Too much of everything

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

I love older sci-fi movies but in my 67 years I had never heard of this one. I have never seen it on TV and have never seen it in any lists of sci-fi movies. As this movie is fairly well done-the color for example is very good and the acting is good and the story is interesting-I wonder why it is so little known? P.S. I now know why-having now finished watching the entire movie, I know why it is mostly ignored-it is way too talky and utterly unexciting. As well, the outdoor scenes were so obviously not taken in China.

'The Bamboo Saucer' attempts far more than its obviously tiny budget can manage, and at 100 minutes takes much too long to deliver too little. Writer-director Frank Telford's garrulous script feels like one written in the fifties that took ten years to get made - so was then brought up to date by making Red China rather than the Russkies the heavies. A competent cast led by the late Dan Duryea does their best, and Lois Nettleton as a hot Russian scientist with lovely blue eyes gamely spouts some particularly atrocious dialogue. (There's a lot of Russian dialogue in the script; and it would be interesting to learn what a native Russian speaker makes of her accent and how convincing the dialogue spoken by her and the other actors playing Russians actually sounds).Competently lit in an overlit TV movie sort of way by twice Oscar-winning Hollywood veteran Hal Mohr, the 'Chinese' locations resemble an episode of 'Star Trek' and the Chinese church where much of the action is played out is presumably a standing set from something made earlier. But where the corner-cutting really shows is in the dreadful music score and the perfunctory special effects. The score is obviously carelessly selected odds and sods taken from a library when a halfway decent score would have generated a bit of much-needed atmosphere to make up for the slack pacing. And the special effects are spectacularly inadequate.The budget evidently didn't exist for the design & construction of a full-sized flying saucer exterior for the studio scenes, so we instead get a flatly lit superimposition that looks even worse than Edward D. Wood Jr's notorious hub-caps of ten years earlier. When the thing finally takes off, the flight to Saturn and back (aided by shots of outer space, the Moon, Mars and so on presumably lifted from other films) certainly makes for a final ten minutes that is fascinating for what it attempts with so little.

"The Bamboo Saucer" is quite an atypical science fiction film. Instead of the usual military vs. aliens theme, we have an uneasy cold war alliance between Russian and American scientific teams. Their common goal is to secure a downed flying saucer in a remote Red Chinese village. When attacked by the Red Chinese Army, there are casualties on both sides, and the saucer lifts off into space piloted by the remaining scientists from both countries. Though quite dated, the unique theme of this film, makes it somewhat interesting. If you can look beyond the marginal special effects and mediocre acting, give this one a try. - MERK

The makers of this film put a lot of effort into trying to make an exciting science fiction adventure yarn. However they don't fully succeed because they try to cram too much into the film and the characters never rise above being little more than cliches. But in the end, the film does promote the message of the need for the world to unite, stop fighting and start building a better tomorrow. Deserves points for effort.