As you do

This low-budget monster pic became one of the top box office hits of 1953 and established Ray Harryhausen as the master of inexpensive stop-motion wonders. When released in Japan, this film's success there served as the inspiration for Toho's _Godzilla_ series and was itself pretty much remade by Lourie as _The Giant Behemoth_ and _Gorgo_. Best scene: the beast snacking on one of New York's finest.

Everything up until the climax was a bit tedious, but once the creature started rampaging through New York, I got into it a little more. The stop motion effects were quite decent, and the scene at the roller coaster was great. I just wish the first 80 minutes were interesting.

Hard to judge by today's standards not only because of the comparison of special effects but because a lot of what could be seen as clichés are only so because this movie has had so many of its original ideas copied. Still, a good rollicking adventure, Ray Harryhausen's great stop-motion work and so many ideas which have been (and sometimes still are getting) borrowed and touted as 'original' means this one is certainly worthy of an hour and a quarter of your time.

Although it's been incredibly influential on the monster movie genre, I'm just glad it influenced it to improve over time, because this isn't that great. It's not bad enough to induce a camp sense of hilarity (like Plan 9), but neither the effects nor the story are good enough to be effectively thrilling.

Monster eats man goodness!

Just a good ol' rip-snorter mawnstah meets man Harryhausen fest, loosly based on a Ray Bradbury mood piece called "The Lighthouse."

Classic

I picked this up expecting some campy fun, but most of the fun was saved for the last 10 minutes. And most of the production value, too. Bad actors, bad script, bad sets, lots of stock footage. For better Harryhausen animation, stick with Jason and the Argonauts or Clash of the Titans.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) is definitely an inspirational sci-fi movie. This is the movie that really sparked the whole 'giant monster' craze and lead to Godzilla being made and released a year later. It's a pretty good and entertaining movie.