Actuarial Science Movie Reviews

I enjoyed 'The Fly' a lot. A good sci-fi story with a dash of 'don't mess with mother nature' thrown in...and after all these years, it still retains a lot of it's creepiness. The plot is pretty out there, but I think the actors did a really good job with their performances. The special effects seemed a little understated, but, for me, that worked to the movies' advantage. I always thought it was interesting that while Vincent Price was in this movie, he really didn't play a main character or have much to do with the more macabre features of the movie. He more or less played it straight, but I liked that, seeing him playing role where he isn't exuding that sinister aura that he does in a lot of his movies. I also think this is a beautiful looking transfer with vibrant colors. And the end still always gives me a shiver up my spine. A solid movie overall.

'The Return of the Fly' suffers from an obvious lack of originality and financial support. It is in black and white, while the original was in color. I don't have an issue with this as I think some movies look better in black and white, but I was a little disappointed in how closely story in this sequel matched that of the original. And the fly head and fly arm used in this movie seemed more comical, played up for visual effect while the fly head and fly arm in the first movie were more understated, and, to me, worked more effectively. Basically, this seems more of a remake than a sequel, with a few new things.

If you like sci-fi, then I think this DVD is a really good addition to your collection, and having both movies on one disc is certainly a decent value. The four stars I gave are for the original, while I would only give the sequel about 2 1/2 stars.

This double disc presents two horror movies from the 1950s: the classic Fly and the not-so-classic sequel, The Return of the Fly. Although neither movie is close to perfect, they are good enough for some fun, old-fashioned entertainment.

In The Fly, a scientist experiments in his basement lab on a matter transmission device that he is certain will solve all of humanity's problems. An experiment on himself, however, goes awry when a fly gets into the works. Although often cheesy, this is a generally solid work that avoids a lot of the standard mad scientist cliches and also has at least two real classic scenes: a "fly's-eye-view" of the scientist's screaming wife and one of the concluding scenes, with a fly with a human head caught in a spider web.

The sequel, however, is a step or two below in quality, little more than a standard monster movie. In it, the son of the original character continues his father's experiments and through the malicious act of a partner, winds up similarly transformed. As a follow-up to the original, it is barely okay, but as a standalone, it offers little worthwhile.

As a twosome, this pair rates a low four stars. If you like 1950's style monster movies, this should be a pleasure, but if you are looking for any sort of truly great movies, you might want to look elsewhere.

"The Fly" is a well made / known sci-fi classic. Andre (David Hedison) is a scientist, working on a contraption that disintegrates solid matter, sending it to another location to be re-integrated. Andre wants to develop it for the good of mankind, but that would make for one dull movie! Instead, he accidentally enters the disintegration chamber with an undetected fly. The two become fused into one being. Andre ends up with a fly head and claw. The fly gets Andre's head and upper body. Andre's wife is tested to the depths of her love for her now hideous husband. A frantic search for the tiny fly ensues (maybe they could de-fuse them??) with tragic results. Vincent Price is excellent as Andre's brother. Yes, it's true that "Return Of The Fly" is nowhere near as good as it's predocessor. However, I like having them both together anyway. Andre's son Phillipe is all grown up and decides to continue his father's work. He enlists the help of a guy who turns out to be a sociopathic criminal, bent on stealing the invention and selling it to an accomplice. After killing a nosey cop (by turning him into a guinea pig man), he knocks Phillipe out and puts him in the disintegration cabinet with a suspiciously handy fly. The rest of the film is a revenge story. I like the crooks and the way Phillipe avenges their treachery. A great double feature! Pop some corn, pour the beverages, and check the house for those pesky insects...

"His head it was torn off"

The Crawling Eye and this line scared the heck out of me as a kid. I could not sleep alone for weeks. Seeing it now - I can see what is really scarey - not the creatures - but more everything that leads up to them. A very good plot - spooky, and atmospheric - and an actress, Janet Monroe - who besides being very cute and believable conveys her fears to the the viewer. She makes up for allot of whats wrong.

