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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 55670
Released: February 29, 2000 |
| Our Price: $7.40 |
| Used Price: $4.96 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Outer space can hardly contain all the stars who round out the extraordinary cast in this spellbinding thriller about a five-mile-wide meteor on a catastrophic collision course with earth. Natalie Wood and OscarÂ(r) winners* Sean Connery, Karl Malden, Martin Landau and Henry Fonda shine in this 'thoroughly engrossing (The Hollywood Reporter) sci-fi special effects spectacular thatrockets across the screen like a speeding comet. A brilliant scientist, Dr. Paul Bradley (Connery)is summoned to Washington by NASA chief Harold Sherwood (Malden), who informs him that a huge meteor will smash into earth in six days. The only chance to destroy the meteor is to work with the Soviets, revealing to them top secrets. But as the clock is ticking, fragments of the meteor split off and come crashing to earth, causing enormous damage. And as avalanches and title waves take a devastating toll, Bradley works against all odds to eliminate the greatest threat the world has ever known.*1987: Connery, Supporting Actor, The Untouchables;1951: Malden, Supporting Actor,A Streetcar Named Desire;1994: Landau, Supporting Actor, Ed Wood;1981: Fonda, Actor, On Golden Pond; 1980: Fonda, Honorary Award
Description of Meteor:
Sean Connery leads a team of asteroid-battling astronomers in Meteor, one of the last and most unusual examples of the disaster movie craze of the 1970s. In this one, a killer asteroid named Orpheus threatens to collide with the Earth, and Connery must come up with a plan to stop it. Cold war politics date the picture a bit, but they also add some weight to the impending doom facing humanity. Like any good disaster flick, it's populated by an all-star cast, including Karl Malden, Martin Landau, Natalie Wood, Richard Dysart, Henry Fonda, and Trevor Howard. Brian Keith plays Connery's opposite number in the U.S.S.R. While the pacing and special effects are weak compared to similar celestial menaces depicted in Armageddon and Deep Impact, Meteor displays all the benefits of its more powerful cast… not to mention Hank Fonda as President. --Mark Savary
Meteor Reviews:
Not without its charm, but even for a 70's disaster movie it's really, really awful 
2009-10-21 - Though I must admit I have to thank God and Jesus that this movie isn't the result of a collaboration between those two lazy hacks Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. Although I guess it could have just as easily have been Michael Bay, or the schmucks who made Deep Impact, and honestly I think this movie is better than Deep Impact, Armageddon, or any other disaster film released throughout the 90's and the last 10 years. The truth however is that Meteor and Armageddon are roughly about the same movie. Meteor however is less obnoxious, just as cheesy, but very lacking in special effects. All the model ships, rockets, satellites and missiles all look like toys and the effects are just laughably bad. Even for the 70's the effects are bad. Earlier movies have proved that effects in outer space can actually be done and look credible too. A lot of the movie utilizes stock footage from other movies, such as Avalanche. This is something NO movie could get away with today without getting highly ostracized. The star power is totally wasted, the movie follows what was at this point in time a formula quite typical of the 1970's disaster movie genre. It wasn't the worst, but it certainly had nothing remotely new or entertaining to offer up to movie-goers.
Crash and Burn
2009-05-03 - This flick is a waste of time, talent, and money. This is possibly the worst film Sean Connery has ever appeared in. Hammy acting, leaden direction, inept storytellying, etc. It's worst offense is the super cheesy special effects. They don't even pass the mustard with the original "Star Trek" standards. Heck, "Plan 9" had more convincing visuals. Another debit is the depiction of the destruction of the World Trade Center which is of dubious taste in light of the events that followed. This movie doesn't warrant enough camp to meet the "MST2K" criteria.
Meteoric Disaster 
2009-01-11 - I love this movie and I don't care who knows it. Sean Connery and Natalie Wood are fantastic together---Brian Keith (who committed suicide in 1997) is great as the Russian Counterpart of Connery's character. Martin Landau (CLEOPATRA, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, SPACE 1999, ED WOOD, SLEEPY HOLLOW---and probably most famous for producing daughter Juliet--hey, does that mean Bela Lugosi is the father of Drusilla? Probably not) is great as the Air Force General who, in the end, puts service to his country ahead of his own ego. And Karl Malden turns in his usual performance---meaning top-notch. The special effects are a bit cheesy by 2009 standards but they worked at the time.
