The first 15 are wasted setting the stage in 1958, with young, nondescript unknowns playing the then-mavericks, but with the voices of Eastwood et al. With this much wattage, it's a shame that it takes almost 40 minutes to assemble the crew and send them through the front door at NASA. He can get more out of two words than Leonardo DiCaprio will get out of the rest of his career.)
Jones gets more mileage out of that laconic Texas drawl than any Harvard man has a right to, and owns the screen from the first syllable of his first line (a 'Happy Birthday' that's somehow imbued with ironic detachment, sly bemusement, and a sexy contrarianism all at once. Still, this is a movie you want to like, in spite of how poorly the characters (not to mention the dialogue) are written. And James Garner isn't geriatric -he radiates fatherly warmth and reassurance. Donald Sutherland isn't irritating, he's eccentric. Space Cowboys tries to spin their AARP status as a charming plot point.
In the age of Viagra, it's easy to believe that Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones still have the Right Stuff at the box office.
And women, it's your fault for thinking Sean Connery is sexy. Plumbers his age would do the same thing if they could. Mick Jagger fucks young girls for a reason. Old coots show signs of life in 'Space Cowboys'
