Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (Color Special Edition)

by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

$24.96
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Average Rating: * * * * -
Sales Rank:21337 (lower is better)
Price Used:$13.49
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Director:Fred F. Sears
Release Date:2008-01-15
Label:Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
UPC:043396226197
Binding:DVD
Published By:Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
ASIN:B000YDOOHI
Category:DVD

Actors and Actresses

Editorial Reviews and Product Descriptions

Product Description

Dr. Russell Marvin heads up Operation Skyhook, which is tasked with sending rockets into the upper atmosphere to probe for future space flights. Unfortunately, all the rockets are somehow disappearing. While investigating this strange occurrence, Russell and his new assistant/wife Carol Marvin are abducted by a flying saucer, where the aliens demand to meet with certain people in order to negotiate. But it was a trick; the aliens only wanted to kill them. The invasion has begun and if Russell and Carol can't find a way to get past their defenses and stop these creatures, it may be the end of the human race.
Amazon.com

A textbook example of '50s-era science fiction, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers boasts not only a solid script and competent performances, but some genuinely impressive stop-motion effects courtesy of one of the industry's uncontested masters, Ray Harryhausen. Scientist Hugh Marlowe (who faced a more benevolent invader from space five years earlier in The Day the Earth Stood Still) discovers that UFOs are responsible for the destruction of a series of exploratory space rockets launched by his space exploration project. The saucers' helmeted pilots land on Earth and deliver an ultimatum to humanity via Marlowe: fealty or complete annihilation.

Harryhausen's painstakingly intricate saucers and the destruction they wreak (particularly during an assault on Washington, D.C.) are the film's unquestionable highlights, but Marlowe and Joan Taylor (as his wife/partner) are capable leads, and veteran B director Fred F. Sears doesn't let the dialogue and expositional scenes fall apart in between the barrage of effects. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is a fun and effective slice of sci-fi that should please younger audiences as well as nostalgic return viewers. Sears later reused some of the effects footage for his jaw-droppingly awful 1957 effort, The Giant Claw. --Paul Gaita

Customer Reviews

Great flying saucer movie - Reviewed on 2008-10-21
* * * *

Out of all the flying saucer / aliens from Mars classic movies there are, this is not too bad. (I rate "The Day the Earth Stood Still" as #1) The storyline is pretty decent and believable, and the special effects aren't too bad for the time. Nothing compared to todays standards of course, but overall, not bad. Definitely worth adding to your collection of 50's martian / monster movies. Also the actors really did a decent job. The ending is also pretty good. I give it a B+.
unhappy - Reviewed on 2008-09-16
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3 customers found this review not to be helpful.
I was unhappy with the item because.
1.It wouldn't play on my DVD player or my computer.
2. the warning that it has to be for a certain region needs to be put up front.
3. when you have to send an item back because it doesn't work it cost the consumer. its like a penalty .
Never Received - Reviewed on 2008-08-27
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3 customers found this review not to be helpful.
I wrote the Seller and Amazon because I was sent the wrong movie. I never received and answer from either one of them!
Hilarious and ridiculous paranoia - Reviewed on 2008-08-06
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3 customers found this review not to be helpful.
From the opening scenes of the doofus Air Force fighter pilot to the ditzy airline stewardess dropping the passengers food; you're in for a real treat of 1950's science fiction. Woooooooooo! Just listening to the opening commentary will have you on the floor. Wooooooo! The dramatic "flying saucer music" will make you so tense, you'll pass gas in fear. Wooooooo!

Sit back and enjoy some terrible acting and really stupid-looking aliens. Woooooooooo! UFO's ! The Aliens have landed! Run for your freakin' 1950's lives. Woooooooo! Flying Dinner Plates! You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll kiss $14 good-bye (average price for used DVD) with apologies to "Hardware Wars."

Oh, and wait'll ya' see the Giant Cray Super Computers in the background! Whirrrr! Click! Snap! Pop!
EARTH VS FLYING SAUCERS-Special Color Edition - Reviewed on 2008-07-26
* * *
2 customers found this review not to be helpful.
EARTH VS FLYING SAUCERS-(Special Color Edition) was a good old sci-fi movie that I would consider a 3 to 4 star film. The great DVD transfer and new color process provided for a great show on a large screen TV and was very enjoyable. Those not in favor of colorized old B&W films should hear Ray's opinion on this matter, as he now says that if the low budget had permitted it, all of his films would have been in color.

The commentary was also very enjoyable as were the opinions expressed that today's more up to date sci-fi thrillers could learn a thing or two about making effective use of time and saving money by using stock film shots, and other tricks of the low budget trade at which Ray was a master.

However, who is kidding who? Ray turned out masterpieces of hand crafted and lovingly made movies that never could be produced today for the price of his labor. He made these films for next to nothing and was happy to do so for the same reason that other artists have been successful. He loved creating these movies and employing other people in larger financial circles to get them onto the big screen. In doing this he was demonstreating what he was capable of doing with his technique.

On the other hand, today's films are truly mind blowing and are the result of bringing together teams of talented people working for a combined financial fortune. Hollywood doesn't have to be told that they could learn a thing or two from Ray. Hollywood pays what it currently does in order to make a return on their investment, and the results (with all its inefficiency, unused footage and redundant shots) are worth it.

I am happy to see a product where money is almost no object, coupled with the fact that it pays for itself in the end. This is the reason we can expect to see great future sci-fi films supported extravagantly by Hollywood, and paid for by the fans at the box office.

In this way top notch talent (acting, direction, film editing, set design, special effects, CGI, music, etc.) can be brought to bear producing the best possible result without the sorry constraint of cost. Modern sci-fi films are a good example of capitalism at its best, and I say bless it. I have been told by marketing people that the public will gripe about the cost of bread and fuel, but are often willing (when able) to pay almost anything for their entertainment).
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