be annoyed, but the music actually works very well for the film in that context.So what is this film all about? In addition to being a learning experience about the human body, the film is also another one with a "Cold War" theme. Obviously, we were in a middle of an arms race with the Soviet Union at the time of release and I believe that was an influence on the plot. In the movie, both nations had the formula for miniaturizing humans. However, a human could only be miniaturized for a short amount of time. There is this scientist named Jan Benes, who found the secret for keeping humans miniaturized for an indefinite time period. With such secret information, that means people working for the Soviets could be after Benes. Benes escapes from them with the help of a CIA agent named Grant (Stephen Boyd). However, their convoy is attacked on the transfer and Benes is struck in the head, causing a life-threatening blood clot in the brain. Grant is now added to a task force led by Dr. Michaels (Donald Pleasance) to be miniaturized and to stop the blood clot by traveling inside Benes's body. Now they only have an hour to complete the task before they grow big and destroy Benes because of that.As for performances, it seemed like everyone had a fun time starring in the movie. Stephen Boyd, known mostly for being Ben Hur's rival in 1959's Ben-Hur, does a rather good job in the lead role as Grant. He was the man from the outside learning valuable information for the first time, just like the rest of us audience. I also enjoyed the performance of Donald Pleasance who portrayed the team leader of the expedition, Dr. Michaels. His character seemed pretty menacing at times, but he also provided a good amount of scientific information which proved to be interesting. However, not all characters I found particularly enjoyable. There was only one woman in the film and that was the character of Cora played by Raquel Welch. Cora is the main assistant of Dr. Michaels. She is supposedly one of the main character of the films, but she doesn't act the part. Welch's performance is not bad per se, but her character has no personality. It seemed to me her character was just added to the film to be eye candy, and not to provide any depth. I was rather disappointed in that. This is probably the biggest issue I had with the film, other than the outdated visual effects which I can appreciate though.Fantastic Voyage, directed by Richard Fleischer, is a very entertaining movie and it can be quite a learning experience. Despite it being a fictional movie, I learned some things about the human body. There is no doubt this sci-fi film is campy like other similar films of the time period, but I had a very fun time watching it. I had my issues with the visual effects, but they are colorful and they do bring the screen to life in portraying different sections of the body. I really liked how the film is also interested in turning some of the human parts into "bad guys." What I mean is that there are some sections of the human body they might want to stay away from. Outdated visual effects and a disappointing female lead are what kept me from calling this a great film. But I was very entertained and in that point, the movie succeeded.My Grade: B+

Copyright 17 August 1966 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening simultaneously at Loew's State and the Festival: 7 September 1966. U.S. release: 24 August 1966. U.K. release: 14 October 1966. Sydney opening at the Regent. 9,044 feet. 100 minutes.SYNOPSIS: American agent Grant (Stephen Boyd) helps Czech scientist Jan Benes (Jean Del Val) escape from behind the Iron Curtain. Benes suffers a brain injury when a last attempt is made on his life. CMDF (Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces) decides to repair the brain from within using a ruby laser. CMDF can shrink men and equipment to microbe size, but only for 60 minutes. The plan is to miniaturize the experimental submarine Proteus with its crew of scientists and doctors, inject them into Benes' bloodstream at the base of the neck and hope they can make their way to the brain for the operation. The crew of the Proteus includes Dr Duval (Arthur Kennedy), brain surgeon; Cora Peterson (Raquel Welch), his assistant; Dr Michaels (Donald Pleasence), navigator; Captain Bill Owen (William Redfield), sub pilot; and Grant. Dr Duval is suspected of being a traitor, but must go because of his special abilities. The Proteus is injected into Benes' bloodstream. An unexpected fistula sends the sub out of control, and precious minutes are wasted. A decision is made to take a more direct path through the heart. There are 32 minutes left before the sub and its occupants will start to grow back to full size inside Benes' body.NOTES: Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two: Best Color Art Direction, defeating Gambit, Juliet of the Spirits, The Oscar and The Sand Pebbles; Best Special Visual Effects — Cruickshank alone was cited — defeating Hawaii. Other Nominations (winners in brackets): Color Cinematography (A Man for All Seasons), Film Editing (Grand Prix), Sound Effects — Walter Rossi — (Grand Prix).COMMENT: Although it didn't make the top ten, "Fantastic Voyage" was included in the top thirty domestic money-makers of the 1965-66 season. The movie did equally good business overseas. Negative cost: $6½ million. After paying print, distribution and advertising expenses, the movie returned only a modest profit initially. Of course later sales to TV put the picture very firmly into the black — but by that time it was too late to think of a sequel or a follow- up or a spin-off — any of which (provided costs were contained) should have done well. The book-of-the-film novelization was undertaken by none other than Isaac Asimov and was still selling merrily in book shops (in fact it was easily Asimov's most popular title) twenty years later.The film's success was mostly due to its novel theme and great special effects. But a strong publicity campaign certainly helped — including this unusual endorsement from Darryl F. Zanuck: "I have just returned from the most fantastic voyage in my 36-year career in the motion picture industry. To make a motion picture that crosses a new frontier may seem impossible today. Outer space, the depths of the sea, the bowels of the earth, the past, the future — all have been subjects for the camera. Yet a film called "Fantastic Voyage" has broken through in an unsuspected direction to create an adventure of astonishing suspense and beauty. It has moved me, for the first time in my career, personally to endorse a motion picture in an advertisement. In "Fantastic Voyage", the imagination of Man and the magic of the camera are linked as never before, to offer stunning proof of my cherished belief that the motion picture medium is the most potent entertainment form ever devised — limitless in its power to go wherever the mind can reach, with credibility, emotional force and drama."Yes, this science fiction film has excellent gimmicks and very good special effects, but, unfortunately, a tired old plot with hoary characters spouting cliché-ridden dialogue. Despite these inadequacies, however, it does manage to generate a fair amount of suspense. And it certainly lives up to its advertised promise in showing us a new, unknown, unexplored (and dangerous) world. This it does very effectively.

I saw this as a 12 year old when it came out. Even then I was a little skeptical about the science but I was certainly astounded by the movie.I ended up becoming a physician. When I watch this today I have to shake my head at some of the more preposterous portrayals, but I find other sections and effects that are marvelously accurate. The plot, characters, action and pacing are superb. It's hard for anyone who has even the slightest taste for sci-fi to not enjoy this thoroughly entertaining work. If you know some anatomy, it's even more engaging.It's still implausible to send a tiny, manned submarine into the human body and probably will remain so. But it's not implausible that we'll be inserting unmanned nano-bots into ourselves that might perform the tasks and missions with the same precision and outcomes shown here.