MartinHafer When the film begins, Steve and Harley (Jackie Cooper and Cleavon Little) are up in an airplane photographing in rural California. They have some weird and totally untested theories about earthquake prediction...but more about that later. Soon after they land, Steve is arrested in a crappy, tiny speed trap town and jailed for a few days. But a kid feels sorry for him and helps him escape. Later, when Steve looks through his photos he is confident (HOW?!?!) that an earthquake is about to strike that same town! Wow....what a coincidence.The plot just meandered too much and the film never kept my interest. In many ways, it was disappointing and slow. I would say more but the film just never held my interest and there wasn't much to say about this installment of "The ABC Movie of the Week".

Shawn Connelly If IMDb existed when I was eight years old and the first time I watched this made for TV movie of the week, I would have rated it a 9 or a 10.This story HAD such a profound affect on me, I remembered it and for the past few years, I searched for it on VHS, Usenet, Bittorrents, etc... without success. A week ago I brought this story up in a conversation and it dawned on me to see if Youtube had a trailer or clip available. What did I find? The *entire* movie! I was thrilled! So, thirty years later, I finally watch it again on Youtube. Unfortunately, it failed to captivate me in the same way as it did when I was eight years old. I found the dialog was simplistic and the acting was rather wooden. I was disappointed to find a little bit of racism (intentional or not?) in the script. On a positive note, as a sci-fi'ish disaster story, The Day the Earth Moved, is actually much better than many of the more modern disaster flicks. At least, this story doesn't insult one's intelligence.

drystyx "Style" is what this mini disaster film has going for it.The plot is standard procedure. No one will listen to a few nobodies who warn of impending doom, in this case an Earthquake.The movie plays more like a pilot episode for a decent TV show of down and out types. The difference here is that the characters are people you can care about.And that's just part of what make this work. A few dorks will only care about special effects and budget, which aren't a trademark here. However, this is entertainment for the rest of us.The "style" is in some of the out of the ordinary things that happen. Our hero is virtually kidnapped legally, to help out a down and out town. It is a great piece of writing.The writing of the characters, and the interesting desert scenery make this very interesting. There isn't anything "fantastic" about this, although a few eyebrow raising events.This is what "style" can do for a film.

uds3 Doubtless the producers of this unenthralling twaddle believed they were on to a good thing with ANY flick with a name starting "THE DAY THE EARTH........?" (whatever!) trading off the slipstream of the other two classics THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE and THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILLSo with Jackie Cooper (TV flavor of the month during the 70's) and his wife Kate (Stella Stevens) and some amateur seismologists in tow, taking some aerial pics in the desert, they deduce the Big "E" is due. Just like DANTES PEAK, no-one of course wants to listen to their warnings.When the quake comes, make sure you're out having a tea-break!