I
guess that Senator John Glenn proved the old saying- "you’re never
too old." If a man of Glenn’s age can go up into space, then
a movie about a space shuttle mission involving a group of over-the-hill
astronauts has got to have some level of credibility. With SPACE COWBOYS
($27), craggy faced actor/director Clint Eastwood gets to make fun of
his own image as an aging leading man and show that he still does have
the right stuff.
The
plot of SPACE COWBOYS concerns a group of four air force fly boys,
who were on the fast track to becoming the first men in space, until the
government redefined the playing field by creating a civilian space agency
in the late 1950s. More than forty years pass, with each of the four moving
on with his life and career. However, when an important, but outmoded
Russian communications satellite is in danger of crashing back to Earth,
it is necessary to bring in the only person that still understands the
antiquated technology. Clint Eastwood portrays Frank Corvin, the designer
of the satellite’s navigation system, who is the absolute last hope of
preventing that old orbiting bird from taking a final swan dive. Since
the satellite is too large to retrieve with the space shuttle, Corvin
agrees to fix the satellite in orbit, as long as he is allowed to take
his own team into space with him. With no other choice, NASA chief Bob
Gerson (James Cromwell) agrees to Corvin’s terms, provided that all four
old codgers pass the agency’s physical requirements for space flight.
SPACE
COWBOYS also stars Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner
as the remaining three members of the team, who finally get the chance
to be astronauts after being passed over so many years before. Much of
SPACE COWBOYS proves to be an out and out laugh riot, with the
over-the-hill gang preparing to take their last hurrah in space. All four
actors play off each other beautifully and there is a real sense of camaraderie
between these well-known leading men. As director, Eastwood applies a
very light touch, since his veteran cast already knows how to work the
comedic aspects of the material. Sutherland is pretty hilarious and just
about manages to steal every scene he is in. Portions of the plot are
vaguely reminiscent of ARMAGEDDON, but at least SPACE COWBOYS
doesn’t insult the audience’s intelligence the way that overblown space
opera did. It should also be noted that SPACE COWBOYS features
the one nude scene that we all really could have done without. The cast
of SPACE COWBOYS also includes Marcia Gay Harden, William Devane,
Loren Dean, Courtney B. Vance, Rade Serbedzija, Barbara Babcock, Blair
Brown and Jay Leno.
Warner
Home Video has made SPACE COWBOYS available on DVD in its proper
2.35:1 aspect ratio and the presentation has been enhanced for playback
on 16:9 displays. Like any new major studio movie, SPACE COWBOYS
looks great on DVD. The image is clean, crisp and very well defined. There
are only a handful of shots that appear mildly softer than the main body
of the film. Colors are generally fresh and vibrant, plus the flesh tones
are always very appealing. Stronger hues are completely stable, with no
signs of smearing. Blacks are pure and the image produces excellent shadow
detail and very smooth contrast. The film element used for the transfer
is free from blemishes and noticeable grain is limited to only a few shots.
Digital compression artifacts remain out of sight on this smartly authored
dual layer DVD.
Much
of SPACE COWBOYS is dialogue driven, so the Dolby Digital 5.1 channel
soundtrack is kind of reserved, except of course, during the film’s action
sequences. When the track kicks into the action mode, it is aggressively
mixed with plenty of sound effect activity coming from all the discrete
channels. The split surround channels are effectively deployed and there
is equally good channel separation in the forward soundstage, which creates
a very cohesive and enveloping sonic environment. Dialogue is crisply
rendered and fully intelligible throughout the feature. The bass channel
rocks the house when it has to and remains solid at all other times. Lennie
Niehaus’ score is nicely recorded and is reproduced with high musical
fidelity. A French 5.1 soundtrack is also encoded onto the DVD, as are
English and French subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound enhance the interactive menus. Through
the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection and set up features,
as well as some extras. Four featurettes have been included in the package
and they are they prove to be fairly enjoyable. The first is Up
Close With the Editor, which runs about seven minutes and features
an interview with editor Joel Cox, who talks about how the film was assembled.
Second is Tonight With Leno, which is an unedited version
of The Tonight Show appearance that the film’s four central characters
make during the movie. This segment runs over ten minutes and includes
a short interview with Leno. The Effects is the third featurette,
which clocks in at just over seven minutes and includes an interview with
Visual Effects Supervisor Michael Owens. The fourth featurette is Back
at the Ranch: A Look Behind the Scenes, which includes interviews
with the cast can production team. Running over twenty-eight minutes,
this is the longest featurette and certainly the most interesting, since
it covers the production in more detail. A theatrical trailer and cast
filmographies fill out the DVD’s video extras. SPACE COWBOYS is
also DVD-ROM enabled, offering a number of web links for those so inclined.
I
found SPACE COWBOYS to be a genuine hoot of a movie that will appeal
to fans of any of the film’s four leading men. If the latest Freddie Prinze
Jr. youth comedy is more your style, you may not be as fond of SPACE
COWBOYS as someone with more mature tastes. Still, the DVD looks and
sounds great, so if any aspect of SPACE COWBOYS interests to you,
you can’t go wrong in picking up a copy of this disc.
