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A cornerstone of the sci-fi boom of the 1950s; very serious and earnest, with groundbreaking special effects for the time. It has depictions of weightlessness (which the astronauts overcome with magnetic boots) and related scenes such as a tablet floating freely in the air, which one of the protagonists tries to swallow, lots of camera tricks, optical illusions and unconventional shots to achieve the visual impression of weightlessness. Then there's the ascent of the astronauts onto the rocket's casing in flight, when one of them falls into open space, unsecured, and his comrades try to capture him with the help of a rope and an air bomb. There are also shots from the surface of the moon (the entire final act, actually), where the movement of the astronauts under lower gravity is simulated with the clever use of invisible cables. At the beginning of the film, we are even graced with none other than Walt Disney, or rather his five-minute film, which humorously explains the physical principles and pitfalls of interplanetary flight. The only disappointment is the way the plot develops in the last act: too naive, like a cheap B-movie. Otherwise a great satisfaction and basically a "required reading" for sci-fi fans.

What I liked about this sci-fi movie was the honesty with which it was approached. Nice visuals with a moonscape with rocks and a lovely starry sky, solid rear projections that didn't hurt the eyes, and a tastefully used rocket model. Of course, in 1953 there wasn't much awareness of what the technical facilities of space exploration should look like, so given the times, today's viewer must not be surprised to see astronauts inside a spacecraft launching from Earth in shorts, overcoming gravity at launch in suspended loungers with a belt around their hips, wearing bathing caps on their heads, let alone weightlessness on the Moon. Heinlein's (who co-wrote the screenplay) vision of a future where the world is divided into several rival power blocs and women rule everything is just a bonus.

Holy crap! Didn’t Ed Wood by any chance write the script? No one can deny it its primacy as one of the first films about time travel, but if H.G. Wells saw it, he would probably break down in shock. This is one of those silly and yet so unintentionally ridiculous sci-fi movies. It mixes a space-time paradox, survival horror, the "lost civilizations" genre – so popular in the 30s and 40s – and at the end the filmmakers give us a Rambo-like action set piece with a bazooka vs. primitive one-eyed savages with flintlocks. The few effects are truly terrible (the plush giant spiders in particular stand out), the dialogue is silly, the women from the future in miniskirts are beautiful, the sets are drab.

After a Blu-ray screening, with a widescreen and perfectly polished image, I can safely say that Scott's Legend is the most visually beautiful fairytale ever to appear on cinema screens. It may not as sophisticated and thought-provoking as, say, The NeverEnding Story, but the form, my friends, the form is unique. It’s a pity that it’s not properly appreciated by a wider audience. Scott was in extraordinary form in the first half of the 1980s. And Goldsmith's beautiful music is a chapter on its own.

With “The Hobbit” is like with the weather. When it’s hot, people complain it’s hot, and when it’s cold, they complain that it’s cold. With “The Lord of the Rings”, audiences grumbled that Jackson left out a lot and adapted it to his own image; with “The Hobbit”, they grumble the opposite, that the adaptation is too literal and consistent in quoting Tolkien's book. People just don't know what they want, you can't please anyone and I laugh at this herd mentality. So....did you find Jackson's King Kong overwrought, but you loved it anyway because you admired its perfect filmmaking craft and imagination? Or on the other hand, is there at least a tiny soul of a child left in you who likes to play and wonder? In that case, you’ll sure love The Hobbit. It's like coming to a long-awaited party among old friends and feeling at ease with them. On top of that, Jackson will overwhelm you with so many audiovisual sensations that you will feel like you’re drinking moonshine. Leave the boredom and negativity to the curmudgeons and to Spáčilová with her worn-out compilation of foreign reviews. And for the rest of you, put on your hats and run to the cinema! Jackson is still on top and the spirit of Middle Earth is still alive.

Poster tagline: THE NIGHTMARE THAT THREATENED THE WORLD! An incredible intense sci-fi blockbuster that was a generation ahead of its time with its expressive language and lack of naivety. If I had to name a film that best encapsulates the paranoid McCarthy era, in which fear of creeping communism was paramount, I would name two: Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck and this sci-fi movie that will make you forget the Ed Wood-like dumbness of that era.. Particularly in the second half, the plot builds up fantastically, and the ending? Don Siegel had the balls to leave it open and without a happy ending; unfortunately the studio, Allied Artists, got scared and "softened" the result with forced touches. Still, it doesn't discourage me from giving it a maximum rating, because this movie is unique in the flood of genre-related films. Perhaps because a yet to be famous Sam Peckinpah helped with the script. Kaufman's 1978 remake is also unexpectedly brilliant.

