It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

. . . just as foretold by this flick that MGM (aka, "the Voice of America's Fat Cats") distributed decades ago. "Harry Baldwin" is a prototypical U.S. Fat Cat when he begins his murderous crime spree (featuring most of the other major felonies) during PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO! As Harry progresses from armed robbery to assault and battery, continuing with blockade running, he teaches his two teen kids that MGM people should behave as if they're rulers of an Empire of One. Other folks exist only to be robbed if they have stuff you want, or murdered if they're in your way. Harry drives this point home by torching a busy interstate highway evacuation route, burning countless families to death in their cars, simply because the chicken Harry wishes to cross the road. Harry seems to have a thing about roadside mayhem, as he's soon instructing his son about bridge demolition. It's not long until Harry graduates to gunning down youths one by one, rather than simply burning anonymous families alive in their vehicles. The Trouble With Harry is that he seems to have no future. Harry tends to be in a constant state of PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO! However, Harry's spiritual brother ran for U.S. President in 2016, and WON! Now we're all being entertained by seeing the whole USA being run as if it were an Empire for One!

Harry Baldwin (Ray Milland), his wife Ann (Jean Hagen), son Rick (Frankie Avalon) and daughter Karen (Mary Mitchell) leave L.A. for a camping trip out in the country. They see nuclear blasts hitting the city. While Ann wants to go back to find her mother, Harry foresee a coming chaos and set off with ruthless survival instincts.It's a well-made B-movie. The biggest takeaway is Harry's callous ruthlessness. He both foresees and bring about the lost of civility. The movie doesn't make him a heroic lead. It is dark, exploitative, and melodramatic. It works.

Shortly after leaving Los Angeles on a trip, the family Baldwin - Harry (Ray Milland), Ann (Jean Hagen), Rick (Frankie Avalon) and Karen (Mary Mitchel) - witness a large mushroom cloud over their home city. Radio reports conclude the start of a thermonuclear war, and Harry's survival instincts click immediately into gear. After abandoning the rescue of Ann's mother due to the fleeing Los Angeles residents, Harry takes the family off-road and into a small town to gather supplies. The news has yet to spread to this small town, so they are instantly met with suspicion. They leave to settle some place safe and away from civilisation, but are met with more hostility in the form of three young punks.This cheap end-of-the-world quickie effort from American International Pictures is now seemingly all but forgotten, but this is a surprisingly effective little movie that benefits from a strong central performance and direction by Hollywood Golden Era legend Ray Milland. This is obviously low budget, with the camera never focusing on anything but the immediate action, allowing the audience to use their imagination to experience the wider picture. But more than anything, this is a character study of an all-American family trying to hold any remnants of civilisation together in the midst of social decay and lawlessness. Like Val Guest's excellent The Day The Earth Caught Fire just a year before, the outlook here is very gloomy. But Panic in Year Zero! is the reserve side of The Day The Earth Caught Fire's coin, offering a right- wing alternative, embodied in Harry's instant tooling up and viewing every outside the family as an enemy. It is here that the films fails, where some more character building and intimate moments (especially between Harry and Ann) could have provided more insight into Harry's narrow view. But this is a cold look at humanity in crisis, where robbery and rape are just around the corner and every man is out for themselves. Ultimately, an exciting and often shocking little film that does wonders with what little it was given.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

By itself, "Panic in Year Zero," is a very good movie. The cast has some prominent actors and stars of the past, all of whom give top performances. The film has a solid plot and script, and excellent cinematography and direction (by Ray Milland himself). The black and white film helps build a sense of angst, uncertainty and concern for the characters. But what sets this film apart as somewhat exceptional, and thus worthy of being in a film library, is the time and culture that it covers. After more than a decade into the 21st century, today it's hard to find much social consciousness, awareness or memory of that time of the Cold War that so influenced life for most of four decades. Especially in the U.S., but also around the world. This film was set at the height of the Cold War. From the late 1940s through the 50s and into the 60s, the U.S. and Soviet Union may have been the closest to getting into an all-out nuclear war. The threat of widespread global destruction was very real -- much more real than how some today refer to it as a paranoia of the past. To those pundits of paranoia, I would just point to the Cuban missile crisis of 1963."Panic in Year Zero" does more than tell a story and show what might happen from a nuclear disaster. It shows the dark side of human nature and how many people revert to barbarism in times of chaos when rule and order are absent. It focuses on one family and one man's drive to save his family from the brutality and chaos that would follow nuclear blasts. It shows his struggle to keep a sense of right and morality, and to be able to judge right from wrong in such a time of upheaval. And it shows his drive to keep right and morality ever before his family members. We see the emotional and spiritual struggle of this one man as he and his family cope with the challenges to survive, and as he tries to protect them from harm and evil inherent in societal upheaval. This film has considerable historical and social value for this portrayal and study alone. And it should be seen as no less relevant in the 21st century -- where we yet have nuclear threats from other nations. But it should be a warning as well about what might happen without nuclear war, in a world where social drives are blurring the lines of morality, freedom, and human rights, and where the resulting amorality, hedonism and relativism are fast obliterating basic rights and morals of human nature and democracy.A single flag in the film stands as a warning to society for all time. A news report heard on the radio early in the film says that leaders around the world have agreed that because of the global reach of the nuclear devastation, "this year will henceforth be known in history as Year Zero." World War I, World War II, and all other wars, conquests and disasters of the past were always set in the time they occurred in history – in the modern calendar – the Gregorian calendar. But, mankind has reached such a state that the power and forces of man himself are so great that he can now rule and determine time in the universe. Clearly, God is removed from society and humanity itself. So, the ego of man will triumph in guiding society into a future without boundaries, morals and restraints in which it could not long survive. Did the producers, writers and director intend this film to go much beyond a story of survival and emotional and moral struggle in the face of threats to survival? Who knows? But it should be clear to anyone who thinks about this film while watching it, that here is a morality play unfolding that has much deeper meaning and messages than of the immediate situation the film covers. Nuclear war isn't the greatest threat to the survival of humanity today. It's man's own ego. Without moral guidelines, without protection of basic human rights, without respect for human life, and in a godless society, anarchy is sure to reign. Without basic human rights and respect for life, civility crumbles. It's happened in every such case in world history. Can we, will we get the message for today? I highly recommend "Panic in Year Zero" as a movie for all to see. And to show to children and teen grandchildren.