I
guess that Senator John Glenn proved the old saying- "you’re never
too old." If a man of Glenn’s age can go up into space, then
a movie about a space shuttle mission involving a group of over-the-hill
astronauts has got to have some level of credibility. With SPACE COWBOYS
($27), craggy faced actor/director Clint Eastwood gets to make fun of
his own image as an aging leading man and show that he still does have
the right stuff.
The
plot of SPACE COWBOYS concerns a group of four air force fly boys,
who were on the fast track to becoming the first men in space, until the
government redefined the playing field by creating a civilian space agency
in the late 1950s. More than forty years pass, with each of the four moving
on with his life and career. However, when an important, but outmoded
Russian communications satellite is in danger of crashing back to Earth,
it is necessary to bring in the only person that still understands the
antiquated technology. Clint Eastwood portrays Frank Corvin, the designer
of the satellite’s navigation system, who is the absolute last hope of
preventing that old orbiting bird from taking a final swan dive. Since
the satellite is too large to retrieve with the space shuttle, Corvin
agrees to fix the satellite in orbit, as long as he is allowed to take
his own team into space with him. With no other choice, NASA chief Bob
Gerson (James Cromwell) agrees to Corvin’s terms, provided that all four
old codgers pass the agency’s physical requirements for space flight.
SPACE
COWBOYS also stars Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner
as the remaining three members of the team, who finally get the chance
to be astronauts after being passed over so many years before. Much of
SPACE COWBOYS proves to be an out and out laugh riot, with the
over-the-hill gang preparing to take their last hurrah in space. All four
actors play off each other beautifully and there is a real sense of camaraderie
between these well-known leading men. As director, Eastwood applies a
very light touch, since his veteran cast already knows how to work the
comedic aspects of the material. Sutherland is pretty hilarious and just
about manages to steal every scene he is in. Portions of the plot are
vaguely reminiscent of ARMAGEDDON, but at least SPACE COWBOYS
doesn’t insult the audience’s intelligence the way that overblown space
opera did. It should also be noted that SPACE COWBOYS features
the one nude scene that we all really could have done without. The cast
of SPACE COWBOYS also includes Marcia Gay Harden, William Devane,
Loren Dean, Courtney B. Vance, Rade Serbedzija, Barbara Babcock, Blair
Brown and Jay Leno.
Warner
Home Video has made SPACE COWBOYS available on DVD in its proper
2.35:1 aspect ratio and the presentation has been enhanced for playback
on 16:9 displays. Like any new major studio movie, SPACE COWBOYS
looks great on DVD. The image is clean, crisp and very well defined. There
are only a handful of shots that appear mildly softer than the main body
of the film. Colors are generally fresh and vibrant, plus the flesh tones
are always very appealing. Stronger hues are completely stable, with no
signs of smearing. Blacks are pure and the image produces excellent shadow
detail and very smooth contrast. The film element used for the transfer
is free from blemishes and noticeable grain is limited to only a few shots.
Digital compression artifacts remain out of sight on this smartly authored
dual layer DVD.
Much
of SPACE COWBOYS is dialogue driven, so the Dolby Digital 5.1 channel
soundtrack is kind of reserved, except of course, during the film’s action
sequences. When the track kicks into the action mode, it is aggressively
mixed with plenty of sound effect activity coming from all the discrete
channels. The split surround channels are effectively deployed and there
is equally good channel separation in the forward soundstage, which creates
a very cohesive and enveloping sonic environment. Dialogue is crisply
rendered and fully intelligible throughout the feature. The bass channel
rocks the house when it has to and remains solid at all other times. Lennie
Niehaus’ score is nicely recorded and is reproduced with high musical
fidelity. A French 5.1 soundtrack is also encoded onto the DVD, as are
English and French subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound enhance the interactive menus. Through
the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection and set up features,
as well as some extras. Four featurettes have been included in the package
and they are they prove to be fairly enjoyable. The first is Up
Close With the Editor, which runs about seven minutes and features
an interview with editor Joel Cox, who talks about how the film was assembled.
Second is Tonight With Leno, which is an unedited version
of The Tonight Show appearance that the film’s four central characters
make during the movie. This segment runs over ten minutes and includes
a short interview with Leno. The Effects is the third featurette,
which clocks in at just over seven minutes and includes an interview with
Visual Effects Supervisor Michael Owens. The fourth featurette is Back
at the Ranch: A Look Behind the Scenes, which includes interviews
with the cast can production team. Running over twenty-eight minutes,
this is the longest featurette and certainly the most interesting, since
it covers the production in more detail. A theatrical trailer and cast
filmographies fill out the DVD’s video extras. SPACE COWBOYS is
also DVD-ROM enabled, offering a number of web links for those so inclined.
I
found SPACE COWBOYS to be a genuine hoot of a movie that will appeal
to fans of any of the film’s four leading men. If the latest Freddie Prinze
Jr. youth comedy is more your style, you may not be as fond of SPACE
COWBOYS as someone with more mature tastes. Still, the DVD looks and
sounds great, so if any aspect of SPACE COWBOYS interests to you,
you can’t go wrong in picking up a copy of this disc.