I dont like the change of title - Crawling Eye to Trolenberg Terror. But what bothered me seeing this film now, is the eye creatures themselves. I took them for real as a kid. But as an adult - the eye-boys show up at the end - marshmellows with pipe cleaner legs. Up close the eye creatures are not bad looking - but the distance shots and the minitures are shoddy, cheap and not at all believable. There is silly battle scenes with utlra low flying aircraft... slung though the air on strings.

Bottom line - good story, good acting, one adorable actress, atmospheric but terrble special effets.
It might still scare the poop out of kids. Adults will be compelled to watch but will also laugh at some of the the cheap effects.

Although made with some truly cheap special effects, this is really one of the best films about alien invasion ever made. It could be said that this is the inspiration for The Arrival.

Forrest Tucker stars in this film of alien invasion. Our characters wind up an small Alpine village where a mysterious cloud never moves from a nearby peak.

We learn that there are horrible aliens in the cloud running experiments to transform the Earth's atmosphere into one more habitable for them.

This is a seriously good plot and the first encounter with an alien is quite well done, but it is obvious at the end that there was not a whole lot of budget for special effects.

This one is fun and well done. A must-see for fans of suspenseful alien movies.

You need to be a fan of silly, classic '50's Sci-Fi films to appreciate The Crawling Eye to really enjoy it. If you are not, don't waste your time. This movie has some really bad visual effects (Two men, mountain climbing in the Swiss Alps. It was so obvious that they were placed in front of a bad painting, I enjoy that scene over and over.), but it's the acting and the story that really pulls it together. It's amazing that actors can give such convincing performances while standing in cardboard sets! On a positive note, the eyeball creatures were actually not bad. A nice little classic "Creature Feature" that should be in everyone's collection.

As is often the case with double-feature DVDs, there is usually one decent movie and one lousy one, the B-side being a movie which probably would not sell well on its own. In this case, Fantastic Voyage is the good movie and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea the weak flip side.

In Fantastic Voyage, several people are reduced to cellular size to heal a man from the inside. The science may be flimsy (Isaac Asimov had enough problems with the ending to rewrite it in his novelization), but the tale itself is good and the special effects are nice. The human body comes off as a surrealistic dreamworld, far from reality but neat to look at.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, however, is a seriously flawed movie. The science is below par even for a movie like this (in one scene, we see ice sinking in water!), and the story and characters are nothing very spectacular either. Even the effects are not very great, although there are a couple scenes that do look nice.

Fantastic Voyage is a four star flick, VTTBOTS just two stars. As a pair of movies, this is okay, but if you only watch the former film, you will still get your money's worth.

A bit of a mixed bag here. Both movies have Cold War overtones. Fantastic Voyage is a good yarn. Though full of plot holes (how many SciFi movies aren't?) it's fun to think "what if?" The
FX are quite good for the late 60's. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a bit more realistic perhaps, but less entertaining.

If you love sci-fi even a little bit, and especially if you came of age in the 60's and 70's, how could you possibly go wrong getting both of these movies in widescreen format for the price of a few espresso beverages?

Sure, the science is nutty, and the effects are dated, but it's about being entertained! The effects are enjoyable and pleasing in their own retro kind of way.

My one complaint regarding "Voyage..." is that there is no ambient "ship noise", like the deep, barely perceptable humming of engines. That would have made it seem much more like a submarine than a bunch of sets.

To me, the greating single reason to watch "Voyage.." is to see Walter Pidgeon play a character so very similar to the mad scientist he played on Forbidden Planet. This time he's a "mad admiral", and he drives most everyone else mad too.

And that's only half the DVD! You also get Fantastic Voyage. I remember when this movie was first released. It made quite an impact, and it spawned a Saturday morning animated series of the same name that was one of my favorite morning cartoons.

This DVD has more "bang for the buck" than most any other single DVD I know of.

