Load of rubbish!!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Very, very good! Also interesting id the idea to film it live, so it is basically a theatrical piece... A good screenplay, great acting and a gripping premise!The only reason it doesn't get a higher grade is because it is basically a copy of older films, films which have been done better in the past by both Sidney Lumet (also called 'Fail Safe') and Stanley Kubrick ('Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb')...All in all, this movie was fun to watch and maybe this 'rerun' is a great opportunity for the younger generation that hasn't seen the original movies to become familiar with the subject.

I see some very high ratings and praise for this version of a real classic. I suspect that many of these comments are coming from young people who have not seen the original film.This was a very laudable effort in revisiting live television production, basically propelled by George Clooney. My hat's off to the cast and crew, as this is a technique that's not been seen since the 1960's. There was no editing in what you see here; it was performed (on separate stages) exactly as you see it recorded on the DVD. Even in the heyday of live television productions (1950's) this would have been an ambitious undertaking.Unfortunately the casting made this look like a college play. Richard Dreyfus doesn't make it as the president. Noah Wylie doesn't make it as the translator. Brian Dennehy is fine as General Bogan, as he has the dramatic chops and the physical stature required. But despite the actors' earnest efforts you yearn to see the original cast in the production. This crew seems to work too hard to mimic the performances of actors who stand just too far above them.If you've not yet seen this production or the original film, I suggest viewing this first. I look forward to future live television performances (although I'm not holding dinner for them). Ideally they'd be original productions.

This live TV-movie is an update of the 1964 theatrical thriller. While not quite as good as the original, it was the first live TV drama in about 40 years. Several U.S. bombers miscommunicate due to Russian radio jamming, and mistakenly head straight for Moscow with their nuclear weapons. The rest of the film primarily takes place in Strategic Air Command headquarters and in a small room where the U.S. President and the Soviet Premier try desperately to avert a global nuclear war via telephone link.Like the 1964 movie, it's a very tense, claustrophobic film which shows just how easily a global crisis could occur due to human failing. Richard Dreyfuss as the President, George Clooney as a bomber pilot, Sam Elliott as a visiting congressman who watches the drama unfold, Harvey Keitel as a general who is trying to understand the crisis, are all great. Walter Cronkite introduces the production, which is shot beautifully in black and white.The movie has earned my respect for its daring live production, in an age in which everything is shot on videotape and all acting and directing mistakes can be easily corrected. If you're too young for truly live TV, please take time to watch this once.

I was born a month after the Berlin wall was torn down, so the Cold War for me was just an event in a history book.This TV movie, along with the original film, helped bring me the cold, horrific realities of a world where hundreds of millions could be hours away from certain death (interesting side note: look up Stanislav Petrov on wikipedia).It's scary, very scary, and I think that shows the fear that everyone lived with, even those who had to cover it up to get on with their lives.I hope more movies and TV series like this one are made, films that educate my generation about what the world had to face for half a century, and how things might have been different if only a few things had gone wrong.