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 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