Rating: 
Summary: Odd Sci-Fi Film from Spain Staring Gallo, Medeiros, Almeida
Review: A sci-fi film from Spain directed by first-time director Maria Lidon (who appears as one of the crew here) features some internationally famous people -- Maria de Medeiros, who is perhaps best remembered as weepy girl-friend of Bruce Willis's character in "Pulp Fiction"; Joaquim Almeida who is seen in so many films including "Desperado"; and indie guy Vincent Gallo whose "Buffallo 66" was critically praised. The cast is interesting, and you can see one of the founding members of the punk rock group "The Ramones."The story is similar to "Red Planet" and "Mission to Mars" but "Stranded" within its low-budget limitations ($4,000,000) gives a twist. First manned spaceship to Mars with international crew is launched, but its landing ship crashes on the surface of the planet, and the remaining members have to think about the way to survive. With limited equipment and damaged ship, their heated discussion goes nowhere until one of them (Vincent Gallo whose too logical character you love to despise) convinces them of one thing -- there's no way ALL of them can live to see the rescue ship. They are forced to make a most difficult decision, and the film takes itself very seriously. Unfortunately, the similarity in terms of the plot with other Hollywood productions is undeniable when the film enters the last 30 minutes. There are, however, no over-the-top ending that is meant for surprise. Whether it works or not will depend on your taste and expectation. Some of the viewers might find it lacks the sense of closure; others think it realistic and philosophcal. Pick your choice. The photography is in general beautifully shot, but you cannot hide the fact that the entite scenes are shot on somewhere on the Earth (in fact, Spain and Holywood soundstage). Some of the CGIs are fantastic, but they come far and few between. The most irritating part of the film to me is, that the film goes rather slowly with talk, talk, talk, and these stranded astronauts do not really look in danger. And it requires much amount of imagination to envision Maria de Mareiros in heavy spacesuit (according to my source, it was really heavy, and she didn't like it at all). Well, I can understand. Shot in widescreen, the filmmakers show their enthusiasm to realize the bleak landscape of Mars, and to give some newness to the beaten road to Mars. But for all scientific data and good atmosphere, "Stranded" lacks something -- something that would surprise us, like the rotating cabin or the AI in "2001."
Rating: 
Summary: This movie is a sleeper
Review: And by sleeper, I mean a great movie to fall asleep to. The droning monologue through out the movie works better than a sound machine to put me right into dreamland. A documentary about a documentary would be more exciting. And if you're looking for a climatic ending, you won't find it here. And what's the "R" rating all about? They say the "F" word several times and mention masturbation. No violence, no intrigue, no suspense, and no special effects. Reminds me of the sci-fi B movies of the 60's, but only worse. At least they had a plot.
Rating: 
Summary: Stranded at the Video Store
Review: For any fan of low budget, character-study science-fiction, Stranded is certainly a disappointment. Five astronauts become marooned on Mars when their spaceship crash lands. With only a limited supply of oxygen they must decide who lives and who dies. The story has similarities to "Red Planet", "Mission to Mars" and an older film from the 60's called "Robinson Crusoe on Mars". As another reviewer noted, one of the major problems with "Stranded" is it's chattiness. There's just too much talking in this movie. With such an errie setting as Mars, one would think that the visuals could carry this film. Instead, the majority of the movie is spent inside a cramped spaceship. All the while, the astronauts (supposedly the world's best and brightest) relentlessly argue among themselves (using up even more precious oxygen). In fact, you're left wondering how these unprofessional clowns ever got into the space program in the first place. The other problem with this movie is its poor acting. With the exception of Joaquim de Almeida (who you may have seen as the NATO naval commander in "Behind Enemy Lines") the rest of the cast is mediocre at best. While the director attempts to do a character study of the five astronauts, it just doesn't fly when the acting isn't there. Despite the above problems, Stranded is not a bad film. There are some interesting and well done CGI visuals of both the surface of Mars and the crew's spaceship. I just wish the director would have utilized these images more to bring across the hopelessness of these astronauts. However, if you enjoy movies about Mars, then this film is for you. A renter for sure. I give it two stars for effort.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible and not even laughable
Review: I don't know quite how to review this other than to say that it's horrible. It does prove that Spain do indeed, have the technical savvy to create competent visual effects, but it lacks a cohesive story and the characters are laughably lacking in humanity and dimension. What really drove me crazy is that, much like the characters themselves, the film went absolutely nowhere. It tries so hard to emulate a documentary and everything else the worst of Hollywood has to offer. But all similiar Sci-Fi about Mars try to hang onto a thread of a notion; For Mission to Mars it was a face on the planet, for Red Planet it was primitive life, but they all miss the point. There is no genuine depth and intelligence to any of these films. Nothing the movie's central characters do are plausible, given their predicament. So it's hard to empathize with anyone in this ridiculous doggerel. If you want to be bored with a mindless film that is safe for a 7-year-old (the R rating for this DVD boggled my mind) watch it. Save for a few ill-timed scenes you can easily explain away when it comes to children's curiosity. But do not expect to be entertained, just aggravated.
Rating:
Summary: There is no god.
