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Summary: Space Cowboys
Review: This movie is a great mixture of fun and seriousness to it. It shows that no matter what the age you are always able to have fun and that you are always needed. I think that all the actors did a great job.
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Summary: Clint Eastwood fan!
Review: Good movie to spend an afternoon watching.It has an all star cast of some of Hollywood's greatest actors and just is enjoyable to watch. Here is the story, old guys train to go into outer space to fix nasa junk and its funny watching them train and see the old guys in space.
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Summary: A FUNNY MOVIE BY EASTWOOD
Review: Actually we get used to see Eastwood and Jones as the most serious actors in their films, wheras in Space Cowboys you might be a bit surprised about their roles. The film is very funny, not a slush comedie that bored people. Actors played their roles professinally. Nothing is exagerated but handled funny. The DVD is perfect for collectors with its extra features, only disadventage is no more subtitle choice. In general, this is a very good film that you can see whenever you like if you have DVD.
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Summary: Will Eastwood Ever Lose His Appeal..... Not Likely!!
Review: Though I didn't feel that this was one of the Greatest films made by the multi-talented Clint Eastwood, it is still one enjoyable flick from start to finish. A realistic space film that has all the elements (humour, adventure, romance, tension) in the right doses, and enough entertainment for the whole family. The Casting made a great film even better, not one actor or actress is miss-cast, not one actor or actress is annoying. Clints direction is top drawer once again, perfect pacing, always fast, but also ample character development... It really is a really well made movie in all fields. It misses out on one star as the screenplay leaves little room for Oscar worthy acting that Clint usually seems to like directing, so It would just seem off to give the film 5, even though on an entertainment scale, it would get one....
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Summary: Senior Citizens with Altitude
Review: "Space Cowboys" has a very crisp storyline: one about senior citizens who are reunited after countless years to take it to the moon. It is very likeable, with each character having a different kind of career before becoming space cadets. Most of the jokes are funny, though a few of them seem to remind me of "Grumpy Old Men" which was not funny at all. Whoops, I forgot to mention that the jokes are an added luxary and that they aren't dependant on the storyline. They do get faced with danger later on in the movie and they get past it in a lot of climax material that is left unexplained. Ah well, it was still good.
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Summary: The Ripe Stuff
Review: I'll bet a lot of critics are having fun dismissing or faintly praising this predictable, entertaining summer entertainer that mixes parts of The Right Stuff (The Ripe Stuff) with Armageddon, Meteor and Apollo 13. Or perhaps that's Geritol 13, Grumpy Old Geezers in Outer Space, or The Over the Hill Gang in Orbit. . The film is a summer audience pleaser. It's full of cliche's, it's predictable, it's got big stars, and special effects. It's plot is a variation on the fish(es) out of water with the deck stacked against them attempting to overcome seemingly impossible obstacles to become heroes. It's a big somewhat jokey, feel-good movie. It's also got stars who know how to endear themselves to an audience and don't hesitate to shamelessly dive into roles which have been written to fit them like a pair of comfortable broken in slippers. There's a few too many jokes about age though even the familiar ones are pretty funny. There is an awful four minute scene between what amounts to the film's bad guys, which lays out every detail of how the film's plot is going to proceed, for the second time in the most forced, t.v. drama imaginable. Yet, it hardly matters. The film opens in an extended sequence in 1958. We watch four young air-force flight test crew members called Team Dedalus trying to break records and push the planes they are testing to their limits. These are young versions of Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner. Then The young version of James (Babe) Cromwell, publicly humiliates them when upon the formation of NASA Team Dedalus learns they won't be going into space, but a chimp name Mary Ann will.. So like four Chuck Yeagher's their moment in the sun is covered by a dark cloud and it looks like they won't ever realize their dream to fly into outer-space. From 1958, we move into the present. The older James Cromwell is a director at NASA who works under the Vice President and is good at playing politics. A problem arises when a defective Russian communication satellite ICON is on it's last legs and will soon plunge to the earth. It's too big to bring down, and too important to the future of Russia to let burn up in the atmosphere. It must be fixed in space. Macia Gay Harden as a NASA Mission director and engineer discovers the ICONS guts are identical to 1969's SPACE LAB. A now obsolete and unique system that was designed by none other than Frank Corvin. . . aka Clint Eastwood. NASA and his old nemesis Cromwell need him. Corvin quickly blackmails NASA into agreeing at least in theory that he is the only man who can fix the failing satellite and he'll only do it if NASA lets him fulfill his old dream: To lead Team Dedalus into space. So Corvin then looks up the old team, 40 years after they last worked together. He has little trouble in getting everyone, even crazy Hawk (Jones) to be part of his Leisure World Astronaut team. The brass at NASA however are going to make it very difficult for this team of old men to pass the physicals, training and tests to qualify for the mission. As they try to prove themselves, they become media darlings-even appearing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. We know they are going to go into outer-space but it's still fun watching them go through their paces, flirt with women, nearly start a bar-room brawl, and in Sutherland's case proudly expose himself in front of a nurse.. Corvin's co-pilot,Hawk (Jones), is falling in love with the mission director/engineer (Harden) and one of the members of the team has an inoperable cancer which means he'll have give up his chance to fly on the mission. In fact the film manages to portray the excitement of a revitalized space program in ways approaching early memories of watching Apollo missions on television in the late 70's. Throughout the film however, there are wonderful little moments which nearly all of the actors find, that elevate the material and the film far above it's sit-comedy heritage. The characters