I had never heard of the movie until I found it in my in-laws basement. What a film!

Lionel Jeffries is well used here in this excellent tale of a scientist who creates Cavorite, a substance that allows him to float to the moon in a nicely upholstered sphere and have a run in with terrific stop-motion caterpillar things and allows for the brilliant scene where the Americans touch down only to find a tattered Union Jack.

I loved watching movies as a kid, but unfortuntately that was before videos and DVDs. After seeing a film in the theater I could only see it again if it ran on TV or was re-released in the theater. There were certain films that I loved in the theater and would try to watch every time it ran on TV: "First Men in the Moon" was one of those films. I loved it when I first saw it in the theater and after that I tried to catch it on TV. I'm sure that it would seem slow and tame by today's standards, but the story and the effects, spectacularly realized by the great Ray Harryhausen, were quite remarkable for the time. It's a good, old-fashioned Saturday morning matinee kind of a film.

I used to watch this growing up-it is even better than I remembered! The picture and sound are excellent. The moonscapes are the best!! Buy it!

I love old movies--gothic, sci. fi.--you name it. But I was very disappointed in this one. I could just go on and on, but suffice it to say that except for the crisp b&w filmography this movie has no (zero) redeeming qualities about it whatsoever. It's not even "funny bad." I wish I could give zero stars, but one is as low as it is allowed to go. How sad.

I got this video after reading the various viewer responses and found it tedious. Britain has provided us with some terrific Sci-fi movies despite low budgets, but this one has all the tension of an uncooked sausage and generally looks pretty silly - the costumes are dated, the characters cliched, and the "monster" is too silly for words. I place this film right down there with the worst of American 50's black lagoons!

Thanks to an excellent literate script by master Nigel Kneale and intensive, atmospheric direction by the underrated Val Guest (who both scored great marks with "Abominable Snowman"), this ranks as one of the best and most disturbing Science-Fiction Thrillers. I don't need to reiterate the intriguing story, but it builds gripping suspense from the word 'Go' and finally escalates into a crucial state-of-alarm that climaxes in a thrilling and terrifying showdown at the secret alien refinary plant in the remote British country. Pretty violent and grim for its time, and it still retains its entertaining and thought-provoking qualities. The confrontation between the workers and the alien-controlled government & military "zombies" has certain Marxist underlying themes of the 'workers revolt againest the oppressive, dictatorial rulers' - who, in shattering fact, are aliens who are truly alien - and thoroughly malevolent. Some kaffka allegories of corrupt government and fascism are conveyed here in the bleakest of ways. Kneale's intelligent, riveting screenplay also served as the basis for the James Bond plots and wild devices that surfaced a few years later in the rebelliously turbulent 6O's - which this insightfully compelling Science-Fiction Classic seems to sinisterly forecast. Not your typical or campy monster movie by any long shots. Also, quite cynical for its time, as Quatermass is forced to become the angst-ridden, alienated hero (anti-hero) in his accidental uncovering of conspiracy (his plans for a proposed moon project is swiped by them) and cover-ups: Very Hitchcockian. Also sounds a lot like X-FILES, doesn't it? I believe this was XF's producers favorite childhood science-fiction film; the dark, ominous influence and inspiration is undoubtably present. Not a kid's flick by any means. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this hauntingly memorable and intensely scary classic. Probably the most starkly realistic vision of what a true alien invasion might be like. Genuine nightmares to take to bed - and wonder.

A better-than-average cast, higher production values, and an inventive monster raise this a notch above most of the 50s giant monster genre, though it's still a little dull in spots. Overall a worthwhile 50s gem.

Former cowboy movie star Tim Holt walks through this one like a man on his way to his execution. This is a formulaic, bland, dull creature feature with every stereotypical '50's monster cliche included. Radioactivity! Giant (fill in the blank!), etc. The monster is not at all scary. Only for nostalgia/kitsch lovers.

