shugaron316

Fantastic sci-fi classic that still holds up today. THEM! ranks alongside George Pal's War of the Worlds and The Day the Earth Stood Still as the best of the '50's classics.

The acting from top to bottom was first rate,and every character was well cast-Edmund Gwynn as the crotchety old professor,didn't let a bad case of arthritis stop him. James Arness played a man who knew he was a bit out of his league when it came to giant ants and radiation,but didn't stop him from doing his job. However,he comes across at times as a bit of a male chauvinist,obviously not used to meeting a strong,intelligent woman who didn't need or want protecting. Joan Weldon was that woman,and I can't think of any other '50's actress who could have taken on the role as well. James Whitmore as the grizzled cop looking to revenge his partner but not losing his head or going rogue is fab,and his death scene is very poignant.

And then all the "cameos" William Schallert,Leonard Nimoy,Fess Parker,Allen Jocelyn,and Richard Deacon,they're all there!

I am glad to see this classic has not been "honored' with a crappy re-make,as too many of the '50s SciFi classics were. Only The Thing by John Carpenter out-did the original.

This has to be one of the worst of the "B' movies. Idiotic plot,cheesy special effects,wooden acting. So many plot holes in this one:first,how does a planet just manage to enter our system without colliding with everything in its path(and with nobody noticing),and then conveniently park itself next to Earth? Next,if this new planet is so close to us,why does it take the rocket 4 months to get there? Why are all the animals so familiar? Then those gosh-awful "dinosaurs"! Blow up shots of an iguana,a caiman and a gila monster,"fighting" each other(tho I am curious if those were real fights,and if the caiman and gila were really killed,in which case it's cruelty to animals) Finally,how could they have possibly paddled a leaky rubber life raft far enough to escape being caught in the bomb's explosion? I remember this turkey being double billed with Monster From Green Hell,another clunker of the B variety,on Saturday morning TV.

This movie failed to live up to Gettysburg on so many counts. Worst of all was the failure to get many of the actors from Gettysburg to reprise their roles here. Robert Duvall was horribly mis-cast as Robert E.Lee. Duvall is simply awful when he attempts to affect an accent-his mumbling try at a Virginia soldier was only equaled by his atrocious attempt at an upper-class British accent in The Seven Percent Solution. His stiff,starchy Lee has none of the warmth or naturalness of Martin Sheen's portrayal. The actor who replaced Tom Berenger as Longstreet was an almost invisible non-entity,and his beard looked definitely glued on.Jeff Daniels should have lost some weight before returning to the role of Chamberlain,he looks fat and bloated,and he is totally wooden here. Kevin Conroy didn't age a minute in his return as Buster Kilraen,but his few speaking roles sound forced. Stephen Lang,as Stonewall Jackson,is much better here than he was as Pickett in Gettysburg. He catches Jackson's religious zeal perfectly,without coming off as a bible-thumping fanatic.The battle scenes are nowhere as gripping or detailed as those in Gettysburg,and there was too much emphasis on family live. So,Robert Maxwell is batting .500 after this,and he will need to return to Gettysburg levels if he ever does The Last Full Measure,the final film of this trilogy. I'd have to give this one 4/10.

...but not a bad epic. Nowhere near as good as Glory,but what was? The strength of this movie was the use of the actual battlefield and neighboring areas,rather than use a Hollywood back lot or some such. Another strength was the accuracy in casting actors who look like the characters they were portraying, even under a beard, and not the "close enough" approach some historical films take. There was also a lot of great acting here-Martin Sheen as Robert E.Lee was superb,and Kevin Conway as Kilraen stole most of his scenes(even his lifting of "colonel,darling" from Victor McLaughlin was spot-on.) Sam Elliott makes the most of his limited screen time as Buford and Richard Jordan as General Armistead is a picture of professionalism,doing his job while he knew he was dying. The worst acting had to go to Stephen Lang as Pickett-his pompous,sissified portrayal,tho not too far off the real Pickett,had me laughing. Kudos to all the volunteer reenactors,who labored,without pay or credit,who came at their own expense to be in this movie. I'd give this a 7.5/10

As a huge SH fan,I've seen nearly every film about the Great Detective,good,bad,and indifferent. And I've seen a gamut of actors take on the role of Holmes,from the great(Jeremy Brett,Basil Rathbone,Christopher Plummer)to the good(Peter Cushing,Eli Norwood)to the so-so(Nicol Williamson,Ronald Howard)to the pits(Roger Moore,Jack Palance,Tom Baker,Matt Frewer). It's hard to define where Rupert Everett stacks up. He has the height,the cold clinical nature,the drug use down pat. But he is simply too young for this role. In 1902,when this story is set,Holmes would be in his late 40's,according to the Canon. This Holmes doesn't look to be a day over 30! And Ian Hart is totally miscast as Watson-he is too small and scrawny,tho he is shown to be a competent and forceful presence when need be. The plot itself is interesting-a tag team of identical twin psycho-sexual killers,and the London of 1902 is presented well-foggy streets,the chasm between the classes,and Scotland Yard's gradual acceptance of the SH method in their own work,tho it is surprising to see Lestrade,tho still an imbecile in his field,as a "ready to beat a confession out of you" thug. The notion of a woman shrink,especially one well versed in the mysteries of sexual perversion(and who smokes,also),would have been unthinkable to the stuffy Edwardians of that day. All in all,tho,not a bad effort.

