CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

gab-14712 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 But 49 years after the film's release, they look very outdated and sometimes downright lame.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+

Eric Stevenson I had heard a lot about this movie and even knew how it ended. With all that being said, I was still really glad I saw it and it was amazingly good. There's probably some personal bias here. I love stories about shrinking people. I have also been fascinated by anatomy for awhile now. I kept asking myself whether or not this was scientifically accurate. It makes me think about my old days in High School where we learn about the pulmonary vein and the like. I'm glad that there's a note afterwards that says the people working on the movie actually did consult actual doctors to make sure they got their facts right.From what I do remember, this seems to be accurate. Anyway, this film is notorious for having a rather glaring plot hole, but that could actually be explained. It's clearly stated that all the characters go back to their normal size after an hour. One of the crew's members, Dr. Michaels, is shrunk down and killed in the ship while everyone else leaves the man's body. Now, the movie actually ends right there, so we really don't have any idea what happens next. It could be argued that the mission became a complete failure and the guy was killed when the ship went back to normal size, but we don't see that. Isaac Asimov complained about this and actually wrote a novelization that corrects this. It's said Dr. Michaels' body and the ship leave the body with the other characters.Now, we still don't see any of this happen in the movie, so it's actually difficult to say what really happened. Isaac Asimov's book version actually came out before the release of the movie so his interpretation is probably more accurate. With all this being said, I still love this movie. The strange thing is that the film has been referenced many times in pop culture, but it doesn't have a high rating here, which I find to be a shame. I truly consider this one of the best sci-fi films ever made. Again, it might be just because it uses ideas I really like.I just love the pacing of this film. It turns out this movie actually does take place in real time with the hour passing. I just love the sets in this film. I am so impressed at how this really does hold up after all these decades! None of it looks fake. I loved it from the very beginning with how creative the credits were! It just knows how to set itself up. I like movies that are big and epic, but I think the length was just perfect here. Well 100 minutes is a really even number. It was interesting to have scenes that were so quiet.It's also great to see how Dr. Michaels is slowly built up as the antagonist. Again, I already knew this but it was still brilliantly done. I just love the atmosphere this film produces. It's such a pretty looking film. It just sets up its story and deals with it so well. It's a straight forward story that doesn't try to be too elaborate. Yeah, this film is far from obscure, but I really wish more people would watch and love it! ****

g-bodyl Fantastic Voyage is a wonderful, old-fashioned sci-fi adventure ripe with unique ideas. I like the idea about exploring the inside of a human body, something that hasn't been done much even at a time where original ideas are practically non-existent. The film is not all perfect, as the visual effects are very outdated, though it's still cool to look at. I also had an issue with some of the characterization, mainly with Raquel Welch's character. I had no idea what the point of her role was other than being eye candy. But for the most part, I had a fun time watching the movie and it was even a learning experience for me, learning about the human body. I also loved the score for the film. It wasn't so much a score as it was a sound effects party. In most cases, I would have been annoyed, but I felt such a score would belong in a film like this.Richard Fleischer's film is about this scientist who is mortally wounded by gunfire, and he holds the secret to miniaturization that could be catastrophic if the information fell in the wrong hands. The CIA decides to do emergency brain surgery, but in order to do so, they most get miniaturized themselves and take a trip into the human body. Grant was hired to act as security, because the CIA fear one of their own may be with the enemy.The film was reasonably well-acted. Stephen Boyd, more known as Judah Ben Hur's enemy in 1959's Ben-Hur does a pretty good job. This is Raquel Welch's film debut, but I'm not sure the point of her character was. There was no romantic subplot or she hardly ever speaks. This was probably my biggest bugaboo. Donald Pleasance, mostly known for starring in horror films, does a wonderful job as the lead doctor.Overall, Fantastic Voyage is a fun sci-fi movie that holds up pretty well today, story-wise. The visuals were good for its time, but not so much today. I loved the idea of exploring the human body, and I think this film does that justice. When the body's immune system starts attacking everyone was a very interesting scene to watch. I was expecting a cheesy sci-fi movie to be honest, but I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe I shouldn't be with how the cast was. While nowhere near perfection, it was a fun movie to watch.My Grade: B+

White Zombie Greetings! The Fantastic Voyage (in-case you didn't read the description) is a movie about a team of people being shrunken down inside a nuclear sub to then be injected inside someones bloodstream to remove a clot of the brain. The movie is definitely far-fetched and doesn't go into much detail about where the shrink-ray* came from, how it was developed, or why its effects are not permanent. Anyways, the point is this movie doesn't have a lot of depth to it in plot but it has an interesting story.Now anyways the movie was released in 1966 which was way WAY before I was born and I understand the effects weren't great back then but this movie actually surprised me. I don't think any of the scenes to me looked like a cheesy old 60's movie. Maybe it had something to do with me watching an HD copy but the actual scenes looked pretty good. The sets were interesting and the special effects looked great.Now back to the story... so your in a sub travelling inside the human body... most movies nowadays would just show a journey and the destination but not the exact parts of the journey. This movie actually described where they were in the human body, what certain parts and conditions were called (assuming anything said was remotely accurate), and what function a lot of the parts of the body did. The movie was very educational* (again assuming anything said was accurate) and entertaining to watch! I never thought that the space between our blood cells would have another fluid... I always thought our blood was made up of cells moving all together at once which made it look like a fluid not the cells themselves suspended in a fluid called plasma.Anyways, the movie like all movies has some bad parts to it BUT I'd say like 95% of the movie has good parts to it. The movie also isn't all educational it is entertaining I'd say very different to watch. This is definitely a movie for someone who wants to kick back, relax, and watch something different. Something that isn't like your standard movie nowadays. I only wish we could have more movies like this... the only thing I didn't like is how it ended so briefly. Essentially they went in and then they went out. It didn't really explain much after that which leaves you as the viewer with a lot of unanswered questions.Overall I'd say 7/10 for effects, 5/10 for plot deepness, 9/10 for originality, and 8/10 for entertaining bringing my total score to 7.25/10.