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That was an excellent one.

Expected more

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Blistering performances.

In 1958 four Air Force test pilots, Frank(Clint Eastwood),Hawk(Tommy Lee Jones), Jerry( Donald Sutherland), and Tank would test jets to the limit. They are Team Daedalus always pushing the limits, and hopping one day be the first ones on the moon. One day Hawk along with Frank push a jet too hard and they have to bail from the air craft. Frank and Hawk parachute out and the jet crashes. Frank and Hawk report to Major Gersion office( James Cromwell), to explain why they crashed a four million dollar jet. After the brief Gersion has Frank come to a press conference. The big news is that the Air Force Test program will be handed over to a new agency NASA( National Aeronautical Space Administration). They will be taking over everything, and will be sending the 1st in to space. Meet Mary Ann, an ape, she will be the first to orbit around Earth. When Frank is introduced to her he is P****D off. He will never forget this day and never forgive Gersion.It is forty years later, Johnson Space Center, Houston TX. NASA has discovered a problem with a fourteen year old Russian Satellite. It is going to crash soon, and they need help finding the person who designed the guidance system. The problem is that this guidance system pre-date micro-processors, it old. Sara(Marcia Gay Harden), is an engineer with NASA, and she has to find out who is responsible before it crashes. Gersion tells her, so she and Ethan(Loren Dean) who is an astronaut find Frank. When they arrive at Franks home they explain the situation. Frank finds out that his guidance system made it's way on a Russian Satellite during the Cold War, he flips. He is shocked and wonders how it got on there is the first place; but no one knows. At first he refuses to help, he asks them both to leave; especially Ethan. Later on Frank re-thinks it, and eventually helps out. When he shows up in Gersons office, who has an Administration Job with NASA. Frank and Gersion go back and forth, arguing. The only way Frank will help out is if Gersion sends up the original Team Daedalus. Gersion is reluctant ; but knows Frank is is only hope.Frank is on is way to round up his team; and quickly. Jerry, who now is a structural engineer who deigns roller coasters. Tank is now a Baptist preacher, who jumps at the chance. Then the toughest is Hawk who now is a crop duster. Hawk and Frank haven't talked in forever so Frank knows this will be tough. Hawk is a no go; but to Franks surprise shows up with the rest at a road side diner. When Team Daedalus show up at Johnson Space Center they meet Gene(William Devane) the flight director. He tells them they must meet the same requirements the other astronauts do. If He finds out Franks team isn't cutting it mentally or physically the plug gets pulled. It is also required that they take two of the top astronauts, come mission time Ethan and Roger( Courtney B. Vance). Team Daedalus begins the training, during this relationships form and Hawk gets some unexpected news before the mission. When the mission comes to retrieve the satellite; the team finally gets their chance to go to space. Once there the team notices the satellite and it's huge. Frank doesn't like the look of it and it doesn't look like an ordinary satellite. When they attempt to get close to it, the satellite has a target system on it. It starts to defend itself, thinking the space shuttle is a bogie. When the team along with Ethan go to investigate it they realize this satellite is armed with nuclear warheads. They return to the shuttle inform Gene and tell him what is going on. While this is going on Ethan goes out unnoticed, arms the satellite. Frank and Hawk go after him to stop him from doing something stupid. It's too late, the satellite is armed and it will crash into Earth unless something is done. A quick plan comes up; and at first it's a big NO. They finally realize this plan is the only way to stop a catastrophe. In the end it was successful; but costly for one in the end.I love this movie, serious actors in a comedy . I loved the story, the relationships that form with all the characters; and the excitement near the end . This film will definitely put a smile on your face; and warmth in your heart. THX, Kris L. CocKayne