...that no one can make a good HPL movie? From the AIP pot boilers of the 60's(which had almost nothing to do with Lovecraft,and everything to do with Poe),to the modern day garbage like Reanimator and From Beyond,the Old Gent has always been given the bum's rush on the big screen. This clunker,supposedly based on The Colour Out of Space,has almost nothing in common with the story. The meteorite falling out of the sky,and poisoning everything around it,is about all that's recognizable to Lovecraft fans. There are some good points to the film-the foggy,menacing forest,the old dark house,the frightened townies. And some good performances-Freda Jackson was excellent,Patrick Macnee,likewise,but in too short a role. Karloff deserves praise-at his age,and in very poor health,he still manages to put on a bravura turn. But all this is negated by the hokie acting of Nick Adams(who seems to have nothing but the same constipated scowl on his face all the time,) Suzan Farmer as the vaguely clueless eye candy,and the terrible makeup jobs. Two that stick out: when you see Helga's face under the veil,you can see no disfigurement,just a loony look.Then,when Karloff is turning into the radium monster,in the closeup where the energy is traveling up towards his face,he moves his head,but the energy covers the spot on screen where his head was before! The thingies in the greenhouse are not scary in the least,tho it is interesting to guess what they once were before they mutated. if anyone in Tinsel Town would have the guts to turn out a decent HPL flick in this day and age of CGI,this,along with the Dunwich Horror, The Call of Cthulhu,The Rats in the Walls, and the Shadow Over Innsmouth would be logical contenders for a go.

...in this turkey! This stinkaroo rates in my personal 10 Worst Movies of all time. Lame plot,wooden(Ha-ha!)acting by all concerned,fake natives(complete with "New Yawk" accents)running around in shower curtains they must have swiped from the local motel,dialogue that makes "Me Tarzan,you Jane" sound like Masterpiece Theatre,the lamest catfight in cinematic history,I could go on and on. A couple of scenes really stand out in my mind: The tree drops the girl into the quicksand,upon which she obligingly pushes herself out deeper into the bog(so she can sink quicker and get the hell off the set ASAP?)Next,how in hell does the witch doctor manage to throw his spear completely over the Tabanga at a range of only 3 feet? However,if they decide to do a remake of this clunker,I know who can play the Tabanga-Vin Diesel! He'd be perfect for the role-he has all the acting ability,charisma,and facial expression of a tree!

Nowhere's near it,I'm sorry to say. The Travel Channel(US) finally aired this show for the first time last night,and I was not impressed,tho maybe one show isn't enough to give an opinion.The whole thing felt rushed,the readings Derek was giving seemed to be taken word for word from some of his Most Haunted episodes,and there was no feeling of anticipation like MH. The 2 sidekicks came off as bargain basement Yvette Fielding and Jason Karl wannabes,and whose idea was it for that idiotic truck? I'm afraid Derek's credibility has taken a serious hit,since Ciaran O'Keefe's article in the Mirror really blew the lid off of Most Haunted,tho that doesn't seem to have hurt the show any.

I can't believe that some people compare this movie favorably with Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Behemoth is a near carbon copy rip-off of Beast,shamelessly using many plot elements from the previous movie. Among these are:the creature destroying an isolated structure(A lighthouse for Beast,a farm for Behemoth),picking up a car in its mouth and shaking it before dropping it,knocking a building over on people,causing mass death and illness(a disease for Beast,radiation for Behemoth),that they were both spawned at the mouth of a river,and that both are killed by having a nuclear projectile fired into them.

But the worst flaw in this movie is the terrible stop motion technique. This creature has none of the personality of the Beast,it is simply a mindless juggernaut. The head and body movements are stiff,clumsy and repeated ad nauseum,as is the roar,which never changes tone once. The movie does have a few good points-Gene Evans as the young,brash American,melds well with Andre Morell's quiet,efficient effort. The radiation emitted by the creature is well done,and the resulting corpses are gruesomely believable. However this movie,to me,is one of the worst of the "Giant Lizard stomps Big City" genre.

When I was a kid,I would cry every time I saw the ending of this movie.I couldn't help feeling sorry for the monster,dying alone in a world he never knew. Ray Harryhausen was at his best when he designed the Rhedosaurus. This was a monster with a personality,and dare I say it,charm? Every little movement of the beast almost made you think you were watching an actual living creature,and not some stop motion puppet,like the awful Giant Behemoth. My favorites: the beast sniffing at the lighthouse before he knocks it down;the way he playfully bats at the wrecked car he stepped on,when he turns his back and lashes his tail at the shotgun toting cops,even the way it squints its eyes in the sun.The death scene was well done,and the music,as the flaming roller coaster collapses behind the beast's dead body,still sends a chill up my spine. The worst part of the movie was the casting,especially the male and female leads. Paul Christian's accent is almost impossible to understand at times,and his acting is wooden.Paula Raymond may seem pretty by '50's standards,but I think she has a pronounced overbite and adenoids,the way her mouth is always hanging open! Her acting was also pretty limp.Cecil Kelloway was a delight,as usual,and Ken Tobey was unusually restrained,not trying to hit on Raymond,as he seemed to do in most of his movies. The funniest line in the movie was Kelloway asking Tobey:"What makes you think there are no flying saucers?"(A dig at Tobey's role in The Thing.)Still in all,this is timeless sci-fi classic that holds up well,even today.

