SPACE COWBOYS
Review by John Beachem
* * * 1/2
Directed by: Clint Eastwood Written by: Ken Kaufman, Howard Klausner
The guidance system on a Russian communications satellite, which has been in space for about 14 years, is finally breaking down and sending the satellite towards Earth. In about a month and a half it will burn up in the atmosphere and the communications break-down may plunge Russia into a civil war. No problem, right? We can just send some boys up there to fix it and it'll be as good as new. Wrong, you see the guidance system is so old that the only person who knows anything about it is the original designer, Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood). Frank was originally supposed to go into space back in the fifties, but he and his team were replaced by a monkey. The man responsible for destroying Frank's dream of going into space was Bob Gerson (James Cromwell), who is still in charge of the space program, and is now in charge of trying to find a way to fix the Russian satellite. So Frank makes a deal with Gersen, whereby Frank will fix the satellite if, and only if, he and his original team members, Hawk, Tank, and Jerry (Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner, and Donald Sutherland respectively), are allowed to go into space together to do so. They will be accompanied by two young astronauts, Ethan (Loren Dean) and Roger (Courtney B. Vance), but all the repairs will be performed entirely by Frank and his team. The catch is, in order to qualify for this, Frank and his team must undergo all the rigorous training astronauts now go through.
Let me catch my breath after that plot summary. I know it sounded long and confusing, but the movie's plot is actually remarkably simple; it just can't be written down in simple terms (or maybe it's just me, but I must have re-written that summary a dozen times). In a summer full of utter disappointments, "Space Cowboys" stands out as the one movie that was exactly how I expected it to be. In other words, "Space Cowboys" was as cliched as it could be, but it was also a lot of fun, very entertaining, and it even had a few touching moments. The movie is bound to draw (possibly unfair) comparisons to "Armageddon", just as Michael Bay's film drew comparisons to "The Right Stuff". Both films feature a group being quickly trained for a space mission, having quite a few problems up in space, and unfortunately both lose most of their steam once the group actually makes it into space. That's right, just like Bay's big loud picture, "Space Cowboys" is an absolute blast while it's on the ground, but all the fun gets sapped out once the actual mission is underway.
In a movie with a cast like this, the high point is obviously going to be the acting. Where else can you see five great old actors get together for one last hurrah? As a result, I'm going to devote a lot more of the review to each of the actors involved than I normally would. Eastwood does a magnificent job playing an aged Dirty Harry like character, getting excellent lines like: "Go ahead, I've got medicare, take your best shot." For those of you worried about Eastwood taking his shirt off after that reportedly horrifying sight in "The Bridges of Madison County", I'm sorry to say he does just that. However, it's only for a split second, and he's bent over so you really don't see his chest too well. Why am I telling you this? Because I'd hate for you to miss an otherwise good movie because you're (justifiably) afraid of that sight. The only other actor to play a really major part in "Space Cowboys" is Tommy Lee Jones, playing Eastwood's on again - off again best friend, Hawk. Jones is clearly one of the best older actors working in Hollywood (though he's actually the youngest of the five featured in this movie), and he's great here because he's obviously having such a good time. Jones has a big goofy smile plastered on his face throughout the film, and as a result, we can't help but smile along with him.
The other three old-timers aren't given half the screen time Jones and Eastwood are, but at least two of them still manage to leave an impression. What type of impression does Donald Sutherland ("Outbreak") leave? Why, the same kind he always does of course: Eww, creepy (if you've seen Sutherland in anything before you should know exactly what I mean). The fact that his character is a womanizing old man doesn't help matters any. James Cromwell ("LA Confidential") is gaining quite a reputation for playing sadistic old men, and he continues in that same vein as the hateful Bob Gersen. Does he play a hateful old man well? Disturbingly well, actually. The only one of the five who leaves no impression is the great James Garner ("Maverick"). How can that possibly be, you ask? Well, don't get me wrong, James Garner is certainly the man, but even he can't save a role where he's given no more than fifteen or twenty minutes of screen time. The only other people given enough screen time to leave any sort of mark are Marcia Gay Harden (that's right, from the masterpiece "Miller's Crossing") as Tommy Lee Jones's love interest, and William Devane (just seen briefly in "Hollow Man") as James Cromwell's boss who seems afflicted by a split personality.
Eastwood's skill behind the camera is a little hard to predict. It can be outstanding and frankly mesmerizing as it was in "Unforgiven"; or it can be, well, "True Crime". His efforts in "Space Cowboys" fall somewhere safely in the middle. Most of his scenes work quite well, like a bar- room brawl between Eastwood and a young skin head; or the scene where we first meet Hawk, who now makes his living teaching young hotshots a thing or two about flying in an old, bright red one prop plane. However, a few of the tricks he tried just didn't do it for me, like the actors' voices being dubbed over on younger actors in the first fifteen minutes. Eastwood's biggest strength in "Space Cowboys" is his ability to throw in slap-stick like humor without making the film feel campy. His biggest weakness is pacing, which is slow and leisurely while the crew is on the ground, but frantic and headache inducing while they're in space. I think things would have gone over a bit more smoothly if a half hour had been taken out of the script and Eastwood had directed the whole film in his trademark, meandering sort of way.
Other than the acting and a lot of really entertaining scenes, there isn't much to "Space Cowboys". The special effects are nice, but certainly nothing spectacular. The training scenes may run on far too long, but they're sure a whole lot of fun. The score from Clint Eastwood's favorite composer, Lennie Niehaus, is nice, but after Trevor Rabin's outstanding, rousing score from "Armageddon" (I said it was going to draw unfair comparisons), this one just doesn't stand up. Despite these factors, "Space Cowboys" is still enjoyable enough that it was well on its way to a full four star rating until the last half hour hit. In that last half hour every heart string tugging cliche in the book was hurled at me till I felt like knocking it down more than just one notch. "Space Cowboys" did force me to reconsider a statement I made earlier this month. I said that all movies in Hollywood should be restricted in length to one hour, because writers seemed to run out of ideas at that point. I'm changing that statement to all movies should be written and ready to go, and then have the last half hour done away with. Granted, there are exceptions, this year's "X-Men" springs to mind, but for the most part I think this would benefit Hollywood greatly. "Space Cowboys" runs a long 129 minutes, and I recommend it to just about any age group, though senior citizens will probably get more out of it than kids. I give the move three and a half out of five stars.
Comments? Send to: johnbeachem@dependentfilms.net
Past reviews can be found at: http://www.epinions.com/user-elerad?public=yes or http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?John+Beachem
* * * * * - One of the best movies of the year. * * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad, see it at your own risk. * - See this one only if you enjoy pain.
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