Review of Nazis at the Center of the Earth (2012) by Geoff B — 14 Mar 2014

Okay to clarify two things, 1 I know that this was meant to be a parody of iron sky, and wolfenstien 3D. And 2. It's the Asylum. I paid to watch a needlessly violent and cheesy movie and that's what I got. For the people who claim that this movie was written by 10 year olds let me just say that ain't so. The Asylum actually did there research as back in 1939 the Nazis did send out a small escapade to build basses in Antarctica. They even say where they got there source material from in the directors commentary. Yes the characters can be annoying and I didn't find anything that I liked outside of the novelty of the story taking place in the center of the earth. Though there was one scene early on when they were underneath the ocean surrounded by whales with nothing but a thick ice barrier to safeguard them that did for a brief moment add tension. I also like the practical effects from when the Nazis surgically someone's face of. Though it becomes comical towards the end when the main characters try to fight back and rip the jello like face off of one of the Nazi drones. It's funny and it made me laugh but it just didn't work with the tone that the rest of the scene had at the time.

The music is pretty good and the creepy atmosphere is complemented by surprisingly decent lighting. Seeing as most asylum films consist of having a skitsofrantic camera man just standing in one place for a few seconds and then shake it like there's a 9.5 magnitude earthquake the very next, seeing a film that actually has decent action and a camera that competently follows it is a treat. My one biggest complaint is that towards the end of the film there is a forced abortion scene where the Nazis use a fetus's regenerative properties to re-animate Hitler's head in a jar.

Now I'm not sure if the Asylum is trying to sent a subliminal message that If you support abortion, then you are just as bad as Hitler, but I like to think that it's just there for shock value and mindless fun. The ending is not particularly great, and the special effects are about what you would expect out of a ps2 game. Still it definitely won't appeal to everyone, and as a movie by itself I just can't imagine it gaining anything more than small cult status, if that. But It definitely shows that the Asylum is trying harder to make there films watchable and in that respect all I can say is that they did a decent job, and if they keep uping the quality of there movies like this one small step at a time, then who knows, maybe ten years from now they will make a smash hit that people will actually.

Be running to theaters to see. 3/5 stars.