Remove a star from the rating if you take this Journey without wearing 3-D glasses. That's where the real fun comes in. Otherwise you have a family-friendly retelling of Jules Verne's 1864 novel (best remembered is the 1959 movie with an overqualified James Mason, a shirtless Pat Boone and a gorgeous Arlene Dahl) in a romp that is lazily content to connect the dots instead of breaking new ground. Brendan Fraser is Indiana Jones stalwart and goofily charming as Trevor Anderson, a science prof who retraces the steps of his brother, who died searching for the center of the earth. With his 13-year-old nephew (Josh Hutcherson) in tow, along with a Icelandic babe (Anita Briem) in the role of guide, Trevor finds his way by carrying a copy of the book Verne wrote 144 years ago (score one for literary merit). In 2-D, it's all achingly familiar. In 3-D, the story comes alive, despite the tacky sets and gimmicks. Put on those glasses and you get toothpaste spat in your face, a T-Rex breathing up your nostrils, and what may be the longest fall in movie history. I don't know if 3-D could improve all movies (nothing could make The Love Guru funny) but it sure works here.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.