Great Film overall

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is for sure one of the most realistic movies i have ever seen ! Great stuff from the 70s , VERY GOOD acting , and simply its almost as if watching a documentary rather then a Hollywood movie.

In the sixties, Jane Fonda took roles where she was beautiful, charming, and a little silly. In the seventies, she took charge. If you like her in strong, feminist roles, you'll like her in The China Syndrome. She plays a reporter who, in the words of the trailer, is "paid to smile, not to think", and while she's visiting a nuclear power plant with her cameraman Michael Douglas, they witness an emergency shutdown.If you've seen the famous clip of Jack Lemmon looking at his shaking cup of coffee, you've seen a clip from this movie. He plays a supervisor at the plant, but when he notices something's wrong, his superiors refuse to listen to him. While the three leads try to fix and expose the problems that could potentially kill millions of people, they're stifled and threatened at every turn. If you like thrillers that try to take on the establishment like Three Days of the Condor or Fail-Safe, you'll love this tense drama that snagged four Oscar nominations, for actor, actress, original screenplay, and set direction. I don't usually like movies like this, because they're a little too scary for my taste, but give it a watch and see what you think.

It could still happen today. Still relevant with today's aging nuclear plants and terrorism threats. Terrific award-winning casting of Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas and Jane Fonda, as the TV news reporter who wants to do "real news" stories. Low-key and believable in every way. Plant equipment breaks down. Stuck analog "needles" have happened before in real power plants. Almost a meltdown occurs as cooling water levels drop too low and the control rods start to fail. The plant tries a cover-up to no avail. It is all filmed by Douglas (the news cameraman) who almost loses his life over the footage! Also,a nuclear plant in Midland, Michigan had faked weld x-rays, just like in this movie. It was converted into a gas-fired power plant, as minor leaks in non-radioactive water lines are o.k. As everyone knows, in a "China Syndrome", the atomic core melts completely and burns thru "all the way to China." It's a figure of speech, of course! Released about 12 days within the time-frame of the real 3-Mile-Island disaster and not unlike Chernobyl and that new disaster in Japan. None of these 3 places will be safe areas in our lifetime. A great "little" movie with no "monsters" or other such nonsense!

Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a local L.A. TV reporter who does puff pieces. She and cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas) are sent to do a simple report on the Ventawa Nuclear Power Plant run by California Gas and Electric. While filming in the control room, they witness a near meltdown. Manager Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) saves the day. Richard is able to film the accident but the report is shelved under pressure. The accident is covered up under an investigation. Jack does his own digging. The plant gets a clean bill of health and is started up again. He's still a true believer until he discovers some more things wrong. Meanwhile Richard has stolen the film and has shown it to some experts.This is a great 70s disaster thriller except the big disaster doesn't actually happen. Jack Lemmon is terrific. Fonda and Douglas are fine as nosy media. Actually Fonda is not as aggressive as the stereotype would suggest. It's very much in Lemmon where the humanity lays. The pacing is actually quite compelling considering most of it is just investigations. It's also insanely timely coming out just before the Three Mile Island accident.