Stranded

If you can survive the first 20 minutes you better check for a pulse. This turkey was released at my video parlor under "Black Horizon", I spent $2 on the rental... I am kicking myself now. The movie was so bad I shut it off and I am tempted to run it through a microwave to protect others. It has bad acting, the space station scenes are shot in a gravity environment (might as well be on Earth). The characters are so paper thin you could give a rip if they die. Dialog... what dialog. Action... no action. Space aliens... Ice T? Watch out for this movie don't rent it, don't watch it, don't even look at it on the shelf. You might get a good nights sleep if like sleeping in front of your TV.

I kept with this turkey because my family wanted me to stay with them in the room. For a while I was angry, then began to laugh. The acting is awful, the script pathetic. (The only good line: "(pause) Ya."

Every cliché is used: - the million bullets that don't hit anyone, then each bad guy in turn stands up in full view and gets shot - the rookie who shouldn't be there but goes anyhow, first treated with little respect by the crew but gains their admiration - the rookie dies saving someone's life - the crew member who doesn't respect himself (drinks on the job) performs the ultimate sacrifice - the rousing "we're not going to let them die" speech near the end (remember Apollo 13's "not on my watch" and Independence Day's presidential inspiration speech) - the recruited, reluctant villain gets shot by the good guy but, just before dying redeems himself by passing on the "crucial" information - the successful just in time getaway - the greedy villain willing to kill to make the big business deal - the heroic female leader beginning to cry over a mistake but being pepped up by a crew member (shades of [slap] "Thanks. I needed that!) - cigars at the end!

One of the worst movies I've ever seen.

What a clunker!

It MUST have been made for TV or Cable.

Look: forget the screenplay - forget the bunch of forgettable actors. Excuse me? Continuity? The NSA/NIA/whatever or whoever he is (an agent) takes-off in an F16 - is shown in an F18 chucking his guts up and, later, the aircraft shown taxiing is an F4 Phantom! Oooh, wish that I could be so cavalier.

Apart from the male actors(!?) The women are WASPS: blue-eyed and long-legged and, eventually, get to cry about the heroes who save them. Even when a solid weld could save most of the cosmo- astro-nauts, the blond drops the welding tool. Duh!

As an SF movie one out of ten. As a movie per se: 1/2 (that's a half point). They should have ditched the space station and headed for Mars.

Major raspberries.

Director Fred Olen Ray seems to pride himself in churning out the dumbest, most boring B-movies in history, and in that respect STRANDED is another string to his bow. It's about a crew of international astronauts who are stranded aboard a damaged space station, and the rescue crew's efforts to save them. Plus, there's action back on Earth, as some heroic types pursue some dastardly Russians who are withholding information crucial to the rescue attempt.

As with a number of Olen Ray films, STRANDED seems primarily to be a celebration of stock footage. Almost every time you see a space shuttle or an outer space shot, it's likely to be stock footage. The dialogue scenes are dull and the whole film feels as lifeless and weightless as a body floating in outer space; certainly for a film whose main aim is to thrill the audience, it fails spectacularly. Even a few familiar faces like those of Ice-T, action man Michael Dudikoff, Art Hindle (THE BROOD), and Andrew Stevens (THE FURY) fail to make an impression.

Poorly acted, poorly written and poorly directed. Special effects are cheap. Best performance is by Yvette Napir, but that's not saying much. Story is a confusing mess about corporate greed leading to sabotage of a space station and an attempt to rescue those stranded aboard.

There is little suspense and even less action. There's one car chase that's not bad, but the rest of the movie is simply a waste of everyone's time.