Fantastic Voyage [Blu-ray]

I saw this movie when I wasn't even in my teens yet! It's a great movie/video. If you aren't careful, you might learn a thing or two about the human body. Great investment for the money!

I like this old classic and they should have left the widescreen out and if I can find a full screen I will by it

This film was a head of its time delightful story and great special effects

Even today this movie is fun to watch.

Three stars alone for the concept and story. As valid--and fascinating--today as when the movie was first released, over half a century ago! Quite amazing. Hat tip to future Star Trek script-writer Jerome Bixby.Another star for the effects--fabulous at the time, and still quite arresting today--and not a CGI in sight! The effects and set design both won well-deserved oscars.20th Century Fox knew what it was doing, this time: top-ranked director (Richard Fleischer, Tora, Tora, Tora, The Vikings) and an all-star cast, led by Ben Her star, Stephen Boyd.Can't give it 5 stars, as some others do. It's that sexist dialogue! Hilarious, now. "Infantasizing" women and quips that are nothing more than sexual come-ons. And one military type just against sending a female on the mission. Now reason is given. In 1966, none was needed. It just...wasn't done!

Finally, I received my Blu-ray disc. As I had written before I had hoped this movie had undergone some necessary treatment.Well, good news first: the picture quality is very good to excellent for a 5o-year-old movie with that amount of composite shots. The DeLuxeColor photography looks much better than on any other version I have (FV has been my absolute favourite film for 40 years now I have gathered a good deal of different versions from this movie over the past years: TV recordings, VHS-, LaserDisc- and DVD-copies). And although the original opening title has been reinserted there is still something left to be desired:The print used for the Blu-ray mastering is obviously the same used for the previous DVD versions and it contains the following flaws:1. The passage through the subarachnoid cavatiy (1:25:51-1:26:49) contains the most annoying flaw: wrong tinting. The entire scene is supposed to appear tinted in green color. All of my prints and copies (except DVD) show this tinting during the entire scene and the dramatic effect is gorgeous, making that scene a very dark link between the light inner ear shot before and the sparkling thoughts in the brain after. On DVD this effect is completetely spoiled showing a RED background in the first half of the scene (1:25:51-1:26:27) and changing unintentiously to a GREEN background for the rest (1:26:28-1:26:49). The faces of the actors in the foreground remain somewhat pink instead of reflecting the dark green from the outside as it was present in the prints used for the non-DVD versions.2. There is a jumpcut at 1:37:56. Well, it is not noticeable in the picture but in the soundtrack if one is familiar with the fine timing of Leonard Rosenman's score.

This is another one of those "I kept hearing about it, but didn't see it until years later" movies. Not entirely true, I saw real quick bits and pieces of it here and there. It's a film whose concept was ahead of the technology needed to bring it to the screen.Spielberg's "Innerspace" (which I helped clean up after) brought a slightly more energetic and grounded tale with essentially the same premise. The SFX guy I worked for at the time said they used Cheerios for the blood cells ... I'm not sure if he was kidding me or not. But anyway, the point being that even at that time (1989 or thereabouts), even with a legendary producer-director like Spielberg, portraying the innards of a human being is simply no easy feat.And so it is that we get a lot of wire work and cloth meant to duplicate tissue and cells found inside the human body. And I think it's at this point that I decided to put this film in the same category as the Japanese Kaiju genre; well meant, but not quit there.If this film was meant to encourage people to go into the medical field, well, maybe it succeeded, but the SFX, simply put, aren't up the job needed.Story wise there just wasn't enough plot on why this mission was taking place. It's a kind of generic American-UN undertaking, kind of like George Pal's "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", which ads a sheen of legitimacy, but the effects and story of a medical team exploring a VIP's body isn't sufficient enough to hold this story together.Broken record time here; if you gave 1960s film maker's 21st century CGI SFX technology, man the film that they would make. I say that because that and a script with more plot are the elements needed to really make this film shine.People like it as is, and I understand that. I like "Destroy All Monsters" and a few other hokey scifi films, but that's doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement.Either way this is a window into 1960s scifi film making. I'm glad I finally saw it. I still think there's a better film to be made here, but it's decent enough.

This is one of those movies I remember as a child watching on t.v and being caught up in all the action and special effects, sometimes memories of a childhood film are better left alone and revisiting them years later can have a detrimental effect on the movie (looking at you Labyrinth) this film however thankfully is not one of those films. Yes sure the special effects arent so "Special" anymore however, like many films from days gone by it has a charm that still shines through. The picture quality is great and the sound is too, for a good old fashioned sci fi film this is definitely one to get and watch on a sunday afternoon. Great film

At the time when I first saw this as a kid it blew my mind. It was original and imaginative. We had already been wowed by The Incredible Shrinking Man (also original in its day). But this was the first time on the big screen that a movie maker dared to explore the inner space of a human body (to my knowledge at least). There is no point comparing the special effects to today's. It was brilliant in its time and the effects are still impressive, not least in their overall design and the sense of wonder that they convey despite their obvious shortcomings. The Blu-ray version is a treat and enjoyed watching the movie again after decades of not seeing it. Great purchase.

