Fresh and Exciting

A lot of fun.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

THE COSMIC MAN may be a low budget rehash of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, but it's still solid SF cinema. The identity of the alien caught me by surprise, but who can argue with the choice- I mean, John Carradine as Klaatu Two (KlaaTwo...?); who would've thunk it...? THE COSMIC MAN is simple but effective low budget filmmaking, tight as a drum (the kind of movie, one imagines, that Ed Wood would've loved to have had the skill(s) to pull off); it touches on but doesn't belabor the inherent mistrust between the nerds (the scientists) and the jocks (the military). There are a couple of nice visual touches: at one point, the scientist investigating the mysterious globe has drawn a sphere on a chalkboard; his silhouette appears INSIDE the drawing; in another, a transition shot, we see the wheels of a child's wheelchair dissolve into the spinning wheels of a truck mired in the dirt as it tries to haul the sphere away. In the end, Carradine goes Klaatu one better and makes a crippled boy walk again. You could do a lot worse than THE COSMIC MAN.

"The Cosmic Man" is a charming attempt to make a $5.00 version of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". It's an extremely low-budgeted Sci-Fi movie from the late fifties, so this generally means there are stern scientists talking a lot of pseudo-philosophical gibberish and asking themselves way too many rhetorical questions, villainous looking military men fantasizing about weapons of mass destruction and mysterious alien forces with minds that are immeasurably superior to ours. When a spherical UFO – a gigantic golf ball actually – is discovered in a small Californian canyon community, the army wants to nuke it and a local scientist wants to study it. Meanwhile, the alien passenger sneaks out of his interstellar golf ball and begins exploring the earthly habits, rites and inhabitants. This is where our cute and cheap little B-movie rips off "The Day the Earth Stood Still", in fact, as the alien witnesses the imbecility and self-destructive nature of the human race. How come aliens get such a kick out of observing how stupid we are? Like in a few hundred of the films he starred in, John Carradine receives top-billing even though he appears all together perhaps for a whole five minutes. "The Cosmic Man" is often rather dull and doesn't contain any real action, but it certainly has good intentions and an earnest supportive cast.

I have just watched The Cosmic Man for the first time and rather enjoyed it, despite reading several bad reviews about it. This was released on video in Britain as part of the Killer B's series, now out of print. I have an NTSC copy which is part of the excellent Science Fiction Gold series. It is basically a remake of he Day The Earth Stood Still.A strange sphere from outer space lands in a canyon in California, and the Air Force come and investigate it. The same night, a strange, half invisible figure is seen roaming around the local town and not long after, a man in a rain coat and hat comes to stay at the local mountain lodge. He makes out he is a scientist who is investigating the sphere, but is actually the Cosmic Man from the sphere. After making the lodge owner's crippled son walk again, he is shot and the sphere explodes.Despite being first billed, horror legend John Carradine as the Cosmic Man doesn't appear a great deal. This movie also stars Bruce Bennett, Angela Greene and Scotty Morrow as the crippled boy.This movie is worth watching if you get the chance.Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

Earnest but boring 50s sci-fi for John Carradine completists only. Borrowing ideas from DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL this film has ideas but forgets to add thrills to the mix. Carradine is only in the movie for maybe 5 minutes, and even then he's sometimes a black shadow giving lectures on the follies of man going into outer space. The film is an OK time-waster.