Review: I rent about six new movies a week. I like nearly all of them, from classics, to comedies, to horror, to b-style, to foreign, to artistic, to action. From Spielburg to Lynch, Raimi to Jarmusch. Dumb and Dumber to 2001. That said, I simply can't believe anyone put money forward to have this movie made, nor that I found several copies available at my local rental store and even an advertisement playing on their TV. The script was bad, very bad. At times it was laugh out loud bad, and at others it made me cringe. However, I don't think improving the script could have compensated for the terrible acting. Gallo, Almeida, and Medeiros all did decent jobs. As for the others, I simply couldn't believe how conspicuously bad they were. It surely must be embarrassing for them to know that this poison is gracing the shelves of rental stores across the country, innocently stooped, ready to lunge out and afflict hapless viewers everywhere as if it was the next Mel Gibson movie. You have my deepest sympathies.
Rating:
Summary: Long slow boring movie with poor acting
Review: I understand that its a foreign film and that they are viewed differently from American products, but I picked this up at the local video store without realizing this and was very unhappy. The slow slow credits punctuated with a very obnoxious video static effect gives a taste of whats to come. Virtually no musical score, what I consider very poor acting and it drags and drags and drags! The ship crashes on Mars, I don't really know why, I was already fast-forwarding the DVD by this time (10 minutes into the movie).. you don't see much of a crash, just the aftermath with astronauts being incredibly unprofessional and standing around saying "that was horrible".. the movie lost all credibility for me. In a real emergency astronauts follow checklists to shut down critical systems, look for problems like air leaking and stay in contact with Earth. They don't take off all their suits snd stand around and talk about how "horrible" the crash was. fastforwarding through the movie, it seems to be endless wandering around and talking in the one room of the spaceship. Obviously this was the big dramatic scene where they figure out that there isn't enough air for all of them and some go off to die. Since a rescue mission is more than 2 years away it seems pretty amazing that they would have 1 year of air for all of them (so that half can leave and the rest have enough air) but anyway they wander off and find a cave. I won't spoil it for you in case you watch but it does feature an incredibly unemotional death scene and a bizarre and totally unbelievable ending. I can't recommend this one unless your really into the slow artsy foreign films.
Rating:
Summary: If one could give only NO stars......
Review: If you came here to see the review of this film, chances are big that you are thinking "Is it me, or is this the worse film I've ever seen in my life?".
Well, you are just right, and that, yes, this film just robbed your time movie-renter time (by god, I hope you didn't see this on the theathers). This film is so poorly acted (could these people show some emotions???). Also, why in the world, if the crew is NOT native english, had this film made english spoken. And NO, the audio you heard is NOT a dub. It is the original audio. What else... oh yes, the technical details. As a homework, check what is the gravity on Mars compared to the Earth, and tell me if you can walk like that in Mars. In brief, this film is a shame. Dumb, pointless, predictable, unoriginal, you name it. Being an 'indie' film is no excuse for such a poor work (and I'm not talking about low resources). Go watch Smoke Signals or Whale Rider or Cube to see some GOOD indie films. Anyway, again, if you are here, probably you agree with me already.
Rating:
Summary: Please don't buy this
Review: Ok, maybe the director did have a vision of what he wanted this movie to be. But unfortunately that wasn't carried out. Within the first 30 seconds, I had a sinking feeling that this movie was a waste of my time and money. First of all, they talk about the spaceship having to escape the "gravitational velocity" of the Earth - the correct term is "escape velocity". Secondly, they talk about there being no "Gravitational Fields" on Mars but apparently there are "Gravitational Anomalies". ANY body with mass in this universe has a gravitational field around it. Mars does not have a Magnetic field - I guess this is what they were trying to get across. The movie is boring. I fell asleep for a little while in the middle. The acting is horrible - especially from that blonde guy and the blonde girl - the geologist and the captain. The acting from the rest of them was mediocre. The guy with the long beard and weird hair did some decent acting. Also what's with the movie being rated "R"? They say the "F" word once or twice and then there are references to mastrubation. The director tries for some character development but fails miserably. There are scenes that are supposed to be "emotionally charged" - you can see the attempt and how it failed. The people talk and talk and talk and talk and then walk and walk and stumble upon some weird caves. I also hated the "artistic" camera shots - they were horrible. Has a horrible ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Integrity stands alone....
Review: Okay, if your a discriminating sci-fi movie fan and you hated what was done in 'Mission to Mars' and want something a little more down to Earth...erm, Mars...without the hollywood flashy SFX and some 'real' non-american people. Then check this gem out and ignore the criticisms! This is not only a courageous film of integrity but the best 'Mars' movie I've seen so far. REALLY. The science is there and the landscapes are perfect. Their script needs some work as well as the acting but the english dub is the problem here more than anything else. Excellent Hard SF! Check it out. Great Accomplishment. Deserves more praise than it will get. Ofcourse if all you want is action and ILM than go see some other summer hollywood garbage that's proliferated the screen this year.
Rating:
Summary: Stranded - yes you are!
Review: Stranded - That's the only thing this movie has right, unfortunately it's the viewer that is left stranded, waiting for a movie to view. It's astonishing that anyone could spend money to make this POS. The entire script should have politely been burned in the beginning, thus saving you the rental fee and two wasted hours of your life. I hope I'm not being to subtle here.
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