Rating: 
Summary: Not to be missed!
Review: Olivier, Brando and Gielgud are almost in this movie!
Rating: 
Summary: Kronos: A Short Film In Feature Length Clothing
Review: Sorry, nostalgia alone isn't enough to save this turkey of a movie. Yes, the basic premise is interesting and original, but it lacked development. In fact, it apparently lacked an editor! KRONOS is a prime example of a "padded" film. It is 80 minutes long and stretched thin to fit. Unfortunately a lot of B movies from the 50s suffered from the same problem.An example:
A helicopter with two researchers takes off. We see lots of footage of the helicopter in the air. Then we see a coastline. Then the copter. Then the coastline again. Then the researchers in the cockpit looking around. Then the ocean and more coastline. The researchers point to something. The copter turns. We see rocks in the ocean. The copter turns again. The researchers finally figure there's nothing to see. The copter turns around again and heads for home.
So the filmmakers have burned up a good 4 minutes of the movie with a sequence that 1) doesn't have a point, and 2) doesn't resolve anything or add to the movie, and 3) makes you grateful for the fast forward feature of your remote control. Unfortunately there are many such sequences in this film. I won't even get into the cheesy special effects - let's just say they're good for a chuckle. Also had to laugh at the scientist who is "possessed" by the alien life force...is it me or does this guy look like a psychotic Walt Disney? Watching (and fast forwarding through) the film, I had a nagging thought that the makers of KRONOS could have pared the film down to half its running time and shown it as part of a double bill with some other edited-down flick from the same era. Would have been a vast improvement.
PS - another reviewer mentioned that an interesting remake could be culled from the concept of KRONOS. Actually, that may be true! The underlying idea is pretty interesting, hence the two star rating.
Rating:
Summary: Kronos: A Short Film In Feature Length Clothing
Review: Sorry, nostalgia alone isn't enough to save this turkey of a movie. Yes, the basic premise is interesting and original, but it lacked development. In fact, it apparently lacked an editor! KRONOS is a prime example of a "padded" film. It is 80 minutes long and stretched thin to fit. Unfortunately a lot of B movies from the 50s suffered from the same problem. An example:
A helicopter with two researchers takes off. We see lots of footage of the helicopter in the air. Then we see a coastline. Then the copter. Then the coastline again. Then the researchers in the cockpit looking around. Then the ocean and more coastline. The researchers point to something. The copter turns. We see rocks in the ocean. The copter turns again. The researchers finally figure there's nothing to see. The copter turns around again and heads for home.
So the filmmakers have burned up a good 4 minutes of the movie with a sequence that 1) doesn't have a point, and 2) doesn't resolve anything or add to the movie, and 3) makes you grateful for the fast forward feature of your remote control. Unfortunately there are many such sequences in this film. I won't even get into the cheesy special effects - let's just say they're good for a chuckle. Also had to laugh at the scientist who is "possessed" by the alien life force...is it me or does this guy look like a psychotic Walt Disney? Watching (and fast forwarding through) the film, I had a nagging thought that the makers of KRONOS could have pared the film down to half its running time and shown it as part of a double bill with some other edited-down flick from the same era. Would have been a vast improvement.
PS - another reviewer mentioned that an interesting remake could be culled from the concept of KRONOS. Actually, that may be true! The underlying idea is pretty interesting, hence the two star rating.
Rating: 
Summary: Not A Classic, But A Decent Effort
Review: The creators of this movie deserve credit for having tried someone a little different in the alien menace line, a genuine mechancial monster which actually has a rational purpose in mind (i.e. the harvesting of energy for an alien world which has already exhausted its natural resources--and note the ahead of its time warning that we might someday be in the same predicament.) Considering the limited budget they had available, they did a decent job. I think the opening credits are downright elegant in their clean simplicity and Kronos itself is a beautiful Art Deco menace. Of course, the science is ridiculous. Power planets CREATE power, they don't contain power. Getting energy by sucking it from a power plant is like getting shoes by sucking them from a cobbler! Also, I still wonder, since the walking pistons on Kronos only go up and down, how did it get any forward motion? Wouldn't it have just eventually drilled itself a nice hole in the ground and disappeared from view? One bit of trivia. In the role of the handsome scientist's funny sidekick is George O'Hanlon, later the voice of the cartoon's George Jetson, playing one of his few live action roles. Every time you hear him talking about the danger Kronos poses to mankind in that distinctive voice, you expect him to suddenly shout out, "Jane, stop this crazy thing!"