...at least IMNSHO. It was high time someone thought up an insect kaiju that could be tough,scary,and interesting(Kumonga,Mothra and Kamacuras? Give me a break.Only Megaguirus came close to being interesting.) There was so much to like about this movie-intelligent dialog(even after the dubbing),great fight scenes,and the fact that the emphasis was placed on the monsters,and not the actors. No silly new "ultimate monster fighting weapon that gets trashed in 30 seconds"-just get those idiots from the JSDF out of the way,and let Gamera take care of business.But the big G had his hands full here-the Legion swarm were bad enough,but the mother creature was awesome,and didn't roll over when she got hurt. The mandible blasts were great,but those red "whip" beams that went right thru Gamera were awesome. I even liked the Legion's voice-it sounded like a rusty gate opening! Gamera was incredible,and that fireball slide trick he did was the bomb. With a new Gamera movie coming out next year,and Toho making it plain from the ending of Godzilla:Final Wars that they have no intention of waiting 5-10 years for a new Godzilla movie,I,along with many other kaiju fans,demand that Toho and Deiei quit fooling around,and make the deal-Godzilla vs.Gamera.What else is left?

I just got the Japanese version of GFW,and tho OK in spots,there was too much borrowing from other movies to classify this as one of the better Godzilla movies. We saw everything from Indiana Jones to the Matrix to Star Wars to Kung-Fu Hustle to Independence Day.There was too much emphasis on the humans,and not enough on the monsters. I also was not too thrilled by some of the monsters included in the kaiju lineup. They could have easily been replaced by stronger creatures. Hedorah? King Seezar? Kumonga? Kamacuras? Ebirah? Wimps,weenies,and wusses,all,as kaiju go. Where were Biollante,Battra,Megaguirus,and Destroyah? One creature I was glad not to see was MechaGodzilla,as I felt he(she?it?)had been overused in the previous few movies.The kaiju fight scenes were too brief,and most of them looked totally ridiculous,especially the 3 Stooges routine that Rodan,Angilas,and King Seezar performed. One fight I found satisfying was the original Big G.s 15 second demolition of the big,gay,running iguana wannabe from the TriStar turkey. The suit designs ran the gamut from fantastic(Rodan,Godzilla,Angilas,and the first Gigan,with the scythe hands)to so-so(the Monster X design looked too much like a Bagan ripoff) to awful(Ghidorah looked totally wooden,and the Gigan chainsaw hands design was just plain silly,especially with all the martial arts posing.).And my last beef: wasn't Godzilla supposed to die in this movie? What was the point of Gotengo bringing him back to life,unless Toho has no intention of waiting 5-10 years for the next Godzilla movie,as they claimed?With a new Gamera movie coming out next year,I think its high time that Toho and Deaei finally make the deal,and have Godzilla fight,or team up with Gamera,in a movie that kaiju fans have been demanding for years.

Until I saw this 55 minute lump of cinematic sewage,I thought the title for worst movie ever was a toss-up between Reanimator,Santa Claus Conquers the Martians,and Pink Flamingoes. Compared to BoYF,tho,these are Oscar nominees. Coleman Francis(whoever he was)has made Edward D.Wood,Jr,Phil Tucker,and the Gordon Brothers look like Orson Welles redux.There is not the smallest iota of anything good about this piece of claptrap,unless you count the fact that it was Tor Johnson's last film. The inane voice-over narration(in lieu of dialog)sounds like someone who failed Hooked On Phonics reading haiku off the back of a cereal box. The "actors" do little more than stand around,and the camera work looks like someone's home movies of their summer vacation. The women are some of the trashiest looking bimbos this side of the WWE,and the final scene of the dying Beast kissing a rabbit that wanders into the shot is bizarre beyond belief. I hope the rabbit got paid for his effort,because his cameo was the best acting in the movie!

Since there is no goofs section for this movie,I will give the big one I saw at the finish:The Giant crashes thru the bridge railing and into the river,but in the next long shot,when the hero is walking away from the bridge,the railing is intact. This is one of the most dreadfully bad of the 50's B flicks,rating right down there with turkeys like The Giant Claw,From Hell It Came,Killers From Space,Beginning of the End,Robot Monster,etc. I'm surprised they didn't get old Tor Johnson for this role, as it was right down his alley but I guess he couldn't fit into the armor,else they'd be calling it Fat,Bald,No Talent,ex-Wrestler From the Unknown!