Marooned
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Movie Reviews of Marooned
Movie Review: The thinking man's disaster movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This thriller came out months before Apollo 13 was launched and while it could be said it is an omen, really this is a white knuckle thriller.
Three astronauts are trapped in space after their retro's won't fire to let them come home. The rest is a race to try to save the men even though most think it is a lost cause. Simple as that,but the thrills all stem from that and if you let it will pull you in and make you sweat.
The cast is great and the F/X are great,so sit back and see how to make a thriller that doesn't relie on guns and explosions to keep you engrossed!
Movie Review: Marooned in Space. No Power, No Air, No Heat. Just Hope.
Summary: 5 Stars
Marooned
Three astronauts are traped in space with a retro rocket that will not fire, running out of Air, Power and Heat. How do they get home. In orbit 200 miles above the earth. Only the senior astronaut on the ground has a plan that might save them. You need to watch this movie to see if MAROONED astronauts have a chance to get home alive. A must see Movie for all.
Movie Review: Great suspense.
Summary: 5 Stars
If you liked Apollo 13, you should love this space suspense film that came out at the height of the space program. The special effects are good, the acting great, the story and screenplay (concerning a rescue attempt of stranded astronauts) suspenseful and dramatic. It's hard to find many serious science fiction films that will satisfy a space enthusiast - this is one of the few, along with Destination Moon and Mission to Mars.Movie Review: TOP NOTCH
Summary: 5 Stars
Marooned is a very well written movie with an all star cast, excellent story line, and a must have for your movie collection. A Sci-Fi about our space program, and the risks involved with space flight. It touches on achievements, team effort, and tragic developments. If you haven't seen it, you're missing a really great film.
Thomas
Movie Review: That Gene Hackman sure uses a lot of oxygen...
Summary: 4 Stars
While watching Marooned (1969), one can't help but make comparisons to Ron Howard's much more successful and popular Apollo 13 (1995), but, as the latter was based on real life events, Marooned supposes a very likely scenario, one that asks what would happen if astronauts were stranded in space, unable to return to Earth. Oddly enough, similar events did occur in 1970, a year after Maroon's release, events that eventually became incorporated into the film Apollo 13...sweet irony...written by Martin Caidin, who also created the Bionic Man, and directed by John Sturges, who did films like Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), and Ice Station Zebra (1968), Marooned enlists a highly capable and talented group of actors including Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus, Gene Hackman (with hair even), and Lee Grant.
The film starts off with a seemingly routine launch of Ironman One and three astronauts, Jim Pruett (Crenna), Clayton Stone, or Stoney (Franciscus), and Buzz Lloyd (Hackman) into space. Their mission is to dock with an orbiting station, remain there for about seven months, and then return. The basic goal is to evaluate the effect of keeping men in space for long periods of time, with an eye towards manned space missions to other planets within our system. After about five months (in movie time, of course), the men begin to show fatigue, getting a bit careless with some of the non-vital equipment, and the decision is made to have them return a bit early. They return to the capsule, begin their preparations to return to Earth. Everything seems to be going alright, that is, until the computer fails to fire rockets meant to push them into their descent. Nothing appears to be malfunctioning, but the rocket won't fire. Well now this is a pickle...returning to the space station isn't an option as it's too far away. What to do? Charles Keith (Peck), head of manned space missions at NASA, comes to the conclusion that the situation is what it is...the men, having limited oxygen (we learn that the capsule will probably return to Earth under the natural pull of gravity in about five to seven years), that they are pretty much doomed, as there isn't time sufficient to launch a rescue operation. You see, all these scenarios have been developed, and the men who go into space are `professionals' as Keith put it, and full on knew the inherit risks in their particular occupation. Ted Dougherty (Janssen), second in command behind Keith, is a bit more emotional about the situation, pushing for a rescue operation, despite all the data supporting the fact that it can't be done. So the fate of these three men is sealed? It would seem so, until Keith gets a call from The President...that's right, the big cheese, the head honcho, the main man...who tells Keith that it's all of their best interests to attempt a rescue operation. Not doing so would not only be the equivalent of political suicide for the president, but also it would effectively curtail, maybe even end, any future manned space missions. Given his orders, Keith gives the order to go ahead with the manned rescue mission, piloted by Doughtery. Will he succeed? Unlikely, as the amount of time involved in prepping a manned launch into space is extraordinary, and given the amount of oxygen the three men have left, it seems futile at best. Oh yeah, on top of everything else, a hurricane is approaching the launch site at the very time the rescue ship is to be launched...when it rains, it pours...
The film is a bit dry at times, given to so much technical information related throughout the film, but it really seemed the makers of the film focused on trying to make everything as realistic as possible. I wouldn't have thought a manned space mission could be put together so quickly, but it was made to seem almost possible here. Crenna, Franciscus, and Hackman are great as the three marooned astronauts, each reacting in their own particular ways to not only the claustrophobia of the tiny capsule, but also the knowledge that they are basically dead men floating, and their time extremely limited. I did feel Hackman's character, especially when he started losing it, seemed a bit out of character, as I would have thought dispositions to that kind of thing would have been screened out in the selection program, but who knows? Even the hardest egg can crack, given the right amount of pressures. Peck was great as the calm, cool, logical, seemingly detached from humanity man in charge, making the difficult decisions, keeping everything on track. He played the role of the pragmatic perfectly, appearing to be the `bad guy' at times, but ultimately coming through as the perfect man to be in charge, especially at a time like this. This comes through the most when Keith informs the three man crew of a particularly difficult decision that they have to make, one you wouldn't wish on anyone. Janssen was also very good, but again, another character that seemed out of character, especially when he went off on Peck's character in their dispute over mounting a rescue operation. Flying off the handle doesn't seem like a characteristic I would want in someone in such a position, especially given the nature of the circumstances, but hey, I'm only along for the ride...
Anyway, is this movie any good? I thought so, despite it's over two hour run time (I think it ended up being like 130 minutes). I did feel a slight lack of chemistry between some of the characters, especially the astronauts, compared to those in the film Apollo 13, and there was less character development, too, but I still enjoyed the film. The wide screen print is really sharp, along with the audio. No special features except a few trailers for other science fiction films.
Cookieman108