Marooned

An all star cast and some Academy Award winning, old-school special effects power 1969's MAROONED to decent but deliberate heights.

Astronauts Gene Hackman, Richard Crenna and James Franciscus are stranded in orbit above the Earth aboard Ironman One when their retro rockets fail to fire.

As efforts to correct the problem repeatedly fail, the trio deal with the stress with leadership, humor and meltdowns within the confined environment of the capsule.

Gregory Peck is at his best as NASA head Charles Keith. Along with David Jannsen on the ground, they work to launch a rescue vehicle in the middle of a hurricane.

Lee Grant, Nancy Kovack and Mariette Hartley play the astronauts wives and as you might expect, they are the cliche new wife, veteran wife and stressed out spouse per the mechanics of the rather predictable screenplay.

The film is very slow, but never boring and could have used a music score. It has virtually no music, just some humming and electronic effects that may have seemed futuristic in 1969, but now just seems dull.

It's old fashioned and slow, but the cast keeps the whole adventure flying.

We'll leave it orbiting with a B-.