Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Hitchcoc The preposterous images in this film made it the ultimate snooze-a-thon. The silly sets and the stiff acting are laughable. I think it's valid to evaluate a film based on the accomplishments of others. Even some of the very weak science fiction films of this time are so much better than this. The surface of the moon is beyond cheap. Then there are the animals: a cute cocker spaniel, some cats, and some clueless monkeys. We also have a Jewish astronaut who resents being on the same voyage as a German. Did any of these people check the manifest before deciding to go to the moon. Of course, worst of all, is the trite, vapid plot, with it's prescription morality and speech making. Save an hour out of your precious life and skip this.

Michael_Elliott 12 to the Moon (1960)* 1/2 (out of 4)The title pretty much gives the plot details but to expand on it you'd have to say ten men, two women, two cats, two monkeys and a dog enter a spaceship and head off to the moon. After finally getting there they are confronted by a faceless alien and on their way back to Earth they learn the U.S. has been frozen by the alien so they must thaw it out before they can land. This Columbia sci-fi film has pretty much been forgotten, which is somewhat of a shame but the bigger shame is that such an ambitious film is wasted in the hands of screenwriters who obviously don't care too much for the genre. Just about every possible cliché is thrown into this film and it even comes up with a few new clichés. The movie is certainly bad due to the special effects, acting and directing but at the same time I have a lot of respect for the movie trying to be something special. Every five minutes a new plot device jumps up to make things difficult and had the film enjoyed a bigger budget some of these ideas probably would have worked a lot better. There's a sequence on the moon where the astronaut's enter a cave where a couple are sucked down into some quicksand like material. The lingering shots of the arm sticking out are quite effective but a great item like this is followed by a silly scene on the spaceship, which looks incredibly fake and takes away the atmosphere. All of the special effects are beyond bad and I'd probably rank them down there with PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE in terms of awfulness. Just take a look at the scenes with the rocket flying through space. For starters, they keep showing the same scene over and over but to make matters worse is that you can see through the spaceship!! Other really bad looking scenes include the stuff on board when we see meteors coming towards the ship. Once again, incredibly fake looking to the point of being laughable. The performances really aren't anything good either and that includes Ken Clark and Tom Conway. The one interesting thing is that a multi-raced cast was used, which certainly wasn't the norm for this period in Hollywood's history. It was quite refreshing seeing a movie with so many different characters but this too leads to some rather dumb stuff including obvious references to the Holocaust. In the end, this is a pretty bad movie but there's so many interesting things that one can't help but wish a better budget and real writers were used to make it work.

arcturus6 This is a magnificent display of boredom. The space ship was unbelievable but then this is a movie, so there. The acting was over dramatic and pretentious. It reminded me of a 6th grade attempt to make a sci-fi movie. (actually, I think the 6th grade attempt would be better.) I am sorry, I wish I could be more generous in my comment. I did give it a 2 out of a generous heart but that is as far as it goes. I was attending movies at the time this was made and I would have probably walked out on it as soon as I had finished my popcorn and drink; unless of course someone enticed me with a candy bar. It just did not come across in a serious light; now as a comedy it might have had potential.

Michael H 12 astronauts of different cultures and races decide the moon would be a good place to explore, sorry 12 idiots. Sure the movie's heart was in the right place but poorly cast and directed. Manly Ken Clark is back after battling leeches (attack of the giant leeches)as the hunky captain and representative for the USA. He and his well defined area lead a crew to a sound set that is supposed to be the moon, steam, exploding urinal cakes and meteor showers (ok how do you have meteor showers on a world with NO ATMOSPHERE!!) Anyway our crew gets reduced to 7 or 8 folks and a dog (one or two die and two others make out and get an invitation by the invisible aliens to live with them) Anyway to make a way too long story short, our heroes show some humanity to the aliens and give some hope that all of them can be friends in the distant future. Silent film actor Francis X Bushman has a small role in the film as the 800 year old narrator. Great way to end a film career!!