It's hard to imagine a bunch of world class movie stars having any more laid back fun than Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner in SPACE COWBOYS.
When a Russian satellite runs into trouble and begins descending out of orbit, no one can decipher the decades old code of its operating system. NASA calls on retired engineer Frank Corvin (Eastwood) to fix the problem.
Frank decides the best way to help is to assemble his retired team from 40 years ago for a space shuttle mission. The first half of the film has a lot of fun showing Frank recruiting his grumpy old partner Hawk (Jones), former Air Force man and current minister Tank (Garner) and ladies man Jerry (Sutherland in a hilarious role) to the mission.
James Cromwell makes a great bad guy as the NASA man determined to keep them from making the flight and Marcia Gay Harden is terrific as a supportive team member who grows fond of her crew.
Eastwood directs effortlessly, keeping the story moving with humor, drama and a light touch. The special effects are first class, the cast is fantastic down to the last player and there's a lot more to the mission (and the story) than you might expect.
Clever, well executed fun that delivers plenty of laughs, suspense and drama in one very well assembled package.
We'll give Eastwood and crew a very solid B.
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