There are a lot of really bad Science Fiction b-movies from the Fifties that are remembered, which is a shame when there is a pretty decent monster movie like "The Monster That Challenged the World" that is being forgotten, even if the title is pretty [silly]. This film starts out in what we would now consider to be a rather traditional fashion as an earthquake unleashes the titular creature in the Salton Sea. When a Navy parachutist go missing the investigation by Commander John Twillinger (Tim Holt) finds a boat with a dead sailor, the shriveled body of the parachutist, and a bunch of slime. There are more strange disappearances, but unlike the standard monster movie where the hero bumbles around while the danger grows, Twillinger finds the monster (some sort of prehistoric mollusk is what they keep saying, but it does not really look like a giant monster snail to me) and its cache of eggs and destroys them. Well, he gets almost all of the eggs, which is why the movie continues at this point.

Monster movies usually hinge on the monster but in this one I think you need to pay more attention to the main trio of actors and their characters. As Twillinger actor Tim Holt ("The Treasure of the Sierra Madre") turns in a fine performance in what turned out to be his final major film role (I probably should have said final leading film role). "Twil" is too old and too overweight to be the traditional hero, but that is what gives the human half of the film its sense of realism (per se). Character actor Hans Conried plays Dr. Rogers, the requisite scientist in such tales, and the only one who has a clue as to what might be going on with the monstrous mollusks. But Rogers is having a hard time catching up with the situation and keeps finding that he has not thought of everything. The screenplay was written by Pat Fielder, a woman, which might explain why the female lead, Gail MacKenzie (Audrey Dalton), the secretary for Dr. Rogers, is not a traditional monster movie heroine either; no fainting for this brave single mother (ironically, it is the military guys who do the screaming at the start of the film).

The monster is well above average for this decade of movie making and while this is clearly a low budget effort director Arnold Laven does not take a lot of short cuts. In fact, there is one sequence that anticipates the opening sequence of "Jaws," and Laven's efforts do not suffer than much in the comparison. Unfortunately, the first appearance of the monster is actually one of the lesser moments in the film. Still, on balance, "The Monster That Challenged the World" is ahead of the curve for Fifties monster films; I actually like it more than "The Creature From the Black Lagoon," which has a better looking monster to be sure, but a fairly pedestrian script and less than stellar acting.

Split Second is a true B-movie, one of the last of its breed. Back in the early 90s, it was still able to get a theatrical release. Today, this thing would be rocketed into straight-to-DVD land, along with many, many others of its ilk. While Hauer still had a small shred of respectability left, he decided to rip off many good films with Split Second, including Blade Runner. The result is pure cheese.

Like many cheesy genre flicks (of the straight to video or DVD type), the movie is made up of parts of good movies that we all know. Of course, the finished product can't hold a candle to any of them, but it makes us think of those films and can be kind of fun. Split Second is part Blade Runner, part Alien, part Predator, and part every single hard-boiled cop movie you've ever seen. Hauer is a hardcore London cop named Harley Stone, who walks around with a big black trench coat, big black boots, and a whole bunch of very, very large guns. He smokes, he smokes while brushing his teeth, he drinks coffee and he eats chocolate constantly because he's addicted to caffeine because he never sleeps because years ago some kind of disgusting creature attacked and scarred him before killing his partner. Now he's psychically linked to the monster and so he hears loud heartbeats when he's near. Oh, and it's the year 2008 and London is under a few feet of water and it's always dark out. This enables the filmmakers to show a lot of rain and puddle-slicked streets with neon lights and a lot of cool posturing.

Of course, in true Dirty Harry style, Stone is paired with a partner (even though he works alone and is insane) who happens to be a complete yuppie nerd cop. Kim Cattrall manages to be the target girlfriend who gets in a shower scene. They chase the creature, which is slimy and of course, bathed in a lot of shadow to mask a low budget. The monster may be Satan, it may not be, but rest assured: the ending sets up a sequel. Of course, there were never any takers (though you have to wonder given the disappearance of Hauer from anything resembling quality if he'll be back).

