20 Million Miles to Earth
1957 Directed by Nathan Juran
Synopsis
When the first manned flight to Venus returns to Earth, the rocket crash-lands in the Mediterranean near a small Italian fishing village. The locals manage to save one of the astronauts Colonel Calder, the mission commander. A young boy also recovers what turns out to be a specimen of an alien creature. Growing at a fantastic rate, it manages to escape and eventually threatens the city of Rome.
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Fascinating. Horrible, but fascinating.
-ContinoYou don't watch a film like this because of the director or the actors in it, you watch it because Ray Harryhausen did the special effects. Not to disrespect the director though, Nathan Juran, who had a legendary career directing genre films and television even though his movies and tv shows are better known then he is.
One of the reasons the film is so much fun even when you don't have a monster on the screen is because the film seems to be in on the joke that it's filled with bad actors. It skirts the perfect tone of never taking itself to seriously and being tongue-in-cheek at the right moments.
Ray Harryhausen never…
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I'd underrated this in the past but I have no idea why. Surely it has to rank among the greatest monster movies of all time. In any case, the Ymir is definitely my pick for Cinema's Most Sympathetic Monster. Harryhausen's effects work is perfect as always - it's too bad the human characters are non-entities for the most part. The lead guy especially seems like a member of the Romney clan - all the more reason to root for the monster.
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Aside from Ray Harryhausen’s groundbreaking visual effects, 20 Million Miles to Earth lacks any of the originality or imagination that the science fiction genre is renowned for. From the moment it begins the audience are bombarded with painful dialogue, stock characters, stale performances and monotonous exposition. The whole project, it seems, is nothing more than a platform in which the legendary visual effects master can showcase his talents, and maybe that’s the way this film should be approached. While the dynamation is horrifically dated by today’s standards, their cinematic significance makes them compelling viewing. Nevertheless, 20 Million Miles to Earth is a far cry from the classic piece of science fiction it is billed as.
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Doesn't have a lot of the really funny 50s B-movie stuff, as the dialouge is mostly filled with DULL EXPOSITION AFTER DULL EXPOSITION.
The stop motion is great though.
If you want a fun 50s B-movie, you can do much better than this.
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Awesome Ray Harryhausen creature flick about a U.S. spaceship that crashes in Italy after a mission to Venus; their cargo falls into the hands of some locals, who unwittingly unleash a Venusian creature called an Ymir on the world.
What a great movie. It moves along at a perfect pace and the creature effects were fantastic. I loved that it was set in Italy since it allowed for some hilarious caricatures that made that side of the story very endearing since the military side was focused on the tactical side of things. The one big thing I could have done without was the attempted romance between the Colonel and the local (though she sounded American) "almost doctor"; it felt completely…
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"The scientists here believe that the earth's atmosphere has upset its metabolic rate. The more air it breathes, the more tissue it builds, the bigger it gets."
Yeah, it's one of those kinds of scripts, lacking the somewhat nuanced sexual brutality & alcoholism-tinged meanness of Juran's ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN and, to my senses, lacking the nuclear weapon allegory value of other sci-fi disaster films of the era, but your mileage may vary on the latter.
Maybe there's something to the notion of a thing originated in Venus, the name of the Roman goddess of love & beauty, destroying the pillars of Roman god worship on Earth as well as incompetent little soldiers with their puny firearms (which become inexplicably…
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i remember this being good
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Everything I expect a 50s sci-fi film to be and I mean that in a good way.
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finally managed to finish it, watched it for days and kept falling asleep.
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Aside from Ray Harryhausen’s groundbreaking visual effects, 20 Million Miles to Earth lacks any of the originality or imagination that the science fiction genre is renowned for. From the moment it begins the audience are bombarded with painful dialogue, stock characters, stale performances and monotonous exposition. The whole project, it seems, is nothing more than a platform in which the legendary visual effects master can showcase his talents, and maybe that’s the way this film should be approached. While the dynamation is horrifically dated by today’s standards, their cinematic significance makes them compelling viewing. Nevertheless, 20 Million Miles to Earth is a far cry from the classic piece of science fiction it is billed as.
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"The scientists here believe that the earth's atmosphere has upset its metabolic rate. The more air it breathes, the more tissue it builds, the bigger it gets."
Yeah, it's one of those kinds of scripts, lacking the somewhat nuanced sexual brutality & alcoholism-tinged meanness of Juran's ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN and, to my senses, lacking the nuclear weapon allegory value of other sci-fi disaster films of the era, but your mileage may vary on the latter.
Maybe there's something to the notion of a thing originated in Venus, the name of the Roman goddess of love & beauty, destroying the pillars of Roman god worship on Earth as well as incompetent little soldiers with their puny firearms (which become inexplicably…
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Doesn't have a lot of the really funny 50s B-movie stuff, as the dialouge is mostly filled with DULL EXPOSITION AFTER DULL EXPOSITION.
The stop motion is great though.
If you want a fun 50s B-movie, you can do much better than this.
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Not really bad enough to be good (although bits of the film are desperately awful) this is the story of a Venusian monster that is brought beck to earth by US space mission. The Americans are responsible for that and the Italians play unwilling hosts to a rapidly growing very large monster which runs riot through their country. Sci-fi nonsense done in a great 1950s style
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Okay so I'll be honest, 30 minutes in & the only thing that could make this film re-watchable to me - after half an hour of suffering through bad Italian accents and stereotypes - was a miracle (in Milan, hoho!). But that miracle arrives when Ray Harryhausen's magnificent creature opens it's eyes & runs wild all over Italy. All the while being a true main character in the movie & a heart-breaker, the type of spirit that will fill you with as much sadness as King Kong & as much terror as that time you realised that kebab you ate is about to explode out the other end & there's no toilet within waddling distance.
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Ray Harryhausen!