EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (7/10) ** 1/2 out of ****

[A.J. Hakari]

Army receives word of UFO's landing on Earth. Army fires on UFO's. Army gets blown up. Army ticks off aliens. Aliens ask for our surrender...or else. Aliens attack national landmarks.

How's that for entertainment?

EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS is by-the-numbers, as simplistic as alien invasion flicks get. But as unoriginal as the story is and forced the performances are, there's always a sense of fun present in this '50s cult classic, featuring the effects of Ray Harryhausen. The dialogue has a bit of smarminess to it, and for once, the alien invaders are portrayed as having some intelligence amongst them. Don't worry, the flick is plenty cheesy, what with the corny but impressive saucer effects, culminating with the climactic battle, including the famous shot where an alien saucer crashes into the U.S. Capitol building.

EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS is no INDEPENDENCE DAY, but its old-school flavor might be enough to keep you interested.

[Ender]

I often refer to this movie as "Independence Day Part 1". Like Adam said, it's about as generic of an alien invasion movie as you get, but it's got some camp appeal, and back in the day, it was a pretty impressive piece of work. Plus, like most 50's sci-fi flicks, it has the whole communism metaphor working for it as well. Score wise, this is one of those in-between movies. 6 is too low, 7 is too high. As usual, I'll give Earth vs The Flying Saucers the benefit of the doubt and say 7/10.