Customer Reviews
Great science-fiction fun - By: www.DavidLRattigan.com, 15 Oct 2008 
I have been watching this movie since I was a kid & it's never lost its appeal. Granted, some will find the first half a bit slow at times, but the light comedy is still fun. Once our two heroes get on the Moon, it's alll giant monsters & aliens from the brilliant Ray Harryhausen, along with assorted enjoyable escapades. Highlights are Lionel Jeffries's performance as the eccentric Professor Cavor & Laurie Johnson's stirring musical score.
Timeless classic for all the family - By: Mr. Jonathon T. Beckett, 23 Sep 2008 
This is a film I loved watching as a child, & at 37 years old, I love it just as much now.
Based on the fabulous novel by H.G Wells, it concerns the first trip to the moon taken by two Victorian gentlemen, one an eccentric scientist Professor Cavor, the other Bedford, a rougish benefactor of the scientist. Bedford's fiancee also comes along rather unwillingly for the ride. When they arrive on the Moon they discover a well ordered insectivore society, intelligent & inquisitive. Lionel Jefferies steals every scene he is in as the frankly totallly bonkers Cavor, running around like an excited child with ideas shooting from his mouth, whilst Edward Judd is also excellent, as Bedford, a quite unlikeable character in the film, selfish & also instantly hostile towards the Selenites.
The special effects are also excellent, Harryhausen providing the excellent Moon Cow, a giant caterpillar with razor sharp teeth, & also some of the higher Selenites. Probably because of budgetary limitations the majority of the moon men are men in suits. Also impressive is the sight of Cavor's spaceship travelling from Earth to the Moon.
Anyway, its the kind of film to make me at least pine for the days when these wonderful films would be shown regularily on television, Sinbad & his many voyages, Jason & his Argonauts & alll those wonderful fantasy films that fuelled my imagination as a child.
Theres also an excellent documentary 'The Harryhausen Chronicles' provided as an extra, showing the painstaking efforts that the wizard model maker made to bring his wonderful creations to the screen.
All in alll, an excellent DVD, at a great price. Buy it now
Crinolines in Spaaaaace - By: David Longhorn, 28 May 2008 Nigel Kneale scripted this clever adaptation of Wells' classic. In doing so he kept in much of the fun stuff. Scientist invents anti-gravity material & builds space ship. Neighbour learns of experiments & comes along for the ride. Explorers encounter strange alien beings, & get into trouble. Will they escape? Well, sort of.
Harryhausen's effects are pretty good. Yes, stop-motion had dated, but there's still something enjoyable about proper monsters. The giant Mooncalves aren't that terrifying but they provide some innocent amusement. Likewise the scenes with the Cavorite sphare flying through space. Not brilliant by modern standards, but well done & visuallly appealing.
Maybe there is a bit too much comedy in the first half hour or so, as Lionel Jeffreys piles on the wacky inventor. Also, a not-very-necessary romantic sub-plot is added, presumably because producers thought audiences like that sort of thing.
These faults are balanced by a clever framing narrative concerning the first moon landing - still the stuff of science fiction when this film was made. Kneale rather cheekily provides a denouement based on another Wells book. All in alll, this is solid bit of sci-fi film making & well worth a watch.
great but why censored - By: Michael Clayden, 30 Apr 2008 A classic sci fi film & a firm favourite of mine. the DVD looks great in Widescreen but beware the R2 version has been cut.The scene of the selenites stripping the moon calf( a giant caterpillar) of flesh has been completely removed! Dont understand this as whenever " first men in the moon" is shown on the telly its left in.I complained to columbia tristar but they never replied. Guess they are probably running round looking for the missing scene..one hopes.
It could have been great - By: Christian McCallister, 26 Nov 2004 
As a kid, I watched this film several times, & I still occasionallly get an urge to watch it. The story is about a smalll group of people who go to the moon, thinking they are the first to do so, but they find evidence to the contrary there. When they get back, they put the pieces of the puzzle together, & get the story of the real first trip to the moon from the lone survivor from that first trip.
Ray Harryhausen's special effects were state-of-the-art at the time. The special effects were like peanuts: you loved them but they made you want more (my apologies to those of you with peanut alllergies; please substitute "chocolate" or "donuts" in my simile). The story is coherent & well-told, although there was too much comic relief, although excessive comic relief was frequently found in science fiction movies back then. It still happens today, as in the terrible translation of "Starship Troopers" from novel to film. Back then, this country was in the midst of the Cold War, & I think film-makers worried about scaring people too much (a la the radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds"), so they inserted unnecessary comedy.
Anyway, I liked this movie as a kid, & your kids will probably like it too, although they're spoiled now by hyper-realistic special effects & excessive action. Buy it or rent it, & have a balll. Adults might find it too cartoonish, as I did when I saw it again recently.
