An international group of ten men and two women are chosen to embark on a trip to the moon. Things go awry when the group discover an alien civilization that's intent on destroying mankind. Seriously undermined by pedestrian direction by David Bradley, further marred by DeWitt Bodeen's blah, talky, and largely uneventful script, painfully obvious use of stock footage, hokey (not so) special effects, a draggy pace, bland characters, extremely silly forced and silly conflicts between several of said bland characters (naturally, the Russian guy is an arrogant and antagonistic jerk), merely okay acting from a decent cast (hunky Ken Clark makes for a decidedly dull slab of beefcake while only Tom Conway manages to distinguish himself as the obnoxious Russkie), flat cinematography by John Alton (there are way too many static medium master shots featured throughout), tacky costumes (the spacesuits look like jumpsuits with motorcycle helmets!), and a disappointing lack of any cool monsters, this clunker overall proves to be an insipid and instantly forgettable time-waster.

Our ancient announcer Francis Bushman in the "First Worldwide Broadcast" promises us "world shattering history". This film does document one great historic fact- the launching of the first lawn furniture into space. The lawn furniture wasn't enhanced, spray painted or otherwise disguised as space equipment- it was just launched "as-is" as purchased at the local Sears store in 1960. True history was thus made in the annals of space exploration.We also know that the same flight launched the first hopeless alcoholic into space- Tom Conway. Truly historic wasn't it? The first dog- a shy flop eared cocker spaniel presumably from the same back yard as the lawn furniture- was also launched on this flight.These brave astronauts flew 240,000 miles to be threatened by a small pit of sand. Fantastic! And a shower without water! A film without budget! Its historic!

This is entertainment. It tells a story. The science is off, but that's because it is science fiction. There really has never been a film which had "great" science, and even fewer famous science fiction writers really gave us great science, or entertainment for that matter.This is about a united world expedition to the Moon, meaning 12 people of various nationalities with different qualifications.The film is well directed, following the story in a logical progression. While the actions aren't exactly understandable, they are coherent in the progression of the plot. The story is told. And the subplots meld well together.The atmosphere is what really works here. We get the isolated feeling of space travel. A big budget isn't needed, and indeed a film like this keeps a person's interest perked because of looking basic.This is because the film of the Golden Age of Hollywood, which pretty well ended in the sixties, were interesting in the look and technique. Directors knew how to stage a play. With a very few exceptions, modern science fiction puts people to sleep.Is the film cheesy? Yes. But it is deservedly so. It does entertain. It doesn't throw a stupid looking video arcade look at you, the sort of look that merely annoys you. This film astounds you with the basics.This is an exciting film. True entertainment.

I had wanted to see "12 To The Moon" for a long time ever since I came across a review of it in the Leonard Maltin movie guide. The review gave the book's lowest rating (BOMB), but it also said it was "an ambitious failure." That description intrigued me, so when the movie was recently broadcast on Turner Classic Movies, I watched it.The movie is more progressive-thinking than other sci-fi movies of the time when it comes to casting, casting an international crew including two minorities (and two females.) However, when the script comes to making each crew member an individual, it pretty much fails. There is very little effort made into making each crew member stand out in his or her own way. Also, some of the character actions are pretty laughable. Are we really to believe that the linguist on the crew could read alien script immediately on observing it? The movie also fails in other areas. While the sets constructed that depict various parts of the surface of the moon aren't bad, the rest of the production values are both dated and shabby. The rocket has a COMPASS that is consulted during the flight to and from the moon! The astronauts, walking on the moon, are wearing lace boots and gloves that aren't connected to the rest of the space suit! On the flight to the moon, we see several times stars in the background shining through the near-transparent rocket as it moves from one corner of the screen to the other. (Actually, I think it's the same special effects shot repeated all those times.) To be fair, the first two-thirds of the movie were mildly intriguing, making me wonder what the space crew would find and what would happen to them. But the last third of the movie is tiredly predictable since you have seen this stuff in countless other movies before. This limited intrigue and the few other decent bits of the movie aren't enough to save the movie, as you might have guessed. You can easily skip this movie without thinking you're missing something.