Stranded (2002, R)

Finally some advanced notice for you guys: this movie is available to stream until 10/9/12.

Stranded is about first manned mission to Mars, in which the space shuttle CRASH LANDS ON THE PLANET.  I'm not spoiling anything, this happens by the time the title rolls on the screen.  Now, this isn't like being stranded on a desert island because THERE'S AIR ON A DESERT ISLAND, nor is it like being stuck in a submarine in anyplace as conveniently local as THE BOTTOM OF THE MARIANAS TRENCH.  It would take a rescue mission 1-2 years to get to these guys.

The premise sounds incredible, but unfortunately, the execution left something to be desired.  The broad strokes of the plot were really interesting.  They spent a good chunk of the early part of the film trying to decide what to do and how they were going to do it: assess their assets (more than I would have thought, which allowed the story to continue) and situation, mathematical likelihood of survival given different conditions.  It was smart stuff.  I don't want to give away the particulars of what they said/accomplished, because that would spoil most of the movie.  Unfortunately the actual specifics of the dialogue didn't sound scripted, more like the actors were told what they were supposed to generally discuss and what ideas each of their characters would provide, but not what words to use.  And the cast was pretty short on A- and B-list actors.  The actor with top billing was Vincent Gallo (whose dialogue provided more than the entire movie The Brown Bunny, which he wrote, directed and starred in... so I'll call it comparatively adequate here), but my favorite thespian of the group by far was Joaquim de Almeida (Desperado).  De Almeida's dialogue felt natural and his presence brought an intelligent dignity to the group: his was the character I respected the most.  Also among the cast was Maria de Medeiros, who played Butch's wife in Pulp Fiction.  She was (along with the two aforementioned actors) was one of the few on this film with previous acting experience, but her performance still seemed lackluster.

 The visual effect did not require a whole lot compared to high budget movies, but it did work very well for this film: it looked and felt like Mars (see NASA's recent Mars land rover photos).  Set design and location were (dare I say) perfect.  And there was a cool pay-off for the viewer near the end.

If you're a fan of (realistic: this isn't Avatar) space movies, you this should be on your to-do list, but I don't think that's a very wide target audience.  Otherwise, the fun per hour ratio isn't quite worth it.  A better choice for that sub-genre would be Moon, with Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2, The Green Mile), which was awesome (also slow, but much smarter and a bigger pay-off).