Instant Favorite.

Excellent, a Must See

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A top-secret government lab blows up, 1 saboteur (Michael Sarrazin)survives and a super-abrasive, super-tough government super-agent reins Sarrazin in then reels him out like a super-fisherman playing with his catch. All the "suspense" in this movie comes from the fact that Sarrazin can't remember the secret data that's supposedly locked up in his brain and can't even recall who he is working for, while super-agent George Peppard spends nearly the entire film trying to get Sarrazin to cough up said data. Other than the weak and unconvincing interplay between the two principals and Sarrazin's dallying with a lonely widow, there is simply nothing happening in this film. The "action scenes" are about as exciting as watching someone mow a lawn and the big "twist" ending makes little or no sense. The author of all this nonsense must think that having a secret lab blow up, having the blower-up be an amnesiac and having the blow-ees become crispy critters is very exciting, but alas it's not. He doesn't seem to understand that characters need to be more than one-dimensional and stories - even sci-fi thrillers - need to be interesting as well as plausible.

Just re-saw The Groundstar Conspiracy after some 20 something years. Always been a big fan of both George Peppard and Micheal Sarrazin, so I was looking forward to this flick. Somewhat out-dated today, but for 1972, it wasn't all that bad. There are twists and turns. Plots and subplots. Action, suspense, drama, and even a little romance thrown in. Humor, at least a few lines, would of helped a lot here. There is a nice surprise sort of ending. Clearly this is not a masterpiece of a cold war thriller like The Spy Who Can In From The Cold or The Ipcress File, but The Goundstar Conspiracy is a nice little entertaining film. George Peppard looked great here and Micheal Sarrazin was in his prime. It's not their best roles, but if you're a fan. it's a good way to spend a rainy night.

This film originally had the more evocative title "The Alien". David Janssen was to play the title role with Robert Stack in the George Peppard role.Talented Douglas Heyes ("Kitten With a Whip", "Captains and Kings", "Aspen"), who wrote the screenplay, was set to direct. David Levinson (the Emmy winning Hal Holbrook series "The Senator") was going to produce.Genevieve Bujold was originally set to play the Christine Belford role. But, for some unknown reason, Genevieve quit just before production was to start. This delayed the start of filming, and Janssen had to leave since the film was already scheduled to finish just days before he would start his Jack Webb series "O'Hara, United States Treasury".Apparently they couldn't find an actress hungry or brave enough to come in immediately and replace Bujold. I might have tried to get Sharon Acker, Diana Muldaur, Gena Rowlands, Salome Jens or Rosemary Forsyth to just jump in and do their best.I think David Janssen could have given the story a more mysterious, magnetic core than Michael Sarrazin did, and Janssen would have had interesting chemistry with any of those five women.I also think Peter Falk (who was starting "Columbo" the next season) could have been even better than Stack or Peppard as the tough-as-nails investigator.Steven Spielberg and John Badham were hot Universal TV directors at the time. This might have been an interesting first film for either of those young Turks.

When George Peppard is the major ‘name' of a movie – especially one made in the 70's – you may suspect you're on dodgy ground from the off. When his co-stars are Michael Sarrazin – a one-trick pony whose career spiralled downwards sometime around 1975 when the trick had been seen too many times – and Christine Belford – a brief escapee from TV movie hell – you know it for a fact.THE GROUNDSTAR CONSPIRACY is a far-fetched thriller with sci-fi undertones that moves far too slowly, telegraphs most of it's ‘twists' far too early (apart from the big twist at the end, which, believe me, sends this sad effort way off the credibility meter) and suffers from some horribly clunky dialogue. Perhaps a director at the very top of his game may have been able to salvage something, but, unfortunately Lamont Johnson – another journeyman whose labours have mostly been in television – was never that good a director. Peppard, as a tough, no-nonsense agent, seems to be rehearsing his Hannibal role in THE A-TEAM without the humour, while Sarrazin flashes puppy-dog eyes and tries to look puzzled. Lucky Christine Belford, then: her role calls for her to look bewildered much of the time, and, when she does, she looks completely natural. Approach THE GROUNDSTAR CONSPIRACY as a mediocre B-movie, ignore its obvious – and woefully unrealised – ambitions, and you may just wring some drops of entertainment from this old flannel.