And you should notice the name of the spacecraft that gets destroyed early in the film. It is the Challenger 2. Now remember, this movie was released 1979--seven years BEFORE...well, you know.
The radio station from New Jersey they are hearing in the subway WAS a real station---WKBW. It's no longer around but it's recreation of Orson Welles' WAR OF THE WORLDS broadcast---first in 1968 (on the 30th anniversary of the Welles Broadcast) and then all over again in 1971 earned their science fiction street creds before their appearance in this film.
You can learn more and hear the broadcasts here: http://wkbwradio.com/page2.htm
Finally mention must be made of Henry Fonda as the President---Mr. Fonda was the kind of man I would have voted for until thew cows came home...and then I'd have held a gun on the cows until THEY voted for him too!
You will LOVE this movie!
The power to Destroy is the Power to save 
2008-11-02 - 1. A five mile chunk of Orpheus is heading for earth and destined to hit the earth in five days.
2. Hercules was built to be a meteor destroyer, however, the fourteen nuclear weapons are pointing towards Russia instead of space. NASA has five days to realign the rockets.
3. Orpheus has a 30,000 mile/hour velocity. Hercules is a secret project and the military does not want the world to know about Hercules. Dr. Bradley says, a rock, 1 mile wide, would create a 50 mile diameter. Orpheus is ten magnitudes greater, the impact will cause 5 billion tons of earth to be thrown into the atmosphere, reduce solar radiation, and cause an ice age.
4. The President reveals the existence of Hercules to the public. Armed weapon nuclear weapons to destroy any foreign body on a collision course to earth. The Russian have a similar weapon and the US wants a joint operation to destroy the meteor. Each missile has 100 megatons capacity.
5. The Russian weapon, Peter the Great, must be aligned with the US weapons, 16 rockets with 100 megaton per rocket.
6. A meteor strikes in Siberia of earthquake proportions.
7. In Italy, a meteor cluster burned up in the atmosphere and the general believes the threat is over.
8. A meteor smashes into snow cap mountain causing an avalanche causing thousands of deaths in the alps.
9. The big question is where next?
10. Peter the Great fires first and forty minutes later Hercules launches and the weapons switch to their internal decision making systems and explode within a predetermined distance.
11.A hundred foot tidal wave is heading towards Hong Kong, 600 miles per hour.
12. The President address the world, Sunday, "Stay in your homes, have faith, not more, we will let you know when the danger has past."
13. A big splinter is on course for impact with the East coast of the US.
Dr Bradley decides to wait and risk not launching. The missiles successfully launch. The meteor has destroyed most of the New York and communication cut-off. The operation team escapes through the subway tunnels. The river starts to break through.
14. Houston is monitoring the missiles providing reporting every thirty minutes. 4 & 7 Russian missiles malfunctioned and 1 missile from Hercules malfunctioned.
15. Orpheus destroyed and the earth safe.
Boy This Takes Me Back ! 
2008-04-09 - Good little film Meteor is, and it's one of the one's I saw with Connery in the lead not too long after giving up on Bond for good.
Meteor may never go down in history as the best movie of it's type, but I think for those that even remember it, it deserves a place as the first film of it's kind. Remember this was long before "Armaggedon" "Deep Impact" and all those knockoffs you see on the Sci Fi Channel such as Asteroid and the like.
Indeed I believe Meteor was the first...and best of the "giant rock hurtling to Earth at blazing speed is going to cause our doom" movies. Yeah Armaggedon had all the high priced special effects and high priced cast, same goes for Deep Impact, but I sincerely believe they never did it better than Meteor did. You can say Armaggedon, Deep Impact and Sci Fi's Asteriod are all variations on a theme, a theme that originally began with Meteor, so in that respect it was the first of this type of movie where the main theme is a very common one today in Sci Fi and action movies.
You can say the others are better produced, acted, you like the stars better, whatever. Nothing in my opinion did the subject justice as the film Meteor did.
