Review: Space Cowboys

Clint Eastwood is not known for making things easy. He produced and directed ``Space Cowboys'', and made it as realistic as he could. I'll give him credit: he did a pretty good job. The plot is fairly simple: a Russian Cold-War era satellite is about to burn up in Earth's atmosphere unless Clint Eastwood's character (who designed the guidance system used onboard) can fix it. The catch is, he's about 70 years old, and won't do it unless NASA agrees to reunite his old Air Force team for the job. Reluctant at first, NASA agrees to launch the group of senior citizens to save the day.

First off: I liked this movie. The plot is as old as the hills, and any plot twists are telegraphed so obviously that the Big Surprise near the end is anything but. Still, it was funny, and Eastwood did go a long way trying to get things as accurate as possible. He used a lot of real NASA simulators and technology, and filmed a lot of the movie on location at Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center. Eastwood obviously is pro-space, bless him, and it shows in the movie.

Second off: the movie has an official website, www.spacecowboys.net. The website is well done and has lots of info about the flick, and even includes a timeline of real NASA space events.

Since this was a first-run movie, I'll put my Bad Astronomy review on a separate page. Be warned: if you haven't seen the movie, the review will spoil the plot.