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Space Cowboys

Space Cowboys

List Price: $14.97
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A+++++++++
Review: I don't typically like Clint Eastwood movies cause (most of them are westerns and I don't care for westerns). Anyway this film is a very good movie about four Air Force Pilots who should've been the first Americans into space but due to an *sshole in command of NASA they are replaced with a monkey. Years later the Russian govmt. needs help because one of their sattelites are busted and needs to be fixed. The only person who can fix it is it's designer (Eastwood) who blackmales the same *sshole in command of NASA into putting his original team into space to fix the satelite. Totally Hilarious!!!!!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: wheezing comedy/drama
Review: "Space Cowboys" is a geriatric, fantasy version of "The Right Stuff," in which a quartet of aging, retired Air Force pilots are recruited by NASA to go into space and fix a Russian satellite that has fallen out of orbit and is hurtling back to earth at lightning speed (the leader of the operation is the designer of the antiquated system the satellite is using and is, therefore, the only person who, apparently, knows how to fix the problem). Although the film is heavy on special effects, it really isn't too many DNA strands away from the "Grumpy Old Men" comedies, in that here too, we are invited to laugh at the cutesy antics of a bunch of creaky senior citizens trying to act as if they are young again. To put it politely, a note of condescension hangs heavy over this relatively torpid drama.

I guess enough time has passed since the Challenger disaster to make it okay to use the Space Shuttle as a setting for high, explosive drama, for once the crew finally makes it into outer space, the film turns deadly serious, as the mission's members and an incredibly naïve NASA discover that the satellite actually holds a half dozen nuclear warheads aimed directly at key targets in the United States. Thus, what starts out as a wheezing comedy, filled with folksy clichés and contrived situations, turns into an equally wheezing drama that tries in vain to align itself with the special effects extravaganzas of modern action filmmaking. It doesn't work. Despite the impressiveness of some of the visual effects, the pacing in the film's "action sequences" is as languid as that in the earthbound scenes. Moreover, the Space Shuttle setting is both cramped and claustrophobic, leading to a strangely static final act.

Which pretty much leaves us with the characters and the performances. As the leader of the group, Dr. Frank Corvin, Clint Eastwood gets to pull most of the dramatic weight, leaving James Garner and Donald Sutherland to be little more than ciphers, the former as a simpering, wimpy Baptist minister and the latter as a one-note skirt chaser who spends most of the time trying to hit on any woman who happens to wander through NASA's front door. Only Tommy Lee Jones' Hawk Hawkins has been given anything close to a personality (though it is pretty well summed up by the name actually). He and Corvin, of course, have a simmering score to settle and they even manage to engage in that oldest plot device known to this geriatric macho genre - a fistfight at a local saloon (they don't call them space COWBOYS for nothing). Yet, do we doubt that, in the end, these old fogies will teach those cocky young whippersnappers at NASA a thing or two?

On the positive side, the film does have a few impressive examples of foreshadowing scattered throughout its narrative. Unfortunately, that is small compensation for a film that is otherwise comprised of equal parts incredibility and predictability. And that "upbeat" final shot of the film must set a new standard for queasy inappropriateness. Better to remember these actors in their earlier glory days.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Space Cowboys is out of this world!
Review: A Russian satellite is on the loose in outer space, and it seems like NASA can't do anything about it without the help of a retired engineer named Frank (Clint Eastwood). Frank has been retired for years, he always wanted to be an astronaut but never got the chance, and he has a major enemy in the man that most needs his help. When called upon, Frank refuses to do carry out the plans without his three colleagues who are also retired. They are: Hawk (Tommy Lee Jones), Jerry (Donald Sutherland), and Tank (James Garner).

So what we have here is four eager retirees who look like they have a chance of becoming heroes while also living out their dreams from the past 40 years, which is to go into outer space. But first, they must prove themselves worthy by passing their physicals and many tests of strength and endurance. Will these four retired classics get the chance to become astronauts after all these years, and if they do, will it all go as great as it should?

"Space Cowboys" was directed by Clint Eastwood, and let me tell you, he did a great job. Clint Eastwood also proves that even though he's getting much older, he still hasn't lost a bit of his touch when it comes to acting. Oh yeah, the other three actors in the major roles also do a good job.

"Space Cowboys" has good special effects, it's suspenseful, and every minute of it is interesting. If you like sci-fi, drama, or suspense movies, I recommend buying this movie. Many parts in "Space Cowboys" are also funny, and there is TONS of human conflict involved throughout, but also some great feel good times. This is one of the must-see and must-get movies of the past year!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Yep, It's a bucket of corn, but it's fun
Review: I liked this film. I watched it shortly after enjoying "From the Earth to the Moon" and it's almost like a fictional sequel to that factual docudrama. This may be Clint's last gasp as an action star and James Garner is always fun.