aren't one dimensional and the actors never play them like they are. Eastwood who also directed and produced the film, finds the almost perfect balance to gracefully allow this film to have not only heart, but a soul as well. This time Eastwood knows just how to work this material for all it's worth. When Eastwood really has an affinity for the material he is capable of directing memorable films like Play Misty for Me, High Plains Drifter, Outlaw Josey Wales, Bird, White Hunter, Black Heart; Unforgiven and A Perfect World. When he tries to concoct light audience pleasing entertainment he usually fails, and sometimes quite badly as in Firefox, or The Rookie or mis-calculations like Pale Rider, Bronco Billy, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. That's why it's a particular surprise to see Eastwood delivering an extremely light, but still satisfying audience pleaser like Space Cowboys. He makes sure the heroes aren't perfect, and never lets the always seamless special effects overwhelm the material. NASA cooperation in the filming allows the film's effects and locations to ring utterly true. This is a class act all the way. And just as the movie is drawing to an exciting, edge of the seat close, there's more. A near perfect capper adds just a little more humanity to this well-crafted audience pleaser. Space Cowboy has many faults, and it's been designed as a predictable mass entertainment, but it ultimately and satisfyingly delivers its payload of thrills with charm and gracefulness. Chris Jarmick
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Summary: The good stuff
Review: I like it when a movie comes along that dosen't worry about being significant or original. I like it when a story that is corny and sentimental, humorous and suspenseful comes along and takes you on a ride. This is a great movie. A homage to age and the dedication to duty and each other. It won't be too long and we will no longer have Eastwood movies, James Garner, or Donald Sutherland. I'm glad to see they got together and made this little pleaser which will be around after they've moved on. Thanks Mr. Eastwood. You've had a great career and this is a little gem. I'm glad to see that you don't take yourself too seriously.
Rating: 
Summary: Total lack of respect to the audience.
Review: This movie is not only ridiculous, but boring, bad directed and way too long. It is cliches after cliches. Eastwood with no doubt made the worst movie of his career. The plot is a joke, non of the characters are believable. It is a total lack of respect. Do Not Watch This Movie.
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Summary: Solid as the guy who stars and directs.
Review: *Space Cowboys* is as rousing a paean to old age as you're likely to see. More to the point, the movie values EXPERIENCE over notions like "the latest thing", "new technology", even "progress" -- indeed, one of the story's themes is that the relentless march of progress can be deleterious, possibly ridiculous. The black-and-white prologue set in the 50's, where we meet two of the main characters played by Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones, uses the dubbed VOICES of the actors -- lip-synched by younger actors -- rather than plastering these old guys in laughable make-up jobs. This merely illustrates Eastwood's good sense as a director, and you see examples of it throughout. One mistake, though, was Tommy Lee Jones -- he's about twenty years younger than Garner, Eastwood, and Sutherland, and he sort of sticks out. Eastwood even feels compelled to give him a love interest, which we can feel free to ignore. Garner and Sutherland are hilarious and properly handicapped by nagging Golden Age indignities. The story itself is hogwash: an errant, out-of-orbit satellite made by Russians before the advent of the computer chip is loaded with hot missiles -- and only the old duffers can remember how to fix it. The inspiration for all this is clearly John Glenn's recent trip back to space. (The young folks are rendered useless, despite fancy college degrees in engineering and such. Youth takes its full share of come-uppance in this movie.) It's really a ridiculous story, and Eastwood doesn't particularly bother with trying to make it all more feasible. But what he does bring is a steady hand, a steady eye, a minimum of stupid special F/X, and a sense of decorum . . . meaning, old age is respected here, not merely used as a maudlin, self-pitying appeal for cheap laughs. Never mind Eastwood being old: he's an OLD-FASHIONED director, and in this day and age of flashy, facile Hollywood product, his work is certainly enjoyable to watch.
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Summary: A story of two halves
Review: The beginning of the movie was filmed in black & white, going back to the time when Clint Eastwood & the other 'cowboys' were still in their youth. They had been overruled to go to space. Instead, a chimpanzee took the honour instead. This built the foundation for the movie almost 40 years from then when Clint's character 'extorted' NASA to put them to space to fix up an obsolete satellite designed by him. I am unsure if the young version of Clint & the gang was played by actors who looked like them or it's thru film wizardry by Industrial Light & Magic. Still, voice sampling enables us to figure out who is who in their youth. The first part of the movie is really funny. The jokes are not of those one liner type or thru the on-your-face sort of a comedy. It's just their sheer charm of those 4 legendary actors who are completely at ease with the camera & enjoyed playing the role of veteran spacemen. Donald Sutherland depicted an old charmer who was very good with women, Clint Eastwood is Clint Eastwood ( what can you say?), Tommy Lee Jones as the dare devil pilot who wouldn't quit & would constantly push the envelope, James Gardner as Mr Nice Guy who always flew with his shaking hula girl doll. Clint & Tommy were those pairs that have those luv & hate relationships but when the going gets tough, you could always count on them to deliver, basically. The second half of the movie is about their mission in outer space. Tension is created when unexpected incidents happened & their younger counterparts were knocked unconscious & the veterans would have to conjure up their lifetime experience not just to save the Earth from 6 nuclear warheads but also to prevent themselves from been crashlanded to Earth. It's really white knuckled stuff. Towards the end, you just feel good about the whole movie, & I couldn't help raise my thumb up & saying good on you, mate to all of them out there who would take No for an answer. 'Space Cowboys' is all of those rare finds which carries the entertaining movie to yet another level. 'Mission 2 Mars' is nowhere close compared with this offering. Solid performances from supporting cast as well. Highly recommended.
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