EXCELLENT! One of best SF/adventure films ever and a real monument of cinema! I always LOVED this 1966 film and recently I was happy to confirm, that it didn't age AT ALL and is still a great watch! Below, more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS.Cold War. United States and the Soviet Union are both intensely working on technology of miniaturization of matter by shrinking individual atoms. Czech scientist Jan Benes, working under duress for the Soviets, made a great breakthrough, but doesn't want Moscow to have this technology. With the help of the CIA, he escaped to the West, but an attempted assassination leaves him comatose with a nearly impossible to remove blood clot in his brain.The only way to save his life is to operate from INSIDE his skull. It is decided to use the experimental miniaturization technology to reduce a small submersible, the "Proteus" as well as its crew, and introduce it into Benes body. The crew must then bring "Proteus" into Benes brain, remove the clot and evacuate before the miniaturization ends - indeed, at that time it is possible to miniaturize things and people just for 60 minutes...An ad hoc team is assembled for this mission: Captain Bill Owens (William Redfield) - pilot; Dr. Michaels (Donald Pleasence) - mission medical commander; Dr. Peter Duval (Arthur Kennedy) - brain surgeon; Cora Peterson (Raquel Welch) - assistant to the brain surgeon. Last but not least there is also CIA agent Charles Grant (Stephen Boyd), who is there - well, initially, we don't know why, but it will quickly turn out it was a good idea to place him on board... All that takes care of about ten first minutes of the film - and then the fantastic voyage begins and I will say nothing more...This is an almost perfect SF/adventure film, one of the best ever made! The vision of inside of human body as an alien, unknown universe is glorious and even today, after almost 50 years, makes a certain impression. For its technical aspect this film got two Oscars (Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects) and there is no question that they were TOTALLY DESERVED! The all shattering power of human heart, lungs hurricanes, earquakes (yes, you read well, it is NOT a typo) as well as merciless wars of extermination waged in this innerspace - all of this still connects with the viewer BIG TIME. And then there is of course the fact that human beings, once removed from their comfort zone, find quite quickly that all masters of creation that they may be, for some... well, things... they are just a new and welcome source of yummy proteins...))) As all not yet fully explored and mapped territories, the inside of human body also has "HERE BE DRAGONS" warning written on some more remote corners...Even if in principle Stephen Boyd, whose character is the muscle, security and counter-intelligence guy, was supposed to be the main star of the film, he is frequently outstaged by actors playing other members of the crew, especially one of greatest Hollywood workaholics extraordinaires, Donald Pleasance (the other one was Ernest Borgnine). Raquel Welch shapes are also used to the greatest possible extent (she keeps putting and taking off her diving suit).The scenario is strong, characters act mostly rationally, there are some twists (some of them really surprising and cruel) and as the clock is ticking, there is a real suspense in this film. The crew of "Proteus" faces many great dangers and must use some fast thinking to survive and accomplish their mission and it is not so easy to immediately find some plot holes. This scenario should be studied by present day Hollywood writers - they could learn A LOT from it...Another thing you must know before watching this film - THERE WILL BE BLOOD! In fact even more, this is LITERALLY the most drenched in haemoglobin movie EVER! OK, I stop here. Sorry for that, I couldn't resist...)))Once again, this is a VERY GOOD SF/adventure film, old but NOT AGED one little bit! I tried once to imagine how a modern remake would look - and I shivered in terror... Thanks God nobody ever dared to take another shot at this masterpiece - and let it stay that way. BUY IT, SEE IT, KEEP IT and never let it go. ENJOY!

I'm not a doctor and biology wasn't my strongest subject at school but for a sci fi film from the 60s about shrinking a submarine and injecting it into a human body so it can perform medical operations from the inside this film actually seemed like a sensible and realistic expression of a completely unrealistic concept. The acting is strong, the effects look good and hold up pretty well.What strikes me the most is that as a film viewer watching in 2015 after seeing Interstellar and Moon and other recent 'now or near future' sci fi films with their huge budgets and top quality CGI effects, I found myself getting sucked into this film and NOT laughing at the sets or the practical effects or the overly obvious green screen. The film has a long surviving quality about it that I hope continues to last because despite the moments of cheesiness and points in the plot where the characters survive because they just get lucky, this is a fun film and as far as I'm concern a classic of sci fi.

The film tells the tale of a team of specialists being shrunk to microscopicsize on board a submarine 'Proteus' which is injected into a ''key'' scientistsbloodstream to identify his medical condition in the hope of saving his life.The team encounter several difficulties along the way including a traitor onboard.The journey has to be completed within 'one hour' after which the mini beingswould begin to enlarge.Recently I reviewed a 70's film and was very critical of the picture quality,believing that if the distributors release older films such as this onto the'Blu-ray' format a reasonable upgrade is the very least that should be offered.This film tends to prove the point I was making when reviewing 'The Fury' ...'The Fantastic Voyage' has been upgraded to a standard that I would describe asacceptable........which leaves me with a simple task....recommending the viewingof this family-friendly movie from yesteryearOverall--acceptable picture and sound quality.The disc also has several additional features on board for those interested,including....* Lava Lamps and celluloid: a tribute to the visual effects of the film.* Commentary by film and music historian 'Jeff Bond'* Whirlpool scene: storyboard to scene.* Trailer & TV spots.* Commentary by film and music historian 'Jeff Bond'* Isolated score track with commentary by film and music historians 'Jeff Bond''John Burligame' - and 'Nick Redman'The special effects during the film were in 1966 pretty impressive at that time,today of course we have, the ever improving computer enhancements.The film also has an impressive cast list which includes...'Stephen Boyd' 'EdmondO'brien' 'Arthur Kennedy' 'Donald Pleasence' and 'Raquel Welch'* Worth revisiting on the 'HD' format.