meteor

As the disaster movie phase of the ‘70s was winding down and the sci-fi craze was just heating up, someone finally came up with the peanut-butter and chocolate inspired idea of putting both together in the form of Meteor (1979), starring Sean Connery and a supporting cast of aging studio stars as they attempt to nuke an asteroid hurtling towards earth. It’s a good idea that was recycled (twice!) in 1998 when Armageddon and Deep Impact battled for box-office supremacy. Meteor delivers more political scuffles than worldwide destruction, though, in a film that seems to have had little budget left for special effects after writing all those zeroes on Connery’s check.

But it might have been worth it. Connery’s permanently pissed-off expression is the most dramatic thing about the movie. As Paul Bradley, an ex-NASA scientist whose armed Hercules satellite and its Russian counterpart is mankind’s only hope, the former 007 manages to make the extinction-level threat seem convincing even if he’s stuck in a bunker watching computer monitors most of the time. We have to wait until the third act, during a flooded subway escape, for the actor’s famous physicality to come into play…and director Ronald Neame’s Poseidon Adventure experience start to pay off.

Opening with some corny but fun space footage as a comet slams into the asteroid belt, launching Orpheus (as the rogue rock is named) on a collision course in six days, Meteor attempts to deliver a sweeping epic of mass destruction. But the money shots of an avalanche in the Swiss Alps, a tidal wave in Hong Kong and a massive crater in Manhattan are pulled off with a bare minimum of technical expertise. At best they look like the second unit effects work from a Ray Harryhausen film. At worst, the stock footage and camera shaking equivalent of a classic Star Trek episode.

But viewed with an eye for retro-appeal, the film is still an entertaining grab bag of overwrought performances and silly, semi-serious disaster tropes. Co-stars Natalie Wood and Brian Keith add some star power as Russian imports caught in the middle of a political power struggle. While Martin Landau’s frustrated American general throws one giant hissy fit from beginning to end. In comparison to modern disaster movies, Meteor is clearly second-rate. But it remains an interesting relic of the all-star spectacle format.

And what a Blu-ray debut it gets from Kino Lorber as part of their Studio Classic collection! Although there’s no word of any restoration work performed, the movie looks like a million bucks. Anyone leaning towards the slightly cheaper DVD edition (released simultaneously) should click again as Meteor really pops in HD. No extras but a suitably screen-filling hi-def experience.