The director is Tony Maylem, who depending on your love of slasher flicks is either going up or down since he made The Burning in 1980. The DVD is out of print, and judging by the price of a used copy, people have obviously come to appreciate this as Hall of Fame B-movie junk. The movie really should be back in print at a dirt cheap price though. It's perfect as that type of flick. Alternatively, you can stay up late and watch it on cable like I felt compelled to all those years ago.

Recommended for die-hard Rutger Hauer fans and lovers of movies you know are bad but that you still insist on seeing...

This movie is energetic and hysterical. It's best watched with a couple dozen shots of espresso and about a pound of chocolate - the kind with the creamy centers - at about 2 am. It makes no real effort to be frightening, although there's a bit of gore. It's a classic. It is definitely not trying to be taken seriously, although the acting is excellent and some fo the special effects are really good. Others are ... well... the monster, realy. You'll see. Anyways, like any movie that isn't "Aliens" (although ... well, the monster, again)it has some flaws, but those are easily forgiveable since the overall movie is so darn cool.

I rented this a long time ago when a friend quoted from it, and was greatly amused. It's one I find not many people have seen, so I get to recommend it over and over to my friends. Some have not been as amused as I was, but quite a few have liked it tremendously.

The DVD quality is good, with only a few spots where the sound suddenly changes; but the music doesn't drown out the voices and overall it's quite good quality. There arn't any extras beyond a token cast & crew bit, but I'm just glad it's out at all.

this movie is so friggin' cool. Abstract twist on an old plot, weird monster, big guns and if I remember correctly nudity and foul language. What a great combnation.

One of the greatest joys of DVD for me is not watching your latest block-buster, but seeing older films restored to their former glory. Two of the best are "Now Voyager" and "The Time Machine", but this film "Destination Moon" has to be the worst transfer I have ever seen and basically renders the film unwatchable. I didn't even get past the first ten minutes before it was back in it's box and is now being advertised for sale on eBay. Ghastly.

This otherwise excellent Geroge Pal movie, fully restored, and one of the only ones where Robert Heinlein participated in the production, is useless to anyone with a hearing impairment.

Nade Williams Collections, Corinth Films and Image Entertainment have produced this movie and another like it, (Rocket XM) which I purchased, and neither of them are captioned.

Having recently lost my hearing, I depend on Closed Captioning for nearly everything on TV or video. Therefore, these old classics which I wanted for my own are worthless in their present condition.

The 1950 film Destination Moon, written by Rip Van Ronkel and Robert Heinlein, is incredible for it's accuracy of what was to come 19 years later. To show rocket physics in simple terms a Woody Woodpecker cartoon is used. Unlike some of the sci-fi films of the era (Ed Wood comes to mind), there is very little cheesy about this (unless you believe what they say about the moon). A small group of scientists have decided to get private US companies to finance the building of the rocketship to the moon. I'm sure they had McCarthy breathing down their necks enough to use this line: "Whoever gets to the moon first will be able to hit anywhere militarily on Earth and rule the world." In spite of the meglomaniacal military mentality of this, the rest of the film stays off of this track.

It's interesting to compare this with the actual Apollo missions. First they show the weightlessness pretty accurately with decent weightless FXs, and when they walk on the spacecraft and someone drifts away they utilize something the first Galileo spacewalkers didn't even think of; using an oxygen tank as a jet to maneuver (after the first spacewalkers found it too difficult without them the spacewalk jets were later used). They ate bananas and coffee (as opposed to tang and baby food), and they never showed how they used the bathroom (in Apollo it was with great difficulty).

And the idea to land the rocket whole on the moon was the original concept of Apollo until the main designer found it was much easier to create a Lunar Module. The FX of Earth from space was pretty accurate even if the colors weren't quite right, and most striking was how the moon looked in this film. Check it against the Apollo footage and you'll know they were accurate. I mean in 1950 they did have telescopes powerful enough to see the lunar surface up close and they utilized this. And most impressive is the science, being accurate with the airlocks, 1/6th gravity, and even the crisis where they must lower the payload.

