Possibly the dorkiest movie ever made, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D stars the doofily likeable Brendan Fraser as a scientist who takes his 13-year-old nephew (Josh Hutcherson) on an ill-advised geology expedition. They fight CG dinosaurs and CG piranhas and CG Venus flytraps, and they also bicker over which one of them will get to bone their foxy Icelandic mountain guide (Anita Briem). Along the way, our trio treks through epic Technicolor vistas that would look right at home on the cover of a '50s sci-fi paperback: There are underground sunsets, forests of towering mushrooms, and plesiosaur-infested seas, and all of these locales have the plasticine, hypnotic feel of Disneyland. Unexpectedly, it's here that Journey transcends its somewhat mercenary roots (it's the first full-length, live-action film to be shot and widely distributed in digital 3D, and it's more or less a test for future 3D films) to become something that's usually pretty fun and occasionally dazzling, even if you'll spend half the runtime rolling your eyes at Hallmark-worthy familial bonding and geology-related humor. ("We're in deep schist!") And, as my astute viewing companion correctly pointed out, foxy Icelandic mountain guides make a very convincing case for future films to be shot in 3D.