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Kronos

Kronos

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Mexican airforce??!!
Review: Drink plenty of caffeine for this one, folks - it's not exactly a roller coaster ride. But that doesn't matter. I hate "roller coaster ride" movies, anyway. Still, there are several patches in this film where you glance at the time and wonder when it will end. On the concept level, however, this is a very interesting movie, particularly for the time and genre. If we could only go back and redo the special effects, make them less 2-dimensional, and re-edit it here and there, we might really have something.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This movie follows me to Park City!
Review: Every year, during my ski trip to Park City, this film turns up on broadcast TV. Don't look for me there this year, however. The film never loses it's luster as Kronos crushes the local populace with his unusual legs.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Terrific widescreen DVD of underrated 50s SF thriller
Review: Far more intelligent and absorbing than your typical giant-rampaging-monster-on-the-loose flick, Kronos is one of my top picks for 'most underappreciated science fiction film,' possessing one of the more ingenious SF concepts of the 1950s (see also Monolith Monsters), as well as one of the decade's coolest, ahead-of-its-time alien invaders. The cast includes familiar genre stalwarts Jeff Morrow (Creature Walks Among Us, The Giant Claw), John Emery (Rocketship X-M, The Mad Magician), and Morris Ankrum (zillions of B-westerns and SF flicks), with Barbara Lawrence (Oklahoma!) as the lady scientist/love interest. The moody B&W cinematography is by Karl Struss (Island of Lost Souls, The Great Dictator, Mesa of Lost Women), and the curiously Angry Red Planet-like score is by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter (too many genre credits to list). Competently directed by B-film veteran Kurt Neumann (The Fly, She Devil), the film unfolds like a mystery, building slowly at first, adding a few plot twists, then really kicking in with the appearance of the colossal metallic "energy collector", subsequent scenes of devastation, and final assault on Los Angeles. The always-imaginative if chronically underfunded Jack Rabin-Irving Block-Louis DeWitt effects team (World Without End, War of the Satellites, Atomic Submarine) gets a major assist from 20th Century Fox budget dollars this time out and it shows, particularly in the design and execution of the monolithic robot itself and the scenes of mass destruction, effectively realized through the clever orchestration of miniatures, animation, mattes, stock footage, and spacey sound effects. The script may not always hold up to intense scrutiny (why don't the aliens just send their device to suck energy directly from stars?), the science is more comic-book than Isaac Asimov, and it's almost impossible not to think "George Jetson" every time George O'Hanlon (GJ's voice on TV) opens his mouth; but if this was in Technicolor it would be revered today as one of the SF greats (just compare this to the extremely overrated "classic" This Island Earth some time).
The Image DVD presents the film in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and while the source print exhibits some light speckling throughout, the brightness, contrast, tonal values, sharpness, and detail are uniformly excellent. A middling-quality trailer and 16 chapter stops are the only extras, but this is still a must-have for any serious collector of 50s science fiction, especially at the recently-reduced price. I'll probably be sorry I said it but, in the right hands (James Cameron? Darren Aronofsky?), a modern remake of this could kill!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good to see it again
Review: I remember seeing Kronos as a child when it aired on television. It seemed scary back then. It is not so scary today, and the effects are crude, but it is still a pretty good movie. The premise is that a giant robot from another world has come to earth to suck up our energy. The planet it came from was experiencing an energy crises, how prophetic is that? This giant Tin Man with attitude is attacking our power plants and other sources of energy. Astronomers investigate and track this thing, with one of them being possessed by an alien, and two others falling in love. If you like fifties horror, you will enjoy this one.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: More than I expected....
Review: I was pleasantly surpised by this movie. I had read some good reviews here, so, being a fan of sci-fi, I figured what the heck. The production values aren't really that high, but this movie has got charm. I was a little put off by the artwork on the case, as it seemed like the people who released this on DVD were trying to make it look like something more than it is, but the people who originally made the movie seemed to know what it was, a really solid, watchable B-movie with a interesting story. I liked the parts involving the investigation into the 'mysterious' object and what was to be done about it. Not a bad little movie...it's no War of the Worlds, or The Day the Earth Stood Still, but then I don't think it was trying to be, either.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Would you believe a robot that eats the world?
Review: Kronos is a skyscraper sized robot, that comes to earth to steal out power and transmit it back to it's planet. This is a different story line (at least back in the early days of Si-Fi flicks. For a change it had not only a fairly good plot, but even had a sub-plot in volving an alien remote controled human, controlling Kronos.
For all the oldie movie buffs, this one's a must have.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Absorbing
Review: Kronos is one of those science fiction movies from the 50's with an interesting story. Kronos is a huge energy absorbing alien robot that has comes to earth to accumulate all of its energy. It sucks energy from power plants to an H-bomb; as a result it grows larger and larger. It's not a bad movie, I recorded it years ago and recently purchased it on DVD and now enjoy the better quality.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dispiteb truly limited special effects, an excellent flick.
Review: Kronos is the type of 50's flick I wish they were all more like. Despite a very limited special effects budget (which shows), this film succeeds because of a literate script, a good plot, excellent directing and some very good acting.

The tension builds up slowly and the monster does not appear until well into the film. Although it is a bit of a let down as the not very good special effects now show, it still has a good impact because of the way the director has set up the scene. The monster's self-destruction is actually pretty good. The movie's musical score is excellent as is the sound effects of Kronos stomping through the countryside. Trivia note: the actor who portrays the scientist controled by the aliens gives a super performance and was once married to Tullulah Bankhead!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: PURE ENERGY
Review: KRONOS will puzzle you. On one hand you have your typical stock footage heavy slow talker sci-fi 50's film, mixed with a wholly original monster (which I can see now was the template for STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME's Probe ship), an environmental message and psychiatry... and all of this is bundled into a mere 78 mins, and it still feels like it was padded to even make that... but don't let this put you off KRONOS. While there are moments that don't make sense, (why does KRONOS need a living host to compel it? Why is New York City so worried that it will land on their heads when it in fact crashes off the coast of Mexico? Is it just me, or do our hero's spend a lot of time just sitting around?)... there is still something here worth watching, talking about and worth owning. Presented in widescreen and featuring the original trailer, KRONOS is a worth addition to any DVD library. If I could have anything added to this disc, it would be a commentary track. While most (if not all) of the cast and crew associated with this film are dead, commentary from a Sci-Fi film historian (something along the lines of the UNIVERSAL releases) would have really helped to expand this film, and give it some added punch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Loads of fun...and trashy, too...
Review: Kurt Neumann has put together a wonderful display of SciFi stuff and all of the silliness that goes along with the 1950's genre... Jeff Morrow is typically over-reactive and Barbara Lawrence is beautiful. The plot is really good and interesting, and the widescreen version shows all the great animation/special effects as were intended. A different, and very interesting, monster appears and never fails to entertain. The whole cast is quite good, and very concerned. The musical score by Paul Sawtell & Bert Shefter has been used repeatedly in other cheaper films...I'm not really sure if it was original for this one. Still, it's fun and tacky. Notice this: at the very beginning, the guy is driving down the highway in hs truck, and the music on the radio is "Something's Gotta Give". I thought that was clever.


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