Woodyanders An international group of ten men and two women are chosen to embark on a trip to the moon. Things go awry when the group discover an alien civilization that's intent on destroying mankind. Seriously undermined by pedestrian direction by David Bradley, further marred by DeWitt Bodeen's blah, talky, and largely uneventful script, painfully obvious use of stock footage, hokey (not so) special effects, a draggy pace, bland characters, extremely silly forced and silly conflicts between several of said bland characters (naturally, the Russian guy is an arrogant and antagonistic jerk), merely okay acting from a decent cast (hunky Ken Clark makes for a decidedly dull slab of beefcake while only Tom Conway manages to distinguish himself as the obnoxious Russkie), flat cinematography by John Alton (there are way too many static medium master shots featured throughout), tacky costumes (the spacesuits look like jumpsuits with motorcycle helmets!), and a disappointing lack of any cool monsters, this clunker overall proves to be an insipid and instantly forgettable time-waster.

bobabaya OK, let's get the obvious out of the way. The writers had no clue about scientific principles, especially space science. Even in 1960, we already knew about the lifeless moon (it had been years since we abandoned the notion of little green men from Mars).But the social implications were fascinating to me. The international crew of the ship was quite impressive, especially in the midst of the cold war.The inclusion of women, Asians, and even an African American man that avoided stereotyping was admirable. Talking about racism, the issues of Israel as a country, and other issues that are just as relevant today was outstanding.So as a movie, lousy, but the message, outstanding!

Carolyn Paetow Could any space flick be worse than The Angry Red Planet? Yes, it could. The script for the disaster at hand is so dopey and disjointed that it could have been scrawled out in crayon by a classroom of third-graders, each child submitting a short scene that teacher then patched together, helter-skelter. As for the actors, some of them are without doubt competent. They've exhibited this in other movies. But, here, with such dipsticky dialogue, no one could ever know. It makes it easy to understand why Tom Conway turned to drink and died broke. The story starts with a big strike against it: twelve characters with little to distinguish most of them. There are nine white guys, two women--Swedish and Japanese--and a Nigerian man whose accent never sounds West African and sometimes slips into Southern American. The hatch is scarcely secured when the inter-ethnic squabbling and recriminations start. Didn't these people get acquainted before blasting off in a rocket? From the amorous behavior of the females with two of the males, one would think so. But maybe there's something in the air--or lack of it. There must be some air, even on the moon, since the spacesuits don't have visors. The ship itself, with its bare-bones instrumentation and lack of even a beep or buzz, must be of such advanced technology that it all but runs itself. But, no, that can't be right. The teen math whiz has to use paper and pen to calculate a path through a meteor shower. The medical personnel has to struggle with wrap-around blood pressure cuffs--which they obviously don't know how to use. The only recorder on board--oh, forget it. There are, in addition to the dozen humans, two cats and two monkeys in plastic cases, two parakeets in a traditional cage, and one spaniel on a leash. The boy genius tells them they've been brought along to see if they'll mate on the moon. In the doggie's case, the answer is probably no. One silly circumstance follows another, but maybe the most asinine is that involving a screen-scrolled message from the Moonmen. Although it's somehow known that they communicate only telepathically, they have chosen to relay a series of repetitious, somewhat hieroglyphic-looking symbols. One crew member decides that the writing looks Chinese (it doesn't) so the Japanese woman is told to translate. She does, without a hitch. Now, who but a very young child could make such an assumption?

jerome_horwitz This zany 1960 film is about a collaborative Earth effort to travel to the moon. It features 12 astronaut type people, of varying race and creed, and also various talents. Upon landing, the crew explores the moon and finds wondrous things: exploding mushrooms, molten lava, breathable atmosphere, strange rocks, gold, sink holes, steam, walls of ice, and even alien life.This film is rather odd, in some of the choices that are made. For example I found it odd that the Aliens communicate using Chinese symbols, which the Chinese astronaut could read and translate. What was odd about this? Well, the fact that cat's most interested the aliens, and the ship wouldn't be able to leave until the aliens were given the cats, but had no interest in any other species brought by the crew.The special effects are, how do you say, terrible? Yes, they are cheesy through out the film, even in my opinion by 1960s standards. But for some reason I actually like this movie. Maybe it's just the early Star Trek idea that I find appealing, and the story is fun even if it is ridiculous. 5/10