Nazis at the Center of the Earth (2012)

Time for The Asylum again, a production company I've been very fond of for a number of years now. No, it's nothing strange with that. I love how they create effective and simple entertainment with little money, without trying to make comedies of the genre movies - but still, some how, very aware of what they're doing. Their films have gradually been better over the years, with more polished production values, one or two semi-famous actors and slightly (but just very slightly) better visual effects. For me it really doesn't matter, because the story and how to tell the story is more important than the quality of the effects. Famous for their "mockbusters", I guess Nazis at the Center of the Earth is their answer to Iron Sky (a movie I haven't seen, but I'm not that fond of comedies either - one day, one day...) and as a movie it works quite well, a lot better than I expected.

Antarctica, a team of scientists discover something fantastic: under the ice is an unknown world, with forests (yes, the same ol' park that The Asylum always uses) and mountains - and it's ruled by surviving nazis! Their leader is doctor Joseph Mengele, who together with the rest has managed to survive through skeleton transplants! They need new flesh and body parts to keep the nazi army alive for the upcoming invasion of the upper earth! Soon our heroes is chased down and hunted for their bodies and there's very little time to stop the fourth reich!

Nazis at the Center of the Earth is so far one of the most ambitious and fun exploitation movies I've seen from The Asylum, and even if the rumours said it was more a so-called "torture porn" (hate that expression, silly crap!) movie I'm happy to say it's more of a good old-fashioned adventure/serial romp but with more gore (a lot more than the normal quota from this company, which is very nice!) and nudity! They squeezed in Nazis, something that looks like zombies, a robot, UFO's, snowy landscapes, blood and good deal of action during 86 minutes. Well done, and it's never boring!

Most of the visual effects are basic The Asylum quality, but they're getting better towards the end and they look really impressive after a while. But don't expect something ILM or stuff like that, this is still foremost a fun "b-movie" with a lot of energy and talent behind the camera. The director, Joseph J. Lawson, has been visual effects supervisor on a lot of their earlier productions which might explain how nicely they're used in this film. He's also a talented director with an eye for strong visuals and I hope he will direct more for the company.

Most of the dialogue is pretty cheesy, and stiff, but what to expect from a film about Nazis from the center of the earth? No one expects it to win an Oscar anyway and it's aware of what it is: fun DTV entertainment that's easily forgotten after the first watch. I liked it anyway, I liked it a lot and I would love to see more in the same genre from The Asylum!