Poster tagline: MANKIND’S FIRST FANTASTIC FLIGHT TO VENUS – THE FEMALE PLANET! A slightly chauvinistic sci-fi flick in which you learn that only women live on Venus, walk around in miniskirts, are lightly armed and their boss, wearing a mask on her disfigured face, hates men with all her heart. That's why she wants to eliminate the all-male space expedition from planet Earth and destroy Earth itself with a special invention (which looks like a plasterboard chicken coop with a propeller). Within the sci-fi B-movie genre of the time, it’s rather sumptuously produced, shot in widescreen cinemascope, and to save money, they used stuff from other films like sets from World Without End, a spaceship model from Flight To Mars, and decent colourful costumes from the famous Forbidden Planet. The main star is the then-popular Zsa Zsa Gabor, a woman with the looks of an ageing Marilyn Monroe and definitely someone who couldn't act. Taken through the lens of today, this film is a fine unintentional comedy and I'm not surprised at the cult status it has overseas.

Poster tagline: THE BEAST-THING FROM OUT OF THE EARTH! ITS ROOTS REACHING OUT TO THE DEAD! ITS CRAWLING CREEPERS REACHING OUT FOR HUMAN FLESH! ITS MONSTROUS BODY BULLDOZING ITS WAY THRU THE JUNGLE NIGHT! You’ll be hard pressed to find a more ridiculous looking monster in the movies of that era. The script couldn't be simpler: on a remote, exotic island, a local hunter is sentenced to death by tribal elders and promises to return to exact revenge in the form of a walking, living tree!! And so, for two-thirds of the runtime, an actor dressed in a plaster tree costume walks around with an incredibly pissed-off look on his face (probably wondering why I, the asshole, didn't think of a more sophisticated way to get revenge than swaying and sweating in this horror), kills an Indian here and there, and kidnaps a voluptuous bimbo, who at best gets thrown into a swamp. All this with the assistance of a local cell of scientists who, rifle in hand, are trying to help the Indians get rid of the intruder. The incredible stupidity of the whole film, as well as the setting of the tropical forest, are fine, so if you're equipped with the necessary amount of cynicism, you're guaranteed to have fun. The fact that everything is meant to be deadly serious adds to its hilarity.

The best thing about this film is its poster slyly touting a sci-fi wonder like no other. But the truth is very far from that. In 1960 Ulmer worked as in an assembly line, he would make a film in a couple of days, simultaneously with another one, and the results are evident. The exteriors are represented by a few minutes of shots of an airport and some drab demolition site, the rest is one rear projection and cheap sets with pseudo-sci-fi architecture, where the most expensive thing had to be the swimming pool. The chatty plot is very dull and uninteresting, and only a few seconds of mutant attack ten minutes before the end will snap you out of a light slumber. The result, unfortunately, is definitely not so stupid to at least entertain you at the expense of the creators, it's just incredibly boring.

A slightly idealised faithful adaptation of the already naive novel by H.G. Wells. If, given the Oscar (undeservedly), you were expecting some kind of special effects wonder, you're not going to get it. The exception is the scene where George, the protagonist, is sitting in his time machine and the world changes around him, with flowers blooming and fading quickly, and the mannequin in the shop window quickly changing its clothes. This effect was created by a long camera shot, which was later sped up for the film; as simple as it can be, and surprisingly, the only that is worth mention. The impression of the future is evoked by two futuristic buildings and the interior of the Morlocks' cave. And that’s it. The Morlocks' costumes themselves are hilarious, which wouldn't have mattered, but George's confrontation with them is rather misdirected, making it feel more like an unintentional parody. Fine, it’s the time tax, I get it. Similarly, you have to turn a blind eye to the horrific scripting holes that abound in the film. What is definitely worth praising is the pleasant soundtrack and the charismatic performance of Rod Taylor. Summary: no technological or cinematic marvel, just a pleasant period sci-fi, but certainly much better than the 2002 version.