InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Cooktopi
The acting in this movie is really good.
Anoushka Slater
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
SnoopyStyle
A spaceship crashes off the coast of Italy. It's an American mission to Venus which has returned carrying a creature. A local boy retrieves a canister which contains that creature. It grows in size until the American military captures it and brings it to Rome.This is a simple black and white sci-fi movie. It is strictly B-movie acting and writing. The only greatness comes from Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion animation. His creature is terrific. Harryhausen would move on with colored films such as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" in 1958. This one stalls whenever the creature isn't on the screen but the creature does have plenty of screen time. The fight with the elephant is fun. While there are some military equipment, their action doesn't have the intensity except for the creature.
BA_Harrison
Having suffered the indignation of being snatched from his home planet, taken to Earth and stuck in a cage, a rapidly growing scaly alien escapes to look for food, and is pursued by the authorities who poke and prod him until he understandably fights back.Just because a film boasts impressive special effects doesn't automatically make it a classic. 20 Million Miles To Earth features exceptional stop-motion animation work by Ray Harryhausen, whose Venusian lizard, the Ymir, is a delight to behold, but the film suffers from a tedious plot that clearly takes its cues from King Kong but which is never developed beyond its basic 'monster-on-the-rampage' scenario.Despite one or two memorable set pieces, such as the crash of a huge spacecraft and the sight of the Ymir in a struggle to the death with an elephant, 20 Millions Miles to Earth is a frustratingly dull film on the whole, suffering from predictable action, remarkably unlikeable characters ('hero' Col. Robert Calder is brash and obnoxious and Pepe the cowboy obsessed kid is a particularly annoying brat) and a daft finale in which US soldiers recklessly destroy part of the Coliseum in order to kill the beast.
jerekra
20000000 miles to Earth is a decent film with good special effects provided by Ray Harryhausen.An expedition from Venus returns (yes seriously) and bring back a creature from the planet. It gets looses and grows drastically in size each day. Then its the same old stuff with monster movies from this time.The plot is actually interesting how they actually are coming back from a trip to Venus. Also the distance to get to Venus is pretty close to the title. I also thought it was cool how the Ymir monster changes size constantly each night.The effects and the Ymir monster are very well done like usual in a Harryhausen film. The monster itself in this film is pretty cool, its not a true evil monster it more so just defends itself viciously. Seems like it is out of place in its new setting and thats the root of its problems.Pretty good action in this film and the film does have a good flow. You don't really have to wait around much for the monster to appear.The acting is pretty boring in this film. Nothing special and none of the human characters stand out.Pretty entertaining movie, I recommend seeing it.
AaronCapenBanner
Nathan Juran directed this science fiction story starring William Hopper as a returning astronaut commanding the first spaceship to Venus, which crashes into the sea of Sicily. Onboard was a local creature, called an Ymir, which was freed from its container by a curious child who had found it onshore, then proceeds to grow to giant size, terrorizing the countryside, then heading to Rome. Joan Taylor plays a nurse and potential love interest, who helps treat the creature when it is captured, though of course it escapes... Ray Harryhausen's F/X are excellent, but it is the sympathetic portrayal of the Ymir that makes this film memorable, certainly not the contrived and predictable story! That poor creature is just out of its element, and would never have grown that large in its native atmosphere.
