Beginning of the End (1957)

This wouldn't be that bad a movie if not for the fact that it was a film that certainly seemed to have potential. I mean come on, it's a movie with the title of "Beginning Of The End"! There are so many possibilities for what you could do with this! Instead, I was majorly disappointed to find out it was just a movie about giant grasshoppers or insects or whatever they were. There are said to be hundreds of these things, but we only see about a dozen or so of them. The special effects are just embarrassing with obvious stock footage of the insects. It really does look like a post card at the end.I mean, I guess it's the first movie I've seen with giant locusts, although I'm sure there have been ones with regular sized swarming locusts. This looks more like it was made in the 1930's. No, to say that would be an insult to the classic "King Kong" movie. This is just odd to look at on all levels. I don't understand the end of this. They just go into the water and die? I really don't even care to look into it that deeply. *1/2

The film that helped usher in Hollywood's giant bug craze, this isn't half-bad. Special effects are pathetic even for the time, but the story is gripping enough and the acting first-rate. Peter Graves plays a scientist working on food growth via radiation. Grasshoppers get at these plants and grow to the size of a bus. They find humans much tastier than their usual fare. They invade Chicago after tearing up the countryside, and it's a race to the finish to see whether anything can be done to stop them before the Army nukes Chicago. Morris "Colonel Fielding" Ankrum is a grumpy general, and Peggie Castle is a reporter investigating the story. Lots of fun. We never see the monsters actually come into contact with any of the humans they devour, but the closeup facial shots of various actors about to be eaten are priceless.

Beginning of the end tells the story of a swarm of giant locusts terrorizing the USA. Your basic man vs monster movie. The acting is okay; it's nothing really special. The music is your typical supply of black-and-white sometimes over-dramatic music. If you've seen a lot of these kind of movies, you know what I am talking about. The effects are... dated. It must have been impressive at the time, but it's two films glued together really. The same footage is used again and again on numerous occasions. And at one point you can clearly see some locusts climb not an actual building, but a drawing! It's quite silly... The story develops in a nice, steady pace. But once the locusts come into view, it kinda ruins the rest of the movie. I liked it better when I DIDN'T know what was going on. Just one opinion of course. Oh yeah, there are a lot of high-pitch annoying sounds in this movie, so you might either bring earmuffs or set your volume low. Not to bash this aspect of the film, but the sounds really get annoying after awhile. It's in one of the last scenes of the movie. Go watch it and see if you agree with me there.Beginning of the End (odd title by the way) is a fine movie in it's genre, but not a masterpiece. Watchable, but only once.6 out of 10 stars.

Okay, my vacation from reviewing has officially come to an end here because a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" cheesy sci-fi flick has finally entered the Bottom 100!!!!! Yay!!!!! And it's called "The Beginning of the End!!!!!" YEAH!!!!!It's a movie about giant mutant grasshoppers that came about from an experiment gone wrong (?) and they crawl up buildings (or in this case, small grasshoppers crawling up postcards of skyscrapers and stuff like that!) LOL look for the words "NEW YORK" or something - Anyway, now I want to talk Richard Dreyfuss style and "pretend" to see what he "thinks" of this movie:"Arrgh.....Two-hundred-grasshoppers-entarr-the-movie-set; only-twelve-yes-count-em-t-w- e-l-v-e-grasshoppers-remain-after-shootin!!!!!" LOL I like "Master of Disguise!"While Rhino pulled the MST3K DVD due to some sort of copyright mishap, "The Beginning of the End," like the DVD cover suggested, is nothing but cheese from start - to finish!!!!!1/10