It’s hard to make a rousing adventure film when all the heroics are performed by computers and guided missiles, and the more human protagonists have nothing to do but push buttons and stare at video screens. Director Ronald Neame brings his impersonal British craftsmanship to this 1979 feature, so it isn’t a complete bust, but it’s a long way from the apocalyptic satisfactions of his Poseidon Adventure. With Sean Connery in an Al Pacino part, Natalie Wood in a nonpart, Karl Malden, and Brian Keith, miming wittily as a Russian scientist who speaks no English. PG, 103 min.
