Customer Reviews

Meteor

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

It's unfortunate that Amazon doesn't allow for negative ratings, as this made-for-TV miniseries doesn't even deserve one star.

It's hard to know where to start with this one. First of all, the writing for this movie is atrocious. There are factual errors, logical errors and plot holes so bad that you'd swear they had to have been put there on purpose, because no one would mistakenly write something so wrong.

Then there's the direction. There are some very talented actors in this movie, and yet they act as if they're making a silent movie-era melodrama -- overacting to the extreme, making bizarre facial expressions, etc. Without revealing any spoilers, let's just say that one of the characters dies in the second half of the miniseries, and as he dies his body is wracked with convulsions that look like a stagehand is poking him with an electric cattle prod. It's actually funny. And what's with those unlabeled maps that seem to show the location of one of the scenarios? It's like the CGI department ran out of money and they left in half-finished interstitials.

I guess the most egregious fault with this miniseries, though, is the fact that it is completely BORING. So much of the narrative has nothing to do with anything else that occurs that it feels as if they took a two-hour TV movie and tried to stretch it to four hours by padding it with random unrelated storylines.

Oh, yeah, and the basic premise of this, a giant piece of space rock hurtling toward the Earth, has been done to death already.

So PLEASE don't waste your money on this piece of garbage. Buy DVDs of quality television. Heck, buy DVDs of mediocre television. Just don't reward the producers of this movie by giving them your money.

The 1979 theatrical release "Meteor" has been routinely mentioned among the worst movies of all time. Thankfully, this is not a remake of "Meteor", but more of a reimagining of the same concept moved forward in time 30 years.

The scenario is roughly the same. Earth is facing annihilation as a giant rock hurtles towards it. Scientists and the military join forces to try and stop it. That's where the similarities end. This "Meteor" does not feature the Cold War tension of the Russians; it doesn't have the cool orbiting missile platforms Hercules and Peter the Great; and it doesn't have heart. At least with the first "Meteor", the characters were easier to care about.

This movie includes a fine cast, headlined by Jason Alexander, Christopher Lloyd, Stacy Keach, and Ernie Hudson. And though Marla Sokoloff is easy on the eyes, her character began to grate on me. The special effects were pretty good, considering that it would be very difficult for anyone to actually capture what would happen the moment a piece of rock or a swarm of smaller rocks hit Earth.

I give the movie three stars mainly because it isn't that bad for what it is. For someone like me who loves this type of movie, choices (good or bad) are few and far between.

I am watching the last 30 min of this TV movie as I type this. It is rare that I come onto a website like this to review anything, but you must know that Meteor is really, REALLY bad. It is poorly written, poorly acted, makes poor use of every cliche plot device, reuses the same poor FX shots a good 30 times over... Heck, I think the once-per-minute faux Google Earth shots add up to 20 minutes of screen time all on their own.

But I say this- I am also enjoying it plenty. It is making me laugh. I recommend a few glasses of wine before watching, however. It did wonders for me, though.

To make this typical disaster movie a mini-series, they were kind of forced to turn it into a soap opera just to add in enough filler to make it work. Yeah, they did it. However, we got strapped with a bunch of hokey story threads that were typical 70's Towering Inferno/Poseidon Adventure/(place your typical disaster flick here) fare that if tightened up, could have been a lot better as a two hour movie.

I'll have to admit I still have a weakness for these movies, especially on SyFy and on a Saturday afternoon that was supposed to be a telescope observing weekend called off by crummy weather. I was really hoping for some kind of icky bug, but beggars can't be choosers and at least it wasn't another slasher flick, some stupid vampire story, or another dreaded Stephen King love fest. Thank you SyFy!

The plot has a gigantic asteroid knocked out of its orbit by an errant comet and it plunges toward earth. Not in itself impossible. However, blowing it up with missiles so close to Earth is beyond dumb, and avoiding radioactive fallout is well...

To top it off, and to make it part two of the miniseries, we not only have one rock, but two! And, the second half is even bigger than the first! What makes part two even more ridiculous is that this chunk actually makes it into the atmosphere before the missiles hit it and guess what? It is deflected!!! Sorry `bout that, but if that chunk of planet has already made it to our upper atmosphere by the time we "bump" it with a few missiles, it isn't going to change its mind and deflect.

