Diagonaldi Very well executed

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Michael_Elliott Riders to the Stars ** (out of 4) A group of scientists, astronauts and other types are brought together by the government to try and determine a few secrets about meteors. Three are eventually put in charge of trying to capture one in motion. RIDERS TO THE STARS isn't going to be mistaken for a classic or even a good movie for that matter but I do at least give director Richard Carlson credit for at least keeping the viewer entertained and especially considering the movie runs a short 80-minutes and they don't reach space until the seventieth minute. With that said, obviously this is one of those films that contain a lot more dialogue than anything else. The scientists are constantly talking about what meteors are, what they do, how they effect the Earth and they discuss just about every other thing imaginable. With such an obvious low budget there's really not too much action going on unless you consider the love story to be action. As much talk as there is I have to give the director credit for at least keeping the film interesting. I thought the scenes were very well directed and I also think Carlson got lucky by having a good cast who do more than just deliver lines. Carlson, William Lundigan and Herbert Marshall play the three leads and all do a fine job. The biggest problem with the film is that there's simply not enough going on to really make the film work. There's just no getting around the fact that there needed to be something else going on to keep you interested and by the time the movie's over you're really wondering what the entire point was.

PudgyPandaMan I think this was a real good quality 50's era sci-fi from 1954. I don't usually go for the silly monster version of sci-fi so prevalent from the era - although I still like a few for a good laugh. But this one has more sincerity and genuineness to it. It was actually very believable.Yes, I know the special effects are a little cheesy. But I think for the time period they were pretty good. The title screen on IMDb show this as being a color film - but I kept having the impression that this was a black and white film that had been colorized (which I'm usually not a fan of). But I think it was a good decision to have this be color to appreciate the views from space, all the colored blinking lights from the science equipment (I don't think we could call these computers).I thought the footage of the mice in space was a real gem! It cracked me up with their little rubber ball.Anyways, I have always been fascinated with space travel, and I'm sure the audiences from the 50's must have been mesmerized with the premise of man going to space. I don't think the real space race with the Soviets had heated up yet (Sputnik didn't launch until 1957), but I'm sure it was on people's minds.I liked the casting, especially Herbert Marshall. He makes the perfect egghead scientist type. I love his voice, but who doesn't. I thought Richard Carlson who played Lockwood and also directed, did a great job - especially when he freaks out after Gordon explodes in space and he completely loses it. I wasn't a big fan of the female lead. She wasn't very appealing, but I guess it was important to cast someone not too attractive so as to be able to believe her in a scientist-type role.Overall, I think this was a decent picture with good foresight into the real space race for which our country was on the precipice.

jspotter1950 Warning: Spoiler Ahead! I remember this movie quite well. My father worked in early aerospace, and we were all rocket nuts. We were not impressed with the technology or the accuracy. We all knew that the V-2 was not powerful enough to leave the atmosphere. We had seen the tail camera picture from the Airobee Hi rocket as the intro for the "Captain Jet" cartoon series. Last, and this is a plot spoiler, one of the brave astronauts comes back with a captured meteorite ("I've brought you back a star", he murmurs to his love interest) and the scientist inspects it. Ha! Now we knew what external coating protected meteorites on their fall to earth..."Pure, crystalized carbon!" Uh, aren't we talking diamonds here? A bit pricey, even for NASA.

jonspam Inspired by "Amazon Women on the Moon", we TIVO'ed this classic on 1/1/2007. This film is a very typical 50's science fiction movie. Despite ignoring such basic facts as the differences between a Meteor, Meteorite and a Meteoroid (see Wikipedia) the film claims to have had scientific advice from Maxwell Smith, the Associate Producer in Charge of Scientific Research. It is obvious that they either ignored his advice or he was not very good at research.The film draws you in right away with a hilarious random jaunt through the desert on jeeps, with the cargo in the cart bouncing around nearly falling out a few times. The "scientific" facts make no sense, even for the 50's. The basic premise is that our steel is somehow changed on a "molecular" scale (they mean atomic) and becomes brittle when bombarded by cosmic radiation - it even shatters with slight force when returned to earth. Why would anyone build a rocket out of thick steel anyway? The goal is to capture one of these meteoroids to discover how they can withstand the cosmic radiation without turning brittle. When the meteoroids are flying through space, they hurl in a random, almost sinusoidal, path and seem to change speed (around 18000 mph), yet somehow they manage to capture one. I won't tell you what it was protected with, but it may have been inspired by DeBeers.Every one of the 12 astronaut candidates is an unmarried educated white male. The only main female character in the film is there for the weak romantic sub-plot.Smoking seems to be a central important theme to the movie. We thought that perhaps big tobacco paid big money to promote their products (a la "I Love Lucy") as the actors are trying their best to look suave while lighting up (seemed like every scene). This theory came into question when one of the astronaut candidates was rejected because he was a chain smoker who paced too much. This would be an advantage in the eyes of Phillip Morris - everyone should do this.One of the others reviewers has inspired us to record "Destination Moon", perhaps the original fodder for "Amazon...".