Can the pioneers who delivered us into the space age save us from a renegade relic from the Cold War? Clint thinks so.

"Space Cowboys" is for all those test pilots and early astronauts who never took the final flight into orbit. In this story we focus on a man named Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood), leader of Team Daedalus, who lost his chance for spaceflight back in 1958 when the space program was placed in the paws of a chimpanzee. Humilated and disgraced Frank and his fellow test pilots were grounded and never got to feel the actual glory of spaceflight.

Well that was until a twist of fate occurred and a huge Russian communication satellite called IKON began crashing into the earth's atmosphere. A relic of the Cold War the satellite just happens to have the same navigation equipment as the now defunct Skylab and as NASA scrambles to find a guy low-tech enough to handle the problem they bump into Frank Corvin 's name. Frank just happened to have created the equipment used in the Skylab and in IKON. Convinced that it will take all of his crew from the past to complete the assignment Frank negotiates with NASA to resurrect Team Daedalus so that his second chance can be felt with all his old teammates.

"Space Cowboys" reminded me a lot of the old film "Tough Guys" with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas as we watch four guys from an era long gone trying to come to terms with the way life is today. I liked the chemistry between the team and their tongue in cheek jokes. Their attitudes and grasping of life will enchant a lot of movie goers who really love someone to cheer for. I liked the friction between the old and new space programs even though it did at times make me wonder why they were portrayed to be stupid.

Sure "Cowboys" is a fantasy film but I liked how they tried so very hard to keep it down to earth in the first three quarters. It's the last quarter I really had a problem with. The belief that these guys were so down to earth seems to be shattered as soon as they uncover the secret of their true mission. Through that journey we seem to lose who they are as a team and their whole charisma. I liked the scene close to the end of Eastwood floating across the Earth and finally realizing he did make it. But after that the film seemed rushed and I never fully understood what they were actually doing to stop the eminent threat.

When you see "Cowboys" ask yourself one question was the crisis involved in Tommy Lee's character really needed to reach the final result?

(4 of 5) So Says the Soothsayer.

The Russian "communications" satellite, IKON, is on a death spiral into the atmosphere of our dear planet. It's antiquated guidance system has been unresponsive to all NASA communications and the Russians want it returned to a normal orbit. Problem: no one knows how to fix the thing...except for one man. Frank Corvin, retired engineer, member of the Daedelus project in 1958, and the man who originally designed the guidance system used in the IKON satellite, is called in to fix it. Frank, Hawk Hawkins, Jerry O'Neil, and Tank Sullivan were the supposed to be the first men in space in 1958, but were replaced by a chimpanzee needless to say Frank does not pass up this opportunity to blackmail NASA and get his buddies and himself into space.

Plot: Any story that can put four old men in space believably deserves a high amount of praise... especially if it can put those old men in tense, action-filled situations. But, like all scripts, this script is full of problems. The biggest one is simply the pacing of the film, Frank and his crew are on Terra Firma for at least an hour and a half. It doesn't take the audience that long to realize that these old men got screwed over in the past and they want to go into space. There isn't enough story development to justify it's hour and a half run time. Likewise the conflicts and events that take place in space happen too quickly. Also, I found it hard to believe that all the engineers and scientists within NASA couldn't figure out how to fix IKON. But, this film had something most summer films don't... A STORY. Not just that, but a story that makes some sense and character motivations are believable and logical. A noteworthy effort from Ken Kaufman and Howard Klausner for their first script collaboration. ***1/2(out of five)

Acting: "Clint, you're back!" Clint Eastwood, also the name Marty McFly took on in Back to The Future Part III, is simply the man and, as expected, he does a great job playing a caricature of himself. Veteran actors James Garner, Donald Sutherland, and Al Gore's college roommate Tommy Lee Jones make up the rest of the main cast. After seeing this film I believe that these old men (Tommy Lee Jones is 18 years younger than the oldest of the four... James Garner) need to be in a whole series of films, the on-screen chemistry between these four is fantastic. I wish as much could be said about the supporting cast. The only person worth noting for their quality work is James Cromwell... who usually does a good job anyway. The rest of the cast puts major emphasis on the word "supporting". They are clearly only there so the main cast can bounce lines off of them. The only visible minority character, Roger Hines, only sticks around long enough to be spoken to and then suffers a concussion that silences him for the rest of the film. If the supporting cast was chosen a little better this area could have earned a perfect. ***1/2(out of five)

Directing: Clint Eastwood is a no nonsense director who does two or three takes per scene and about 20 scenes a day. So the fact that he signed up to direct an effects film, notorious for their complexity, is surprising to say the least. This very traditional director has made a very traditional looking film, no fancy camera moves, no Matrix-style bullet-time movements, just simple storytelling. Normally this wouldn't be worthy of discussion, but the fact that this is an action film makes this directing style interesting. Because of the way Eastwood directs the film has a greater emphasis on substance over style opposed to the other way around (i.e. Armageddon) and, for once, this film has a story that actual matters. A story that gives a reason why that thing is exploding or why that person was dying, it may sound simply, but for the audience it's very rewarding. ****(out of five)

Music: The score to this film didn't inspire me or make me feel more patriotic it was just there. Composer Lennie Niehaus wrote a non-intrusive musical score to this film that came out... wimpy. This film is about triumph over age, triumph over adversity, and success against imposing odds and one snare drum is not going to make the audience feel that. C'mon Lennie, give us something! **1/2(out of five)

Special Effects: Industrial Light and Magic, the powerhouse behind virtually every big special effects film. How did they do this time around? How do you think, stupid? Of course they did well. ILM used both physical miniatures and computer generated imagery to present space, the space shuttle, and IKON in the most realistic way possible. All of the elements fit together seamlessly. My only complaint is with the fully digital astronauts that were used. Maybe it was because I knew where to look and maybe the normal audience member wouldn't notice, but as well done as the the fake astronauts were they still looked... fake. ****(out of five)

Bottom Line: If you're tired of the usual summer Hollywood dribble give Space Cowboys a go. ***1/2(out of five)