TWENTY MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957)


Various creature and insect films thrived during the latter 1950's as did dinosaur pictures. One of the most impressive of the latter is Nathan Juran's Twenty Million Miles to Earth where an earth to venus space expedition crashes into the sea off Italy and loses it's specimen of Venusian life. A jelly like rubbery egg which apparently contains some sort of weird embryonic creature which eventually hatches.

Looking like some alien Tyrannosaurus Rex ( one of Ray Harryhausens liveliest and memorable creations ) the baby begins to grow rapidly and although seems harmless enough at first soon goes on the rampage and is eventually shot down.

Best scenes here are the early ones where the rescue party board the crashed ship and struggle through the wreck to reach the injured crew. Smoke and angled shots are used to very good effect as are the sound effects. All cleverly done to disguise the fact that the sets were those left over from ' The Caine Mutiny '.Another is where the US military helicopters chase the beast across the Sicilian (though actually mainly Californian) countryside. Here the animated Ymir ( as it is called ) appears in a variety of surroundings including, sulphur pits and rocky outcrops, with detailed miniatures almost seamlessly with front and rear projections of real locations. The scene ends with the Venusian covered in an electrically charged net dropped from a helicopter.

What really lets the film down badly though is the acting which is laughable at times as is the script. It will probably be more enjoyed by children, especially these days, and for fans of Harryhausens work , which is without doubt splendid here and is enough of a reason to view it in my opinion. Nice film but badly flawed!


Alternate Titles: TWENTY MILLION MILES TO EARTH; THE GIANT YMIR; THE BEAST FROM SPACE.

HARD BOILED

THEY LIVE ( 1988)

John Carpenter is back with a very cool concept here based on a pulp fiction sci-fi story.

A tough loner ( Roddy Piper ) loses his job and takes to the road. Becoming involved with a bunch of squatters he stumbles upon the terrifying discovery of ghoulish aliens masquerading as humans.Only seen it seems through a certain type of dark glasses which he unwittingly comes across in one of the buildings.

The film certainly recalls the likes of his 'Assault on Precint 13' , again with his own dark menacing electro score bringing out nicely the underlying terror and violence which is about to ensue. A very cool tongue in cheek attitude permeates too which works well. I can't help but think of Kurt Russel in the place of hunky lead Roddy Prior .....although he's not bad at all. It all moves along nicely and there's plenty of action along the way. Keith David makes an excellent sidekick as they eventually penetrate the nerve centre of the aliens and ultmately cause chaos in their plans to take over.

A back on form JC !

GOOD EGG

The Descent ( 2006 )

A cool tempting premise upon seeing and reading the DVD case /trailer.

A group of young women go cave exploring and wished they hadn't on this occasion when they discover malevolent creatures in the subterranean darkness.

What initially is a fun trip soon turns into one of terror. After a cave in and the entrance becomes blocked the group of women are forced to find another way out and venture deeper into the cave system to find that other way out, if any !

Now all of this may sound great entertainment value and up to a point it is but unfortunately what is really lacking here is characterisation. Without which we just do not really relate to any particular person and are insensative to anyones demise. A shame really , because this film would certainly have benefitted from much more emotionally involving characters and more rounded likable people. As a result, When the group comes across creatures which resemble albino dwarf mutants bent on devouring there prey, we really do'nt give a damn what happens to anyone of them , as heads are severed and we witness various scenes full of blood and guts. I at least didn't! The script is also very poor and really doesn't help matters at all.

PAR BOILED