However, I don't go into these movies to worry about reality. After all, my belief system is suspended at the door. It's about having fun, forgetting my troubles and just watching the hapless people in the story go through their troubles.

I just love Stacy Keach. I am so glad he survives. He has always been one of my faves. I won't give away who else makes it, but let's just say that the body count of big name stars doesn't leave a lot of survivors at the end.

There are a lot of subplots, as there has to be in a miniseries-that-is-really-a-soap-opera. Most of them are just ways to keep the story going and fill in the space between the meteor killing attempts.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. It had plenty of hokey stuff to entertain me, plenty of totally unrealistic "science," and Stacy Keach. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon where I couldn't get out with the telescope.

I had never seen this film before and I am so glad I bought it. Such a rollercoster of a film very exciting right to the very end so much much happens very thrilling I have watched it 3 times so far and I can say I have enjoyed it each time. If you like a good disaster I recommend you buy this film I give it *****.

When I saw that Christopher Lloyd was in this movie I thought it might hold some promise, but his part is little more than a cameo. The film is pretty bad. I would not be surprised to hear he walked away from the project.

There are various story-lines and all of them are hard to believe. There is the researcher with her notebook computer who has trajectory codes that no one can figure out. Why did she go north anyway when she could have called from home? She faces rapists and murders along the way, although there are really no sex scenes to worry about. A policeman has to chase down his former partner who is on a killing spree. The incompetent cop allows the guy to get away again and again, raising the murder count. Then there is a family with a kid at a hospital. Talk about a bad day... a meteor ruins their house... knocks over the school bus... hits the hospital... etc. I kept thinking that about two hours of material could be removed and we would have a better and more coherent film. As for the meteor or asteroid itself, missiles are fired to save the planet... AFTER IT HAS ENTERED THE ATMOSPHERE!!! Sorry, even the science does not wash. Missiles would not vaporize such objects entirely, either. Even if pushed aside, gravity tidal forces would still tear the earth apart. This movie is bad story-telling, bad acting and bad science.

As for the special effects, they are cheesy at best, no doubt due to budget restraints. We see a meteor heading for the International Space Station, but then the scene cuts away. Contact is lost, but there are no visuals. In any case, does anyone else think this genre has been repeated to death?

This is an excuse-for-a-movie that is so bad, I think everyone associated with it (writers, director, producer, NBC execs) should commit honorable suicide or at least resign in shame and vow to work no more making video for public consumption. Because we may never know if the writers were just incapable of doing anything beyond mish-mashing clips of other disaster tales together, if the producers forced them or if the network nitwits required it, proper extermination of this mental virus may be impossible. The network should demand their money back and every viewer should collect $200 for the mental impairment this movie causes. Also the producers should be shipped off to Gitmo as mental terrorists because this is a disaster film that LIES.

First, the science is WRONG at every level. Incoming meteors come at 25,000 mph and cannot be shot down by shoulder held Stinger missiles or even Patriot Missiles. The big asteroid behaves like an oil tanker that's lost its rudder, not a real asteroid. The larger asteroids are depicted as low orbiting satellites that are falling "slowly" to earth. Even so, there's no way to shoot them down. The ultimate big rock that hot science bimbo Imogene slaps with a flight of nukes cannot be diverted as described. Nasa has already run that scenario and it is proven impossible.

Second, the characters are all wrong. Imogene bimbo, holding the key to save the world, cannot even express herself: "Call JPL, this number, this name, ask them why you need to let me have a phone" is all she needs to say, and yet the too-dumb-to-breathe writers won't let the character talk. The policeman continually acts against law enforcement training and techniques to enable the crazed killer to escape. Bad writer bad. The hot-doctor-chick is also dumb as bread. "We have no more medicine in the hospital, eeek," she says. But when tall male drone husband asks, "What about the pharmacy, the pharmacy has medicine?" she squees "Oh why didn't I think of that..." Would you let this goof even take your pulse? Dialog sucks, bad writer, greedy director who failed to put a foot down and say no.

