2000 - SPACE COWBOYS, entertaining old guy picture

A Russian satellite whose orbit is decaying is beginning to enter Earth's atmosphere.  It's an older satellite from the 1960's and it just happens to be carry a bunch of nuclear weapons.  We need Clint Eastwood and his gang of old guys to fly into space and deal with it since they are the only ones who can remember how this old equipment works. A rather far fetched plot line.

Before the journey Clint and his gang have to deal with old ageism in the space program and an evil project manager that Clint locked horns with in the past so the team can save the world.

 

I will give credit to Clint Eastwood or whoever cast this film, Space Cowboys has an enjoyable cast of old  guy actors.  Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner and Donald Sutherland are his team from the good old days.  At NASA, William Devane, Marcia Gay Harden, Blair Brown and James Cromwell as the hissable villain make up Clint's ground support.

 

The film has special effects by ILM the George Lucas company and the whole film is photographed and directed in Clint's usual non showy style.  This is what I would call a "comfort food" movie.  The actors do a good enough job to make this rather obvious story entertaining.   The special effects are good enough to satisfy the space nerds watching the film.  Overall the film has a nice nostalgic feel to it.

Written by Ken Kaufman and Howard Klausner, the running time is a rather longish 130 minutes.