Space Cowboys (2000)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Dr. Frank Corvin	Clint Eastwood	½
William 'Hawk' Hawkins	Tommy Lee Jones
Jerry O'Neill	Donald Sutherland
Tank Sullivan	James Garner
Bob Gerson	James Cromwell
Sara Holland	Marcia Gay Harden	½
Gene Davis	William Devane	½
Ethan Glance	Loren Dean
Roger Hines	Courtney B. Vance
General Vostow	Rade Serbedzija

Review

This senior citizen adventure functions as a swan-song for four fine aging actors as well as for the four characters embodied by them. Eastwood, Jones, Sutherland and Garner aren't acting as much as they are performing an epitome of their respective careers, but it's carried out with such joy, thankfulness and honesty that it works as an incredible inspiration for the entire movie. Although Space Cowboys is essentially a space-action movie, it is clearly a Clint Eastwood-version of that. Without subjecting to emotional outburst, Eastwood has an efficient way of portraying human relations on film, and he delivers again with this movie. Sure, there is a fair share of quite predictable and trivial stuff here (especially in the dialogue, and particularly with the Cromwell and Devane characters), but then again that is how the "bad guys" used to be when these four actors "grew up" in front of the camera. What is not to be undermined, however, is that this is actually both a thoughtful drama and a clever sci-fi (even if the cold war politics seem a bit too resilient). Of the four leads, only James Garner seem a bit weary, but then again he is the senior in the group. Sutherland and Jones both shine and are clearly having a great time. And so are we.