Third, the drama is all wrong. With the world about to be smashed with a giant rock, there's lots of stories that could be told that are part of that story arc, but instead this idiotic crap spends major time showing characters moving rocks from one pile to another. When the hospital collapses, the film follows not one but three groups of characters digging rubble: doctor-mom digging in for access, teen boy digging for a needed oxygen bottle, and tall male accompanied by tall emergency worker. That's three character groups all seen doing the same repetitive physical action. None of these sequences have anything to do with the main story, and belong to a building fell down drama or a "there's been a cave in at the mine" story. Oh, yes, then a tiny asteroid hits our anti-asteroid command base, and they get to pile up rubble too. GAD!

Finally, the geography is all wrong. We can cut the Hollywood TV nitwits some slack for not understanding astrophysics cause that is a hard topic. The fact that the whole story is based on orbital mechanics might make us think that they'd at least try to grasp the basics, but oh, well. What is really unforgivable is that no one can even read a map of Southern California. The homey just-plain-folks story and crazy killer sub-plot are set in Taft, California. Imogene science bimbo is tied to a major plot element that has her attempting to enter the US from Mexico, probably Tijuana. Imogene needs to get to JPL. Problem. Apparently no one associated with this production noticed that the Mexican border is 130 south of JPL on the 5 Freeway and Taft is 100 miles north of JPL on the 5 Freeway. Now Imogene is a brain dead bimbo, but she has to drive 100 miles right past her destination to end up in the clutches of the crazy killer in the last act.

What, are TV people so arrogant that they think the viewers can't read a map?

Maybe this is an intelligence test or maybe the writers were paid so little they concocted this pile of nonsense to embarrass the producers.

This is not so bad it is good, like Plan 9 from outer space, it is just bad.

This miniseries is not a remake of the film, Meteor, from 1979. Elements of the plot are still there, but the story is totally different. In many ways the 1979 movie with its Cold War subplot, New York scenery, the beautiful Natalie Wood, the delightful Brian Keith, the great Karl Malden, and the ever impressive Sean Connery is good cinema.

Now, we turn our attention to the 2009 Meteor which aired on NBC this July. When I read that Jason Alexander had been cast as the head scientist, I said to myself, "Oh! My!" Don't get me wrong. Jason Alexander is a great actor, but the lead scientist to save the world from an asteroid?

Marla Sokoloff`s Imogene reminded me of the Perils of Pauline. This young actress deserves an Emmy for all the situations the writers tossed her into as she raced to save the world with her laptop in hand.

Michael Rookery's Calvin is the super bad human element in the plot. He is a great actor, but the Calvin character borders on Michael Myers without the hockey mask.

Ernie Hudson as General Brasser gives some credence to this film. He is always a delight to watch, but it is obvious that the script did not give him much to work with here because his fine sense of humor is missing. This film could have used a bit of humor.

The talented Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Lehman was totally wasted. This great actor deserved better, but of course, he may have read beyond the first act and decided the Back To The Future series was not all that bad after all. At least in that film series he got to show his acting abilities and actually do something.

Stacy Keach as Sheriff Crowe gave the best performance in this miniseries. It is always good to see the Keach put life into his characters, and he did just that as the brave Sheriff facing the end of the world and a town of misery. His son and granddaughter's subplot was not as interesting until the end of the film.

Was this miniseries totally bad? Perhaps. Actually, yes!

To me I found it entertaining as did my wife. Was it great? No! It had some moments, but overall, it did lack something- a lot of something.

Hey! This is the summer and at least NBC is tossing out new shows be they bad or terrible! Survival Sundays may be just that-survive these miniseries.

If you have read any of my movie reviews, you know I collect DVDs-great, good, bad and no adjective to describe. Would I buy this DVD? Definitely! It has a place on my DVD shelf.

It's OK. It gives alot of out of work, subpar actors a chance to practice their craft. It's a weak copy of a Hollywood blockbuster. I bought only because it cost one dollar at Dollar Tree. I only saw the first half, will need recovery time before attempting second half. Had more fun cleaning out a grease pit than experiencing this movie. Do not want to allow a film like this to put me in a negative mood. 5 stars.

Its so bad, I wished the meteorite will stike n end my misery. The subplots are so dumb and totally irrelevant that its so painful to watch. This is coming from a guy who loves B grade movies. The actors suck so bad and the plot so dumb that it really wanna make me cry. I have never written a review before but this is so so so terrible that I just want to warn you all out there! So .... go risk ruining your family's festive season with this AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!