20 Million Miles To Earth
Dazzling special effects by Ray Harryhausen highlight this thrilling sci-fi extravaganza about a Venusian monster who wreaks havoc in Italy.
On its way home from Venus, a U.S. Army rocket ship crashes into the sea of Sicily leaving Colonel Calder (William Hopper of Rebel without a Cause) the sole survivor... or so it seems. A sealed container is also recovered from the wreck, and when a zoologist (The Mark of Zorro's Frank Puglia) and his granddaughter (Joan Taylor) open it, the gelatinous mass inside escapes. Overnight, it grows into a horrific monster that has doubled in size. In desperation, Calder calls in the Army to help fight the monster, which has taken refuge atop the Coliseum in Rome. But it will take more than man's weapons to fight the evil forces of the unknown and save the world from destruction.
Member Reviews
Everything Ray Harryhausen about this film is great to bad the rest sucks:( - RottenRon
Ray Harryhausen's stop motion as always is fun to watch and as a purist I was surprised to find myself enjoying the colorized version over the black and white original. The rest of this movie is boring as all hell, it's like they took every cliche from every 50's Sci-Fi flick and watered it down ....a lot. That probably why they decided to colorizes it for it's 50th anniversary release, it needs all it can get.Word Classic is Overused - upwitharts
Especially when it is applied to ephemeral dreckiness like this poor thing. Amusing to those of us bad movie fans, and should be of interest to people who are interested in the history of stop motion animation. But really, really moves slow, just like all B flicks. When the scary monster is a tiny puppetoon, he is VERY cute though. So you do feel sympathy for him/her. Until he/she (SPOILER ALERT) kills the dog. I have no sympathy for the hapless flesh-skinned actors however. And once again, as with most of the entries in this genre, do we have to have the endless finale? Just drags on and on. Have the remote handy.Ouch! - TheBear
Now, let me be clear that I set my expectations according to the genre of this movie. I did not expect cutting edge special effects nor did I set myself up for a deep excursion into intricate plot development. After all, this movie is fifty-one years old as of the time of this writing and was clearly aimed at the mainstream audience of the late Fifties. Nevertheless, this movie managed to disappoint on all conceivable levels with the surprising exception of the special effects! The stop-motion animation was convincing when the state of technology of this era is taken into consideration. It appears that the remainder of this production was merely an afterthought, not so gently guiding the audience between scenes showcasing said animation. The acting is remarkable for its melodramatic, silent-moviesque lack of subtlety and general inappropiateness. Numerous basic editing and continuity mistakes, with characters wielding different props between cut scenes are evident (pitch fork in one scene, shotgun in next, then back to pitch fork). In one scene a crowd flees in sheer terror from our friendly monster, while an extra quite obviously didn't take direction to well and went on what appears to be a leisurely stroll between the carnage of overturned cars. He gazes back at the rampaging alien, yet manages to keep his slow shuffle intact.
Did I mention the romantic sub plot? Oh yes, our main hero is also ready to pursue matters other than chasing extraterrestrials when not engaged in spewing platitudes and acting like his pants are on fire.
The bottom line is that this movie gets dangerously close to the territoty of a spoof, yet it is devoid of any intentional humour resulting in a rather painful experience. However, I gave it one star for its value in documenting the dark side of movie making in the Fifties.
Member Reviews
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Everything Ray Harryhausen about this film is great to bad the rest sucks:( - RottenRon
Ray Harryhausen's stop motion as always is fun to watch and as a purist I was surprised to find myself enjoying the colorized version over the black and white original. The rest of this movie is boring as all hell, it's like they took every cliche from every ...Word Classic is Overused - upwitharts
Especially when it is applied to ephemeral dreckiness like this poor thing. Amusing to those of us bad movie fans, and should be of interest to people who are interested in the history of stop motion animation. But really, really moves slow, just like all ...Ouch! - TheBear
Now, let me be clear that I set my expectations according to the genre of this movie. I did not expect cutting edge special effects nor did I set myself up for a deep excursion into intricate plot development. After all, this movie is fifty-one years old as ...