Seems Corvin once designed the guidance system for Skylab, which somehow found its way into Russian hands and now he's the only one left alive who can troubleshoot the glitch. When it's discovered that the obsolete guidance system of a former Soviet satellite has failed and that the bird is about to come crashing to earth, plunging Mother Russia into a communications blackout unless it can be fixed, Air Force retiree Frank Corvin (Eastwood) is called in by NASA (of course, we and the Evil Empire are now in cahoots).
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It's all part of the theme of personal frailty, which is actually "Cowboy's" real forte: the human story it builds slowly, and not the special effects (courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic). So why are there all these jokes about nearsightedness, false teeth, incontinence and dead colleagues? Never mind. Never mind that Jones would have been 11 in 1958-it's called acting! And the characters they play, a team of hot-dogging former Air Force test pilots once in line for the space program before being unceremoniously flushed out when NASA took over outer atmosphere exploration, are apparently now supposed to be bitter sixty-somethings. Eastwood, 70, Tommy Lee Jones, 53, James Garner, 72, and Donald Sutherland, 66, are not that old. Furthermore, by being so equivocal (damning with faint praise as it were), I realize I run the risk of being perceived as ageist, since all four of the film's stars were mature working actors back when God was still a boy. It's like a tall glass of warm skim milk before bedtime: probably good for me but nothing I need to drive out of my way to get.
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Fitfully amusing and-after an overlong and somewhat earthbound buildup-even moderately suspenseful, the Clint Eastwood-directed tale of sexagenarian astronaut heroics is too benign to condemn outright but far too bland to wholeheartedly recommend. And this sci-fi drama is no bowser.īut it ain't "2001: A Space Odyssey," either. Dogs are a piece of cake to review, believe me. IT'S MOVIES like "Space Cowboys" that make life difficult, and not because it's unrelievedly awful.