Bingo. This was the heyday of the 70s where in Hollywood, Soviet Communists are always shown as "ordinary, real people just like us" but American military figures who are suspicious of them are the evil paranoics with one-dimensional attitudes. I would note that Hollywood was shoveling this crap down our throats at a time when Soviet represssion was reaching a new height in the Brezhnev era.

you have to realize, though, that this is a Hollywood film, and to counter the friendly nice Russian leader you MUST have the evil American military guy. i mean, it just HAS to happen and so it happened that Landau had to play that role that was written to be overboard.
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I love how Landau screams almost all of his lines. He must have blown out his lungs acting in this film.
I am the Duke of IMDb bio writers! I am A#1!

The movie was not that bad!!

The only good performances were Brian Keith and Natalie Wood. I also liked the blonde who befriends Natalie. I believe that character had a larger role in the book.

The film's isn't Martin Landau's finest moment. He probably was acting all TV style-ish. remember he practically came off Space 1999 and he hated doing the season 2 scripted stuff and was still out of it as an actor. his roles in Mission Impossible easily surpass his role in Meteor let alone Season 2 of Space 1999!
And he went on years later to get an award for doing Ed Wood with Johnny Depp.
Film's good it just has some low points. Its easy these days to critise acting in older movies now, but at the time these were big huge releases garnering the same treatment today's film releases get when their out in theaters. So they'll ahve there ups and downs in terms of acting, but look at the cast list and tell me it wasn't a big movie?
Saying its the worse film you've ever seen is such an overly made exaggeration trying to get unnecessary attention thrown upon yourself.
Worse film of all time. I think not!
ST4
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LAXNzrOvc&feature=related

Good post!

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Not THE worst acting, maybe his worst acting, though, as he is a truly great actor. He overacted in this, but it was well overshadowed by the always horrible acting of Natalie Wood. Karl Malden was pretty good in it, and Sean Connery was great.

His big speech was truly an embarrassment. Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Martin Landau, Brian Keith. These are all talented actors. It just goes to show that the actor can't always transcend the material.

I actually thought Brian Keith was the worst.
The really good performances came from Connery and Natalie Wood.

The late 70's was the low point of Martin Landau's career; that was about the same time he did the Gilligan's Island TV movie. I think it was in the mid 80's that he finally learned to act, although in the 50's and 60's he did show flashes of potential. By the time he did Space 1999 and then Meteor I felt he had become something of a hack. But he proved me wrong.

A little harsh I think

He's up there - yeah, he chewed up any and all scenery - Malden also tries but Sean Connery seems to be walkign through in a whiskey haze. deliciously bad acting all around. Landau was washed up at this point and wouldnt be saved again until many years later when Coppola put him in TUCKER and Hollywood noticed the guy could act and then CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS and ED WOOD would come and put him back up on top.