My favorite from the 70's was "A Fire in the Sky" from 1978 (not the crappy ET movie with the same name from 1993 with DB Sweeney). It had Richard Crenna and Merlin Olson in it. See here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077553/ Not a great cast, but I think I liked it because (1) it was about a comet that was going to hit Phoenix... and I'm from Phoenix, (2) it actually hit Phoenix in the movie... instead of being blown up by nuclear warheads just before entering the atmosphere, and (3) I was only 10 years old at the time... so it was believable. If I saw it again today, I might not like it as much. :-)
Anyway, I did see "Meteor Storm" last night on SyFy and it was as bad as I expected. I haven't seen a good movie on SyFy in years... but for some odd reason, I still flip the channel to it, just in case they might have a good movie for once. I loved it when the lady said that the meteorites were the size of bullets (when she was on Alcatraz Island), but 10 seconds earlier when she had one in her hand and was studying it, it was about the size of her fist. :-) And even though the meteorites were supposed to be small, they would take out 3 floors of an office or apartment building when they hit, yet impacts to people or the ground caused holes that were just a few inches in diameter. As expected, the special effects were horrible, especially the flames from the Aries rocket that they launched at the end of the movie. The flames looked like they were made on an old PC computer using CGA (not CGI) EGA graphics. Instead of a smooth progression from one color to another, you could see a definite yellow area, then a definite orange area, etc. At least the acting wasn't horrible. Not great, but not the worst I've seen. It was just another really bad movie that won't help the education of humanity. But, obviously, it was only meant for mindless entertainment. Mindless? Yes. Entertainment? I'm not sure about that. :-) But, there was at least one thing that I think was good. The big asteroid that was going to hit at the end of the movie was called Apophis, which is a real NEO (near Earth object). Good for them. There was one other good thing, but I can't remember it. Sorry. Regards, Bob -----Original Message----- From: meteorite-list-boun...@meteoritecentral.com [mailto:meteorite-list-boun...@meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of lebof...@lpl.arizona.edu Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2010 5:37 AM To: Walter Branch Cc: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] "Meteor Storm" on Syfy Walter: They also had "Meteor" on (1979), which predates all the disasteroid movies that came out at the time of Shoemaker-Levy 9. Not quite as bad a movie, but not the bast in the world given it cast: Sean Connery (Bond, James Bond) Karl Malden those famous Russian actors Natalie Wood and Brian Keith many more famous actors and a cast of thousands (at least hundreds) as it includes all those people in "red shirts" that you know are going to die. All of these gems for now quite so good science. It has been a while since I have seen it, but now have nice copies of them that I can bring to class. Larry > They had a movie called Asteroid on earlier today. That one is a real > keeper as well. I love it when rocks just explode into huge fireballs on > impact with the ground :-) > > -Walter Branch > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <lebof...@lpl.arizona.edu> > To: "Elizabeth Warner" <warne...@astro.umd.edu> > Cc: <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com> > Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 11:43 PM > Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] "Meteor Storm" on Syfy > > >> Thanks for the link. It is on in 20 minutes (10:00 here in Tucson). It >> looks like a "gem," something that I can use in my class as an example >> of >> what is wrong with this scene? >> >> Larry >> >>> So, anyone else watching this masterpiece on Syfy? >>> >>> http://www.apocalypticmovies.com/tag/meteor-storm/ >>> http://www.sfuniverse.com/2010/01/29/michael-trucco-talks-battlestar-big-ban g-and-one-huge-meteor-storm/ >>> >>> Clear Skies! >>> Elizabeth ______________________________________________ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list