Two out of
Five stars
Clint stars as Frank Corvin, a retired astronaut whose ‘Team Daedalus’ never actually made it into space back in the 1960s, due to being passed over in favour of a chimp.
However, when a Russian communications satellite suffers a system failure, only Frank is the man with the (out-dated) know-how to sort it out, and he duly re-unites his old team (Garner, Sutherland, Jones) for ‘one last mission’…
Sadly, although a neat idea, the film doesn’t quite work because it wants to
have its cake and eat it too.
The first half is played for laughs with ‘Team Pensioner’ undergoing rigorous training and medicals – at one point they line up naked for a check-up and you can’t help but feel you’ve just been ‘mooned’ by four Hollywood old-timers.
However, once they get into space, the film swiftly becomes the standard sub-Armageddon ‘gung-ho’ action flick and their age doesn’t enter into the plot at all.
That said, there are some stunning visuals and the cast are more than willing to have fun with their images, with Sutherland in particular stealing most of the film’s best moments, either by relentlessly skirt-chasing, faking the sight-test or fixing his false teeth.
There is also capable support from Loren Dean, Marcia Gay Harden (who should immediately fire her hair stylist),James Cromwell and Tommy Lee Jones doing his best work in some time, turning in a surprisingly touching performance.