Hey folks, Harry here with a look at SPACE COWBOYS from constant chatters... GLENGARRY and PERSONA who got a look at the latest from Clint Eastwood at a nation wide paid sneak preview of the film yesterday.. I've been getting a good deal of pretty positive reviews for the film, but I'm sure there's a bunch of you good folks that want to talk back about what ya saw yesterday so.... let's group it all here beneath Persona & Glengarry's review... take care....
Hey Harry-
It's been awhile since I popped into the chatroom. Had some time and decided to type up alittle something about SPACE COWBOYS. Here is a rather interesting movie. For those of you familiar with Clint Eastwood's directoral efforts, you'll feel right at home with the leisurely pace and romantic and lighthearted tone. Combine the style of Clint Eastwood's directing with the formulaic "space adventure" and "old man humor" genre's and you have SPACE COWBOYS.
The film begins with a black and white introduction of essentially the two main characters of this film, Frank Corvin and Will Hawkins. Here we have two Clint and Tommy Lee Jones look-alikes hotdogging it in the California desert chatting it up with CLINT AND TOMMY LEE's voices! Bizarre to say the least. Not really distracting, but weird. It's funny to think what Clint REALLY looked like when he was younger and see this guy try to live up t! o the squinty eyed standard. At any rate, it's a suitable introduction, giving us an idea of the characters traits.
Then we're taken to present day. A Russian satellite is falling fast and we're told it would send Russia into "civil war". Seriously, I think a loaf of bread would sooner do it than a 20 year old satellite. Anyway, Clint designed the technology that it's operating on (and although it's never revealed exactly how the Russians acquired said technology, it's hinted at that James Cromwell's character may have leaked it to the Commies [and yeah, Cromwell's playing a Southern version of the head of police he did in LA CONFIDENTIAL, a real SOB). Cromwell eventually allows Clint to take his crew from their past project, Daedulus, although he doesn't think they can pass the physical requirements (huh, bullshit, then there wouldn't be a movie). We get the obligitory recruitment scenes. Very funny stuff. You know you've seen this stuff before, but not with actors you've! kinda taken seriously over the years. And that's not to say this is a bad movie or the scenes are handled incorrectly, it's just the combination of Clint's tone filming the scenes and the library of work you're recalling as you're seeing the scenes. Here we have Donald Sutherland testing roller coasters and sporting a ponytail while eating a banana and trying to get his Viagra going on anything with tits and a pulse. During this I'm seeing Mr.X from JFK. His haunting presence and attitude. And we pretty much feel this way throughout the film with all the actors. Tommy taking some dumbass kid with a sexy girlfriend up for a puke-ride in his biplane. And James Garner...well...nevermind. Anyway they eventually get to go up, with some startling revelations and genuinely tender moments. But in a movie like this, you can pretty much guess the outcome, right? Well, at this point, sure. Grumpy Old Astronauts. You're thinking, Sutherland popping wood in space. Tommy Lee joyriding the ! Space Shuttle. Then it turns into something of a thriller. They get to the satellite and discover something they're not really prepared for, to say the least. The special effects at this point are superb. In my opinion, far better than ARMAGEDDON or DEEP IMPACT. And by the way, we are treated to an asshole younger astronaut breaking rules and flaunting his youth in front of the older guys. He's somewhat of an annoyance. The film progresses very well, forcing us upon the tension quickly, as a real situation such as theirs probably would. The characters and dialogue are charismatic and involving, giving us some great jokes along the way, most of which come from the guys experience with the medical tests. Don't go seeing this film with a history book or your common sense. It's a good movie. That's it.
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Glengarry
Hey folks, Harry here again with Persona's look at SPACE COWBOYS.... enjoy...
Hey Harry, this is Persona from the chatroom. Attached is a review of the movie Space Cowboys, which I pretty much liked.
Grr....the attachment didn't get sent...here's try number 2.
Well, I just got back from the sneak preview of Space Cowboys.
The Details:
Space Cowboys has a bad trailer. If you've seen it, you know what I mean. The movie looks bad. Space Cowboys is not an excellent movie. Space Cowboys is a movie that you will like if: a) you aren't tired of astronaut-saving-the-world movies b) you like the actors a lot (not a hard thing to do) or c) you are over 55 and like the idea of a movie that shows senior citizens kicking the butt of everyone under 30. I think it's pretty safe to say nobody in category c reads this site.
Since I don't feel like being very clever, I've arranged my impressions of the movie as a series of Random Thoughts:
(only very minor spoilers)
This movie has one of the slowest establishing shots I've seen in a LONG time.
This movie contains more naked old men butt than I've ever wanted to see. Coming on the heels of "Waking Ned Devine" I may be scarred for life. If this becomes a Hollywood trend I might consider taking Dramamine before movies.
Jay Leno must have a very lucrative side business interviewing fictional characters in movies on his show. That's probably how he affords all those cars.
There aren't any kids in this movie. And only 2 teenagers in a brief scene.
This movie relies WAY too much on the old standard tech speak solution, as follows:
Engineer Well, we might be able to solve our hugely impossible problem that is not adequately explained to the audience by re-configuring the doohickey to intersect the sprocket at the precise angle of target velocity. Navigator And we only have a .5 millisecond time frame! We're only gonna get the one shot!
Pilot This is insane! But I would like to point out that this is the only way to do it!
Cut to:
Ground Control
Wow! I'm suitably impressed that these guys have come up with such a great but risky plan on the spur of the moment, even though I have no idea what they're talking about! And because I'm impressed, you in the audience should be too!
Cut to: Audience
(slightly confused)
Uh...Yeah, we buy it!
This movie is pretty funny. Yeah, it's mostly old age jokes, but they work.
It's almost a law that an astronaut movie has to have someone upchuck. This movie has one of the grossest puke scenes in recent memory.
James Garner and Donald Sutherland are underused. Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones are both great in this movie. Shooting the opening of the movie, which takes place in 1958, entirely on black and white film is, depending on your viewpoint, either very pretentious or really cool.
The SFX are pretty decent.
I didn't know that astronauts go up into space and then come back down all in the same day. Since they apparently do, I want to go on a day excursion to see the Hubble Telescope and take some space junk home as a souvenir.
NASA needs to hire better groundskeepers.
Joke they could have used but (thankfully) didn't: "I'm too old for this shit"
Nobody in this movie is referred to as a "space cowboy". Thank goodness.
That whole Russian satellite thing sounds stupid, but it sorta makes sense in the movie. This movie requires that you suspend some of your critical thinking skills, but at least they didn't break any laws of physics in a super obvious way. (Like Armageddon and Mission to Mars did.)
So, basically, this movie is pretty fun and I bet most of you folks (even the young geezers) will enjoy it.
Your fun-loving chat addict, Persona.