Rating:
Summary: First Rate Sci-Fi Second Feature
Review: The very beginning of the 1950s saw a few big-studio, middle-budget science fiction films, notably the ones made by producer George Pal for Paramount studios: "When Worlds Collide" (1951), "The War of the Worlds" (1953), and "The Conquest of Space" (1955). All three were Technicolor productions with minor celebrities in the starring roles. But most of 1950s sci-fi cinema - with the wonderful exception of Disney's "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea" (1954) and Universal's "This Island Earth" (1956) - were strictly low-budget affairs, for the "B" position on the marquee. Having to craft the film on a shoestring, however, could provoke the genius of those involved. The superb "Thing from Another World" (1951) furnishes one example, the audacious "Kronos" (1957) another. Both belong to the alien-invasion genre. "The Thing" gives us an organic invader, a carnivore-vegetable-man portrayed by James Arness, and "Kronos" a predatory mechanism on a colossal scale whose purpose is to drain the earth of its energy resources. In both cases what my old teacher Fred Burwick liked to called "the vampire esthetic" is in full play and the nemesis therefore operates on the dual assumption (i) that life is a zero-sum game and (ii) that humanity is ripe for the picking. What sets "Kronos" apart from other genre-films of its category is its big conception. In "The Thing" (this is a strength) all the action occurs in a limited setting - the arctic base - and within a limited time-span: the production observes the Aristotelian unities. "Kronos" (this, too, is a strength) corresponds not to the classical but to the romantic ideal: a lone pickup truck driver on a desert road sees a meteor fall into the nearby sands; a glowing light zaps him, converting him into a remotely programmed zombie whose goal is to penetrate "Lab Central" where he will transfer the possessing intelligence to the facility's director. The context widens at each phase. Thus "Lab Central" is the nexus of atomic and space research in North America, so that it is also the logical place for a cosmic invasion of the earthly realm to begin. Yet even as the CEO falls under alien domination, his subalterns discover an anomalous "asteroid" that has assumed orbit around the earth, and, on their special equipment, they are able to deduce that it is other than a natural phenomenon. Screenwriter Lawrence Louis Goldman and director Kurt Neumann create a sense of human beings isolated in the large spaces of their desert laboratory; there is an especially claustrophobic "vault" where the center's main computer and many devices may be remotely accessed. The nicely calculated lighting, rich in shadow, contributes to this cloistered and oppressive effect. The most visually dramatic moment comes when a trio of scientists have gone to the Mexican shore near where the "asteroid" fell into the sea. The thing dubbed "Kronos" appears one morning on the beach, as tall as a skyscraper, sleek and metallic, able to move about on piston-like cylindrical legs. Its first act is to drain the energy from a Mexican power plant (true, the science is a bit shaky!) after which it begins a relentless, destructive march toward Los Angeles and environs, attracted by the nuclear weapons stored at the Port Hueneme naval base. The special effects, while minimal, are quite effective; the black-and-white medium supports them well, as does the efficient editing. The ending is a cliffhanger, not to be given away here. Outstanding is the alien character of the invader, manifest not only in the giant mechanism of "Kronos" (taking his name from a Titan), but in the human beings whom the mechanism's guiding mentality so brutally dispossesses of their proper identity. Jeff Morrow (who plays "Exeter," an alien, in "This Island Earth") takes the leading role, as Dr. Lester Gaskell, backed up ably by Barbara Lawrence, John Emery (as the lab director), and the omnipresent Morris Ankrum, who more or less made a career in sci-fi second features. (Ankrum has a role in "Earth versus the Flying Saucers." "Kronos" has another link to "EVFS." Both boast location sequences filmed on the shore at Point Dume, in Malibu.) The writers give the players intelligent dialogue and the players take it all quite seriously. The DVD restores this film to its original wide screen format. Sci-fi cineastes who do not know this film, or who know it only from faded prints or late-night television broadcasts, will want to own this disc, made from a high quality source. Strongly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Kronos
Review: This DVD would not play in any of the DVD's at home...This is one of my all time favorites....I am sorry to say I can not watch this movie on DVD. If I could give this movie a negative rating, I would. (only because this DVD would not play)
Rating: 
Summary: Please remake this one Mr Cameron
Review: This is one of the movies I grew up with in the 50's. I looked forward to it to appear on those Saturday morning early scifi movies on the local channels. Like "The Thing", I would love to see this movie remade by one of the special effects wizards like James Cameron only because the excellent doomsday story could be adapted very easily to modern day. The only thing that this movie lacks is the modern special effects to make the metal monster believable. The story is believable. If you think about the new Godzilla remake and compare a remake of this movie to that Mr cameron, you would see there is a fortune to be made. You would definately get the 50's audience for this one.
Rating:
Summary: Good Classic Sci-Fi
Review: Very original piece of sci-fi from the golden age. The creatures themselves are very different in the fact that they are pure energy. And the "battery", used to steal earths energy, is another something that is unique to the time this movie was made. If you like classic science fiction this one is a bit better than most.
Rating:
Summary: One of the classic second-string monster flicks of the 50s
Review: Well, folks, you get about everything with this one: the "hunky" one-eye-browed, lab-coated generic "scientist", his wise-acre co-worker, the shapely blond neglected in favor of work, a computer named "SUSIE" with more blinking lights and spinning wheels than Vegas, and the usual threat to the planet. All that's missing is the older, wiser scientist (who's usually the blonde's father), but hey! You also get more stock footage than you can shake a stick at: some interesting background on how to set up and launch a V-2 (including a FULL 20-second count-down AND at no extra charge a "25 seconds to impact...24...23...22..." etc wind-up), some rare film of the original YF-100 (hot stuff back then!) zooming around, and even a rocket-assisted B-47 scramble. Whew! Add to the mix one honkin', stompin' robot monster that only gets bigger when whacked with an H-bomb, and you have a pretty typical late night movie. Definitely NOT in the "Forbidden Planet" category, but it beats the hell out of sitting through "Fried Green Tomatoes", guys. As an added bonus, our guy-and-gal team get to do a little roll in the surf "From Here To Eternity"-style. Fire up the popcorn popper, turn off the lights, and it's a trip down nostalgia boulevard. Next stop.....how about "Angry Red Planet"??
Rating:
Summary: The First Monster of the INDUSTRIAL age!!!
Review: What a great monster! I always loved watching "Kronos" as a kid....who couldn't love this massive metal giant rectangle stampeding across the country using it's piston shooting legs?!?!? And now the new DVD release finally gives us the film in it's original widescreen (scope!) ratio....WOW!!! I remember the full-frame version chopped off newspaper headlines and other action terribly. This new transfer looks great. Ya, the movie suffers a little bit from talky moments, but it's still campy fun and whenever Kronos is on screen...it's Fantastic! Industrial Mayhem!!!! Kronos will suck you dry!
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