And compare the words of what the 2 astronauts who first step onto the lunar surface tell the world via radio: "First impression is one of utter barrenness and desolation...most intensely brilliant stars anyone ever dreamed of". Buzz Aldrin said "Magnificent desolation." And "I claim possession for the United States for the benefit of all mankind." Neil Armstrong planted the American flag and said the mankind bit.

Remember this was all theoretical and a decade before anyone had even entered space. The stars I guess is what turns people off here, as they are too bright and looked more like lightbulbs. I guess the technology wasn't good enough back then to use actual star footage, but even on the Star Trek TOS intro they use fake stars.

And considering all the B films about space travel since (the one with James Caan in '68, The Stowaway in '74, Capricorn One '79, Mission to Mars '99), this stands out for it's being dead on in many ways, even using 4 astronauts (opposed to 3). I'm wondering if the Apollo planners took some cues from this film.

No, it's no 2001: Space Odyssey, but it's great for 1950. And one other point: they even predict the Space Shuttle, as the rocket is designed to "glide to a landing". I'm wondering when mankind will once again venture to the Moon, establish a moonbase, then onto Mars and beyond. We have the technology now, so let's do it!

I wish this third film could of been called Cure Of The Incredible Hulk, But Bill Bixby had plans to do what a lot of comic books do and bring the superhero back to life, which would of been titled Rebirth Of The Incredible Hulk. The script to Rebirth was completed by Gerald Dipego who did the final scripts for Trial Of and Death Of, Rebirth was in Pre-Production, But very sadly, Bill Bixby died of Prostate Cancer and the project was then shelved. The story to Death Of was good, and it was better in that it was a Hulk only adventure without any other superheroes involved. Lou Ferringo's green makeup looked excellent in this movie, and all the performances were very good, But it was originally not to be the end. The t.v. series is an excellent series based on the most popular Marvel Comics Superhero, and the series is still not properly closed until Rebirth somehow gets done with a new script and new direction since Bixby isn't with us anymore. RIP Bill!!!

Don't read the review titled the death of the incredible hulk. JeffCarter28@alltel.net is stupid and decided to give away the ending to the movie in his review. That was pretty much all he wrote. Unless you like having the ending of a good movie ruined, don't read his review.

It's great to see the old Hulk movies again after all these years! I've been anxiously waiting the release of them onto DVD and I wasn't disappointed.

An oddball, stylish sci-fi tragicomedy that found a following in the cult movie circuit. The story is somewhat absurd and concerns aliens who visit Manhattan in search of drugs. They murder by remote control while their victims are having sex and extract drugs from their bodies. Curiously strange, it delves surrealistically into the new-wave drug/rock scene. Anne Carlisle is especially good playing a dual role - one male, one female.

I saw this film in the theatre when it was first released, and thought it was one of the truly greatest, most creative, well written, scripted, and acted of any sci-fi film I'd ever seen. I still feel that way almost 20 years later, and I enthusiastically recommend this movie to anyone who displays an open mind for this sort of no-holds-barred indie film. I remember walking out of the theatre and hearing some guy say, "I don't get it. I just don't get what the point of it was.", and I was thinking, films like this are just wasted on small-minded folk like him. To appreciate this film, you have to just let go, suspend disbelief, allow your mind to be invaded and expanded, and just have fun...the humour is deep. ANd if ya don't get it, you're not the kind of person this film was made for. I especially love Margaret's monologue on the roof top of her east side apartment, when she explains to one of her Johns why she does what she does and why she believes in what she does - one of the most creative and confident statements of self-affirmation ever put to film. Just great.

I have dear, fond memories of going to see this film at midnight on the campus of Buffalo State College and being 22 years old and just raging. This film was really "of the moment" for the era. We were wacky folks back. Really the original "goths" as well. I'll buy this film on DVD and watch it with new friends and tell them tales of the Old Days...