20 Million Miles to Earth [Region 2] :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Harryhausen makes the most from the least

2008-09-04
20 Million Miles To Earth is visual effects wizard Ray Harryhausen's 1957 black and white interplanetary King Kong remake, as well as a tribute to his stop motion photography mentor Willis O'Brien. No, it's not a direct analogy, but there are so many scene for scene knockoffs from Kong that one must believe that only Harryhausen could have gotten away with so much theft (read that as `homage') from his mentor without facing a lawsuit. Yes, technically, the film was directed by noted B film maven Nathan Juran (The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad), but it's a very standard film, wholly carried into the memory by Harryhausen's skills.
That stated, it's also a very enjoyable film....The film also features a classic 1950s era opening narrative about `SCIENCE!': `Great scientific advances are often times sudden accomplished facts before most of us are dimly aware of them. Breathtakingly unexpected, for example, was the searing flash that announced the atomic age. Equally unexpected was the next gigantic stride, when man moved out of his very orbit to a point more than 20 Million Miles To Earth!' Cue the start of the film! And the end is just as priceless. Didacticism is always good for a guffaw in sci fi films.
But, 20 Million Miles To Earth offers more than a few condescending chuckles; it offers a glimpse into a not too long ago time when wonder was still enough to propel a film. Nowadays, too many people ruin films by asking questions that the films acknowledge as givens, and need far too many special effects, as they are too lazy to imbue, and actively participate in art. Ray Harryhausen and Nathan Juran's film does more with less than many films that came later, and even if that sentiment is trite, it's also true. And 20 Million Miles To Earth is a highly enjoyable film, no matter how cookie cutter it is. After all, what determines the success of a cookie is not its shape, but its taste, and that comes from its ingredients, not its mold. What Harryhausen had in his best films was a good recipe, and alot of talent, to fit into some very old and familiar molds. Thus why they are still savored to this day, no matter how many times the hand has held such before.

Great DVD set!

2008-08-16
The extras on disc 2 (already pointed out in other reviews) are excellent. The colorization is superb. I compared the color version to other color sci-fi or horror movies made at around the same time and this colorized version holds up great. I, for one, feel so fortunate that Harryhausen is still alive to supervise this colorization and to offer his commentary to this DVD set. This is a must-have for a Harryhausen fan.

Black and White Blu-ray

2008-07-08
Above average sci-fi 50's film and shows how great black and white can look on Blu-ray. Highly recommended to fans of this genre.

Venus Schmenus...this thing is pretty neat even at 50 yrs old.

2008-05-05
Well, while this is another level of brilliance by Ray Harryhausen, it is not one of my favorite movies but I grabbed it because I enjoy watching it from time to time. Basically this movie got the same treatment that IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA got (see my other review) as far as the colorization and features. This time, our feature critter crash lands in the sea off Rome and a boy finds a capsule contain a gel like substance, which turns out to be protection for.......our critter, once hatched, our critter begins to grow rapidly because of earth's air supply and soon becomes large enough to be a real pain in the butt and starts wreaking havoc all over Rome. While entertaining to watch, there are others in the Harryhausen series that are better but that's just a personal opinion. It is definitely good enough to add to your Sci-Fi Library for sure.

Good nostalgic fun

2008-04-05
Great example of Science fiction B movies of the 50's. If you love that kind of stuff, you will love this. If not, don't bother.

More, please.

2008-03-13
Special-effects legend Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion talents and "Dynamation" (rear-projection) process are the highlights of the '50s-era creature feature 20 Million Miles to Earth. An American spaceship returns to Earth after a mission to Venus and crashes into the sea near Sicily. A sole survivor (William Hopper) is rescued, along with a specimen that quickly grows into a reptilian biped called the Ymir. The being eventually grows to 20 feet high and escapes its confines, whereupon it rampages through Rome before a showdown with the military. Despite lacking much of a personality, the Ymir is a marvelous showcase for Harryhausen's skills. Unfortunately, the rest of the film does not match his level of excellence; direction by Nathan Juran is perfunctory (his later collaborations with Harryhausen, including The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, are more lively), and performances and scripting are flat. Still, Harryhausen fans should enjoy this opportunity to see this phase of his career before he created his most enduring works. --Paul Gaita

Entertaining B-movie fun

2008-01-28
I first read about this film over at DVDbeaver and was looking forward to seeing how it had been colourised. I was not disapointed, the film itself is the typical low budget hokum that you would expect from this period. Though the special effects from Ray Harryhousen are very good for their time. The colourisation is variable in it's success rate. At it's best it looks like a 50's colour film but, as is often the case with this process, the greens for trees and grass is less than convincing. Skin tones, often poor in earlier re-colourings are generally pretty good. I certainly did not find the colour distracting. A black and version is also included and it's possible to switch between the 2 versions using the "angle" button on the remote.

good movie

2008-01-27
it was a movie that i remembered from my childhood and wanted to buy it.
the color/black white change was something new. i really enjoyed the movie

They don't make them like this any more.

2008-01-12
Another movie from that golden era of science fiction. Sure, they don't measure up to today's standards of acting or special effects, but that is the genre. The film was colorized with mixed results. The BW version is also included with the ability to togle back and forth between the two versions using the view angle function of your remote control. I like this movie and recommend it to others fans of old sci fi.

20+ Million Miles to Earth

2007-12-13
Really fun film, but should be titled 25 Million Miles to Earth, as a Creature from Venus would have to travel at least that far to get to Earth (when our planet and Venus are as close as they get). I can accept colorized movies today as it usually means that they first do High Definition restoration on the black & white version (and offer that option on the dvd as well) before colorizing the film. In this case, the color looks great except for the fleshtones (which, with just about all colorized films that I have seen, they always get skin color a bit yellow, as if everyone has a liver problem -- Can't understand what the problem is with that, because if you can get closer to a real flesh tone, then one is more willing to accept the rest of the colors). At least see the Creature battle the elephant in color! Unlike many such films, this one has action throughout and seldom gets slow. Excellent transfer for this 1957 film -- So, despite some bad science, a dated rocket (in the opening scene) and some 50's hokum, this is an exceptionally good action film for its time and remains so over 50 years later.