Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

charlestt-26841 This movie has MONSTER in the title, yet there is no such thing. If you consider charcoal that grows, gives up and falls down, which brings more charcoal, which does the same thing, a monster, then you find watching grass grow as pretty monstrous.Since there's so much charcoal about, people end up touching it and just like when there's too much garbage around, the inevitable is that some people will get sick and die. The movie is no more exciting than that. Well, at least growing grass can't kill you. Bar-B-Que anyone? BTW, just like with real charcoal, you kill it by depriving it of water. My, my, my. I at least expect a stupid rubber suit with these B-movies which have the word MONSTERS in them, but not here. The charcoal don't raise their arms and walk slowly towards you (they fall slowly in all directions), they don't let out blood curdling yells (they don't even whisper), they don't have blood on the face (if they had a face), and you will never see them in a Monster Mash movie.

arcdanku This is a better 50s sci-fi movie, interesting plot, fast-paced and well-acted. The science is very questionable, especially the function of silicon in the human body (which is none), but in the 50s a lot of such theories were thrown around. Now the setting might be conventional, an isolated desert town, but the threat is different from most other sci-fi. I would have liked to see the crystals have some consciousness, after all they are called monsters, but that's a minor issue. I liked the way scientists, police and journalists worked together without stereotyping. Lola Albright is gorgeous. In the first scenes she wore pants, unusual for 50s movies!

Scarecrow-88 Here is a novel premise: the whole paranoia of "watching the skies" gets a unique sci-fi spins when meteorites, crashing into a mountainous desert outside a little township, whose ingredients consist primarily of silicate materials, grows when water is applied, enlarging at an alarming rate, towering to great heights, falling and breaking apart onto land, buildings, and anything else that they come in contact with. Humans who contact the meteorite pieces, when water is a major factor, start to stiffen into silicate themselves and it is a race against time to discover how to stop the meteorites from spreading, destroying everything in their path. I love these sci-fi B-movies from the 50s, particularly the ones released by Universal Studios. Shot in a serious manner, with a scientific approach applied to analyzing and conquering the threat, whether it be man-made or from space, movies like "The Monolith Monsters" are like rock candy to me…I have a sweet tooth for these sci-fi chillers/creature features, and especially fond of those movies shot in rural towns with small local farming communities or blue collar areas outside the big cities. This movie's threat is certainly unique—rocks as tall as skyscrapers falling, "Timber!", like trees cut by lumberjacks, with our heroes looking on from afar, is quite a visual, even if atypical of the genre. But that, I think, sets this apart from the usual fair…not a funny-looking monster made from scraps or rubber, or a giant creature of some sort, this movie has meteorites as a global threat against mankind, using water, of all things, as the source of their growth. As usual, there's a miracle cure for how to stop the meteorites (which have inherited plenty of mysteries from space during their travels to the earth's surface), and we get the big finale where a dam is exploded and a saline solution might be the key ingredient in how to trigger a reverse in the growing pattern. Seeing meteorites grow on spot when water hits them and the knowledge that large silicate rock formations are your threats to mankind might be a bit too silly for some viewers, but I had some fun with this regardless. It is cotton candy to me, really, and doesn't overstay its welcome. Sure, it might be a bit corny, but I always appreciate the earnestness of the performances regardless of what "monsters" might threaten their characters' local communities within the plots of these disregarded studio B-movie cheapies. I always credit the no-name casts of these movies during this era for providing credible portraits of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances, with the fate of mankind possibly in their hands.

bensonmum2 The residents of the small California desert town are under attack. The fragments of a meteor that struck nearby the community of San Angelo possess the strange capability of growing to skyscraper proportions when activated by water. The alien monoliths crumble under their own weight, shattering into even more pieces capable of growing and destroying everything in their path. But the danger goes beyond the destruction caused by the falling rock formations. Any living being that comes into contact with the monoliths is turned into stone. It's up to geologist Dave Miller (Grant Williams) and a band of plucky locals to find a way to stop the threat to San Angelo and, ultimately, the world.I just love these 1950s era Universal sci-fi/horror movies. They're so much fun to watch. From the steady, enjoyable cast (headlined by Grant Williams and Lola Albright) to the crisp, clean black and white cinematography to the familiar but effective stock monster music, The Monolith Monsters is the kind of movie that never fails to provide a great deal of entertainment value given its relative modest budget. I get a kick out of the number of Universal films from this era that take place in some small, remote South Western desert town like San Angelo (you can thank Jack Arnold for the desert setting). It's a perfect location or this kind of movie. The Monolith Monsters also features some nice special effects. I'm sure it was difficult task to make rocks look menacing. The scene where one towering rock formation after another rises from the desert floor and crushes a small farm is very effective. Another plus for The Monolith Monsters is the intelligent script (again, you can thank Jack Arnold for this). Sure, the movie is filled with a lot scientific mumbo-jumbo, but in this case, it actually has an air of believability to it. Finally, The Monolith Monsters benefits greatly from the steady hand of director John Sherwood. He may have only directed three movies, but he capably pulls all of the elements I've mentioned together with nice pacing and interesting camera shots to create a rock solid (pun intended) movie experience. Overall, it's a job well done.