shugaron316

Fantastic sci-fi classic that still holds up today. THEM! ranks alongside George Pal's War of the Worlds and The Day the Earth Stood Still as the best of the '50's classics.

The acting from top to bottom was first rate,and every character was well cast-Edmund Gwynn as the crotchety old professor,didn't let a bad case of arthritis stop him. James Arness played a man who knew he was a bit out of his league when it came to giant ants and radiation,but didn't stop him from doing his job. However,he comes across at times as a bit of a male chauvinist,obviously not used to meeting a strong,intelligent woman who didn't need or want protecting. Joan Weldon was that woman,and I can't think of any other '50's actress who could have taken on the role as well. James Whitmore as the grizzled cop looking to revenge his partner but not losing his head or going rogue is fab,and his death scene is very poignant.

And then all the "cameos" William Schallert,Leonard Nimoy,Fess Parker,Allen Jocelyn,and Richard Deacon,they're all there!

I am glad to see this classic has not been "honored' with a crappy re-make,as too many of the '50s SciFi classics were. Only The Thing by John Carpenter out-did the original.

This has to be one of the worst of the "B' movies. Idiotic plot,cheesy special effects,wooden acting. So many plot holes in this one:first,how does a planet just manage to enter our system without colliding with everything in its path(and with nobody noticing),and then conveniently park itself next to Earth? Next,if this new planet is so close to us,why does it take the rocket 4 months to get there? Why are all the animals so familiar? Then those gosh-awful "dinosaurs"! Blow up shots of an iguana,a caiman and a gila monster,"fighting" each other(tho I am curious if those were real fights,and if the caiman and gila were really killed,in which case it's cruelty to animals) Finally,how could they have possibly paddled a leaky rubber life raft far enough to escape being caught in the bomb's explosion? I remember this turkey being double billed with Monster From Green Hell,another clunker of the B variety,on Saturday morning TV.

This movie failed to live up to Gettysburg on so many counts. Worst of all was the failure to get many of the actors from Gettysburg to reprise their roles here. Robert Duvall was horribly mis-cast as Robert E.Lee. Duvall is simply awful when he attempts to affect an accent-his mumbling try at a Virginia soldier was only equaled by his atrocious attempt at an upper-class British accent in The Seven Percent Solution. His stiff,starchy Lee has none of the warmth or naturalness of Martin Sheen's portrayal. The actor who replaced Tom Berenger as Longstreet was an almost invisible non-entity,and his beard looked definitely glued on.Jeff Daniels should have lost some weight before returning to the role of Chamberlain,he looks fat and bloated,and he is totally wooden here. Kevin Conroy didn't age a minute in his return as Buster Kilraen,but his few speaking roles sound forced. Stephen Lang,as Stonewall Jackson,is much better here than he was as Pickett in Gettysburg. He catches Jackson's religious zeal perfectly,without coming off as a bible-thumping fanatic.The battle scenes are nowhere as gripping or detailed as those in Gettysburg,and there was too much emphasis on family live. So,Robert Maxwell is batting .500 after this,and he will need to return to Gettysburg levels if he ever does The Last Full Measure,the final film of this trilogy. I'd have to give this one 4/10.