MovieChat Forums > The Night the World Exploded Discussion > I don't care what the critics say

I don't care what the critics say

posted 20 years ago by alltare2
6 replies | jump to latest

Well, I like this movie, and I don't care what the critics say. It's a low-budget "Monolith Monsters" in reverse, sort of. Unlike the Monoliths that grow explosively when wet (with FRESH water), the rocks in NTWE explode when dry.

Yes, the props and sets are cheesy sometimes (the "Pressure Photometer" could use a few squirts of oil), but it's an interesting concept that makes an attempt to offer halfway logical scientific reasons for its premise, unlike the pure crap of later movies like "Independence Day", in which any appearance of logical reasoning is thrown out the window and replaced with jive hipster macho-ism.

Is there ANYONE out there who agrees with me that this is a movie worth watching?

[–] youroldpaljim 18 years ago

I liked the idea and the story was good. However, film like this requires a lot of specatcle instead of talk. With the budget this film had you really couldn't provide much of the former but lots of the latter!!! Sometimes this works as in THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE if you have a good script and interesting characters. By the way do you know if this ever played on a double bill with THE DAY THE SKY EXPLODED! anywhere?

[–] Bob-45 12 years ago

Not likely, as double bills generally come from the same releasing company. "The Night the World Exploded" was double billed with another Sam Katzman movie, "The Giant Claw," which has much better science but even worse production values.

[–] ironmanlucas 17 years ago

I totally agree with you. I watched this movie several times on TV back in the seventies and eighties, then I lost track of it,since it has all but disappeared. I wish it had been the fifth movie in the Sam Katzman:Icons of Horror Collection released by Sony earlier this month. I heard there had been talk of five movies in the set, but when it finally came out it only had four...Anyway, I would really like to watch this movie again (as an adult now)so I hope Sony keeps on releasing its 50's sci-fi and horror classics and gives us a remastered version of this minor but very interesting classic!

[–] alltare2 17 years ago

Maybe we'll get lucky if/when a second Katzman Collection is released. There are certainly enough other films they could bundle with it- IMDB lists 250 films to Katzman's production credit, including several more scifi/horror titles such as The Lost Planet ( a 1953 serial) and The Man Who Turned to Stone (1957).

He also produced the classic Earth vs the Flying Saucers, which was recently re-released with excellent colorization by Ray Harryhausen.

[–] kindeyes 13 years ago

Yes indeedy this movie is highly worth seeing. What everyone seems to have missed is this movie is one of the first of the ecologocal-disaster film genre
The early bird might get the worm,
But the 2nd mouse gets the cheese!
Kindeyes

[–] babettegillette 12 years ago

Not disappointed with the recent release.