DVD Extras are cool.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Space Cowboys
Review: EXCELENT MOVIE! FUNNY, SAD, SUSPENSEFUL! THIS MOVIE HAS A LEGENDARY CAST AND IS FUN AND ENTERTAINING FOR ANYONE!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: buffbob
Review: Good story, well acted and directed! Clint scores another fine film where he delivers a duel performance both in front of and behind the camera. A superb cast had you rooting for each of them throughout the film. Their comradery was contagious to all who came in contact with them; it just took a little longer for the character portrayed by James Cromwell to appreciate them.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One star apiece
Review: SPACE COWBOYS deserves one star apiece for each of the main attractions, Eastwood, Garner, Sutherland, and Tommy Lee Jones. I can't think of any reason to watch this movie except to watch those over-the-hill seasoned actors ply their trade. The movie is a "not quite" film. It is not quite drama, comedy, nor action. In the end it is about heroes and if you liked Eastwood, Garner, Sutherland, and Tommy Lee Jones this is a hero movie that's worth the time.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Another Bad Clint Eastwood Movie
Review: First complaint here is that it just wasn't funny. So much so, that I couldn't even recognize what was supposed to be funny half the time. I did recognize Jay Leno's joke as intending to be funny and it was the one time I laughed all movie.
Lots of Clint Eastwood posturing and acting all tough and melodramatic here. The title is a confession of the fact that Mr. Eastwood does not know how to do anything but play a cowboy, and that looks pretty silly in modern day costumes after awhile.

Most of the charm of the film is supposed to come from what looks to me like "reverse ageism," if such a thing exists, where old people get to put down people from my generation for supposedly having all knowledge but no spirit. That's what my generation needs, yet another underestimation and put down from the older ones as they tell us how disappointing we are. Yet another attempt of an immature generation (post-world war & pre70s) that has to run around trying to prove it can still be cool, even cooler than the following younger generations--- who it continually tries to tell what is cool. Yes, that is the ideal for aging, not the old finding the dignity, wisdom and strengths of age and helping to guide the young, but rather constantly trying to beat the young. It is not the young that make for the unhealthy and dissatisfying obsession with youth in our culture.

Add to this a paint-by-numbers evil beaurocrat villain, a cause for the mission that is nothing more than a thinly constructed plot device, an awfully bland minister/astronaut character with no genuine religious distinctiveness who is just there to tease himself for being a clergyman or to say the solemn religious word every now and then. He's not here for character development but for the sake of novelty and, who knows, maybe to represent the old geazers who still believe in stuff--vaguely.

Finally there is the uneven and predictable attempt at a "serious" ending. Here the film even gets to ape Deep Impact and Armeggedon with a heroic death in space. BUT WITH A TWIST! This time our courageous hero decides to stay and die because he's got cancer anyway. Isn't that nice, the movie has a point after all, when you get old and diseased, it's better just go off and die for the good of society and before you lose one bit of your twenty year old bravado.
Some fine actors and an actress all wasted. Clint Eastwood and his plot are both as one dimensional as ever.
But hey, if you're over 50, enjoy the fantasy of not having to grow up!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Geezer Fantasy
Review: The performances in this video are fine, but the plot is as predictable as a Disney movie. It's basically a fantasy for old men. Supposedly, these guys come out of retirement and, without too much effort: (i) physically train like people half their age; (ii) set all the young whipper-snappers straight; (iii) are sexually attractive to young women;... I was surprised they didn't cure cancer, while they were at it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I was surprised at how bad this movie was.
Review: This is a terrible movie. It doesn't contain one original scene.

The movie begins with a flying scene with Tommy Lee Jones and Eastwood meant to establish the conflict between their characters. They crash because of Jones' crazy flying and Eastwood is mad at him.

The movie switches to a present day scene at NASA where a Russian general tells all of NASA they must stop a satellite from reentering the earth's atmosphere. Immediately, I think of Deep Impact and Armegeddon, two previous space movies with similar themes. Throughout the entire movie, I compare Space Cowboys to those two movies because "Cowboys" does nothing to deviate from the outline of those movies.

There is no believability factor when Eastwood convinces the NASA guy that his crew of old guys is the only group that can fix the satellite. Then Eastwood goes to tell each of his old friends, Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner that they get to go into space. Each one of these scenes is suppose to establish the character of each person, but it seems like Eastwood (as writer and director) forced these scenes in from the Armegeddon outline, and didn't come up with anything original.

The training scene at NASA is just like "Armegeddon" except it isn't funny at all. I guess there is supposed to be some conflict with the younger astronauts, but it feels forced and fake. For some reason, some NASA scientist falls in love with Jones, but the viewer has no idea why.

They finally make it into space where they have to keep a russian satellite from reentering the atmosphere. Okay, this satellite supposedly has nuclear missles on it armed to shoot US cities if it reenters the atmosphere. There is no way in the world the Russians could have ever made something like that in the sixties.

Then you have the obligatory scene where that astronaut sacrifices himself to save the world. No one sheds a tear as Jones straps himself to the sattelite and the others blast it to the moon. I have no idea how he didn't burn up or why he needed to be attatched to the satellite.

Now they have to return to earth. Of course, Jones was the only one that could land the shuttle (airplane), and all the computers are down (appollo 13), so Eastwood takes over. They have the typical reentry scene ("your too steep, Frank!"). They don't think they are going to make it, so they throw the rest of the crew out so they can parachute to safety (even though one guy is unconcious). Then they somehow land miracuously and the NASA crowd goes nuts.

Sorry if I gave away too much, but this movie is horrible. I guess it was supposed to be funny, but it wasn't. Nor was it suspenseful or dramatic. I cared about no one in this movie.


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