This review covers an 'emotional' event at the climax of the movie 'Space Cowboys' which, I believe, reveals either the creative team's woeful ignorance of a few basic principles of physics or their contempt towards their audience with a 'well - they are too ignorant to know the difference so let's include it!' mentality. This relates to Tommy Lee Jones's character, Hawk, falling towards the Moon due to its gravitational field before dying, propped up against a rock, having finally achieved his long-awaited goal of reaching the lunar surface.It is implied that, once the spaceship was closer to the Moon than the Earth, namely just past halfway through their journey, the greater gravitational field of the Moon would cause him to fall towards it rather than towards the Earth. This, however, is manifestly untrue, due to the significantly greater mass of the Earth than the Moon. Given that the Earth's mass is approximately 80 times that of the Moon and gravitational field strength is directly proportional to mass and inversely proportional to distance squared, it is a simple mathematical exercise to show that the point where the two field strengths are equal is actually the square root of 80 (approximately 9) times further from Earth than the Moon. In other words, the spaceship would need to be 90% of the way from the Earth to the Moon, with only 10% of the distance still to go, before the gravitational 'pull' of the Moon upon an object exceeds that of the Earth's 'pull'.A simple analogous comparison can be made between this and the gravitational attraction on Earth compared with that of a small permanent magnet. Because the former is much stronger than the latter, a small iron paper clip, on Earth, would fall downwards rather than 'leap' upwards towards a small magnet held 1 metre above it. If, however, the magnet was only 1 centimetre above the paper clip, instead of 1 metre, the greater strength of the magnetic field, due to the smaller distance between the magnet and the paper clip, than the gravitational field exerted by the Earth would cause it to move upwards.Therefore, the spaceship needed to be much closer to the Moon - and therefore further from the Earth - for Hawk's fall to be physically possible, but I assume that this would not have fitted in with the simple 'oh they are halfway there - that will be close enough!' idea employed in the movie.This leads onto a second problem that I have with this part of the movie: Hawk's landing on the surface of the Moon. He uses an escape pod with no apparent facility to control its rate of descent to travel in, which would make the experience similar to plummeting towards the surface of the Earth without a parachute. On the positive side, the Moon is lighter than the Earth, so the rate of acceleration during the descent would be less than if the mass of the Moon was equal to that of the Earth; however, on the negative side, as the Moon has no atmosphere, there would be no air resistance to act against the acceleration caused by this gravitational attraction. There would therefore be no terminal velocity reached and Hawk's craft would probably hit the surface of the Moon harder than if he had fallen and landed - without the benefit of a parachute - from an aeroplane 10 miles above the Earth's surface. A much faster death, admittedly, than slow death by cancer, but not the version shown at the end of the movie!In fantasy or Sci-Fi movies I am happy for the laws of science to be modified, and for wormholes in time, spaceships moving at warp speed and men able to fly wearing red capes to proliferate, but for a plot ostensibly set in the 'real' world - Armstrong, Glenn and Shepard all get a name check after all! - the 'real' laws of science need to be obeyed for the story to be credible. In my opinion, when this is not the case the movie as a whole suffers as a consequence.

I rarely leave a unfinished movie. but this sucked,just like the eastwood's heartbreak ridge.the story is too cheesy and thin.i mean if you watch the movie after half and hour it doesn't really matters because during that time nothing happens to affect the main story line.Their young selves are not shown in great deal so we know nothing about their friendship. Also how idiotically they all agree on this minute just waste of time and the movie didnot had to be that long ,this eastwood fully on autopilot . i am not even sure there was a proper screenplay, i think they just played it as they went on. all that i am old but i am good stuff.all that arrogant stuff. well i am pretty much over it. So i guess eastwood is dirty harry in all his movie.

What movie with Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones. James Garner, James Cromwell, Donald Sutherland, and Marcia Gay Harden wouldn't be worth a look. This one has it all, but mostly laughs. This Clint Eastwood produced and directed movie is great simply because the cast doesn't appear to take it seriously. They are just having fun. And special effects? They are better here than other movies like Armageddon and Deep Impact. If you like movies where people are considered outdated or replaceable and prove the experts wrong, then this is the one. I watch it and keep getting reminded about all those COBOL experts who were back making the big bucks just prior to the millennium change.