EVEREST
The film starts conventionally. It gives us a history lesson, explaining how the first successful climb in 1952 eventually led to competing commercial climbing ventures in the 1990s, and then it gives us a geography lesson as Rob Hall (Jason Clarke), the first to begin a company offering guides to climbers looking to scale Everest, and his team make their way across Nepal, with titles providing locales and the elevation of those places.
Once they reach base camp, though, their work isn't even nearly ready to begin. There's a 40-day training period for the team, in which the less-experienced climbers must prepare their minds and bodies for the trek.
One of the more ingenious moves in William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy's screenplay is how it establishes the threats. They aren't what we might expect, either. There's little talk of avalanches or faulty equipment or the treacherous drops. Almost all of the discussion focuses on the health effects of reaching the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner, and they are all, predictably, horrifying. Hypothermia can make a person feel hot enough to strip off his or her clothes in freezing temperatures. A condition known as high-altitude cerebral edema causes swelling of the brain, and then there's the pulmonary form of edema, in which blood and other fluids collect in the lungs, essentially drowning the afflicted person.
It's all setup for the extended climax, which takes up almost half of the film. The climbers, having reached the summit (or as close as they're able to get), must return. That's when the storm hits.
On the mountain, there are the mountaineers: Clarke's Hall, Josh Brolin as the man with the dark cloud following him, John Hawkes as a man on his last climb, Jake Gyllenhaal as one of the gung-ho owner of a competing guide company, Naoko Mori as the woman who wants to climb all seven summits, Michael Kelly as the journalist, and others of

somewhat less significance. Back at base camp, there are Emily Watson as the camp's manager, Sam Worthington as a guide taking people up the "kiddie slope," and

Elizabeth Debicki as the doctor who provides the grisly health details and some pragmatic advice (When two climbers are trapped atop the treacherous Hillary Step, she suggests that only one needs to come down). Back at home are Keira Knightley as Hall's pregnant wife and Robyn Wright as the wife of Brolin's character.
The performances here are effective because the actors are playing ordinary people trapped in an extraordinary scenario (The film is based on a true story). There's no attempt to turn them into heroes, although we are rarely surprised when they act heroically. That's on account of the screenwriters and director Baltasar Kormákur's concentration on the shared bond between these people. The actors are focused on matters of deteriorating health, the helplessness of knowing there is nothing to be done, and the emotional toll of trying to stay strong while talking to a loved one trapped on that mountain—hoping they'll continue moving but knowing that such hope is useless.
It's harrowing because it is so plainly hopeless. The mountain, which is portrayed through a convincing blend of shots on location and within sets, isn't the antagonist of Everest. That role belongs to the human body and its inability to handle what the mountain has to offer.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
New version has gone for a much simpler updating of Jules Verne's story. Brendan Fraser is Trevor Anderson, a geologist running the laboratory of his late brother, Max, who disappeared a decade earlier on a field trip to Iceland. His brother was a Vernian, one who believed in the literal truth of Jules Verne's 1864 account of a different world at the centre of the earth, accessed by giant volcanic tunnels.
Trevor takes his young teenage nephew Sean, played by Josh Hutcherson, with him when some laboratory readings suggest seismic conditions are as they were when Max disappeared. He and Sean hire a guide -- the fit and feisty Hannah, played by Anita Breim -- and accidentally slip into one of the volcanic tubes, newly opened by volcanic activity.
And then the adventures really start. They confront steadily rising temperatures, giant lizards, icing-thin rock formations, reversed magnetic fields and, yep, some pretty scary prehistoric creatures, land and sea born, much as their well-thumbed edition of Verne's book describes.
It's all good clean fun: a rattling good yarn in fact, with mostly nicely modulated performances from Fraser, Hutcherson and Bream, emphasising confidence, growth, solidarity and self reliance.
But it's really about those cliff-hanging moments. This film has some beauties, including one when young Sean has to cross a huge chasm on a series of floating rocks. Sunrise and sea monsters had me jumping too.

In Journey to the Centre of the Earth, we have to duck a lot of rocks, and the filmmakers -- the director is seasoned special effects supervisor Eric Brevig -- have also had to learn to pace the effects.

It's the film industry's response to the threat of home cinema. A few years ago, as flat screen televisions became bigger and DVDs so much cheaper, cinema audiences around the world declined by up to 15 per cent in one year.
They have since climbed again, but the industry went into defense mode. They began remodelling cinemas to make the experience special -- a night out to remember. Premium service, or gold class cinemas were introduced, with bar service, three course meals and, in some places, cabaret.
And the cinema of spectacle was summoned once again. So stand by for Monsters versus Aliens, Final Destination 4, James Cameron's Avatar, and Tim Burton's Alice, all in 3D.
Of course it's going to look way better at Imax, where it will also cost way, way more.
And that's the point, after all.