Stranded (Naufraghi)

Photos of Mars show canals, rock formations resembling a human face, immense valleys, and weird designs. So, Earthlings (who are all from Spain, which is coincidentally where the film was made) send a group of explorers to see just what it all means, if anything. From the title, it's pretty obvious what happens to these pioneers, when they arrive at the Red Planet.

More of the film seems to occupy itself with character study than a study of Mars. There's a lot of arguing between the marooned crew members, until your ears start to bleed. Luka says three must die, which makes everybody mad, for some reason. As annoying as he is on that issue, his request of a fellow astronaut will prove this clown a total schmuck. One of the funniest lines is Dr. Jenny's rebuke to this gloomy Eeyore goof ball. Just as you've had enough of the mono tonal banter of that "genius" Luka to choke on, the film finally concerns itself with exploring Mars.

The imagery inside the spacecraft isn't bad, and the acting is decent enough. The exteriors seem based on the then recent photography from the Martian surface, and are pretty impressive: an endless desert imbued with a red hue. As the explorers embark on what will probably be a suicide walk, things start to perk up and get interesting. After diverting from a space exploration story to a survival story, the film makes a welcome return to the spirit of wonder that the mysterious Martian world offers. What the astronauts encounter poses more questions than it answers. This is the essential sci-fi approach, and it works fairly well in this film.

This movie may have gotten overlooked in the shuffle of movies about Mars that came out around the same time. It may not have had a budget equal to some of the others, but it stands on its own pretty well. Not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon.

A seven-man crew of international specialists formed by Commander Andre Vishniac (José Sancho); engineer Luca Baglioni (Vincent Gallo); doctor Jenny Johnson (Maria de Medeiros); astrobiologist Fidel Rodrigo (Joaquim de Almeida); pilot Susana Sánchez (María Lidón); geologist Herbert Sagan (Danel Aser); and pilot Lowell (Johnny Ramone) travels to Mars to explore the planet. On the arrival, Lowell stays in orbit in the mothership while the crew lands on Mars. However their spacecraft crashes on the planet and Vishniac breaks his neck. They learn that they are stranded in Mars and Lowell returns to Earth to bring a rescue team. Soon Luca calculates the oxygen, water and supplies and concludes that there are enough for only two of them survive until an eventual rescue team comes to Mars twenty six months later. They decide that the engineer Luca and doctor Jenny should be the ones to stay in the spacecraft due to their specialties. Susan, Rodrigo and Sagan wear their spacesuits to explore the planet and die. But while there is life, there is hope.

"Stranded" is an anguishing low-budget sci-fi developed in very slow pace that builds up tension. The plot is realistic and the pragmatic Luca is a hateful but coherent character. The beautiful cinematography shows the arid landscape of Mars as a hopeless environment for human life. The surprising conclusion gives hope to the survivors to be rescued one day alive. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

My experience of this movie was mostly one of regret and longing for what it could, with minor improvements, have been, tempered with respect for what I believe its creators were trying to accomplish – in the words of its own website "…to excite audiences with a story that will seem credible and dramatic…".

To do this, they appear to have made, and succeeded in, and effort to avoid practically every sci-fi action cliché. This movie is essentially documentary in form, distinct from a true documentary in that it describes purely fictional events and people. On one level, this is refreshing, on another, tedious, but on any level, it is not cliché.

To succeed with this approach, however, a film's realism, with all the details that go into it, must be virtually flawless, so that well-science-informed viewers – who are likely to be the only people audience to fully appreciate and enjoy such a film – do not have their suspension of disbelief abused by such impossibilities as space helmets with visible gaps in their supposedly airtight seals, etc. Failure of such critical details effectively ruins the film beyond redemption, even if it succeeds brilliantly in other areas, such as the rendering of a convincing-looking Martian landscape.

Another area it can fail is if some or all of the characters fail to behave according to the well-informed viewers' expectations of how well-trained astronauts – or the viewers themselves - would behave. Though the interaction of the characters in "Stranded" seems genuine and realistic on occasion, it often doesn't, and, upon discovering the incredible, these supposed scientists and adventurers seem devoid of even normal curiosity. The only line of characterization that consistently feels real is the awe they feel at the beauty of the Martian surface and sky, despite the lethality these threaten.

I believe that the right technical consultant could have made this movie a classic on a par with "2001: A Space Odyssey" – while clearly made on a tighter budget, "Stranded" avoids the confusing metaphysical finale that many feels marred "2001". As it stands, I expect this movie will be lost and forgotten in the worlds discount DVD bins with barely a ripple in science fiction fandom. Even with its inevitable movie channel rotation, I will be surprised if it gathers 1,000 votes on IMDb.

These days sci-fi tends to be all about action, gleaming spaceships, and aliens with wrinkly tentacles. No fantasy, no mystery, no bizarre unknown. Action flicks or relationship dramas set in space. That's not my idea of sci-fi.

This film takes its time. We spend a good chunk of the film watching the crew crash-landed on Mars without enough supplies, trying to figure out what to do. It takes a long time before we get to the mystery, and for once, we don't get to see the dwarf behind the curtain. If this were a Hollywood film, all of Stranded would be cut down to about 15 minutes, and the rest of the film would be an action film where the surviving crew are being chased by some lame baddie, maybe a crew member gone mad, or some rusty martian janitorial robot with a few screws loose.

I like the film. Make no mistake, it has a lot of BAD things about it. A few awful casting choices, amateurish directing, and absolutely awful voice-over narration. The first five minutes are so awful you wouldn't believe it. But once the film gets underway, there's enough good to it to let you ignore the bad.

If you like Hollywood sci-fi, don't watch this film because you'll absolutely hate it. But if you like films such as 2001, Solaris, and THX-1138, then you might want to give this film a chance. By no means is it up to the standards of such masterpieces, but it's far more memorable and interesting than any other Mars-flick made in recent years.

Once you get past the first 20 minutes, which contains the worst of the acting and the expository dialogue that invariably that starts with "As you know, Mars/the spaceship/our oxygen supply...," this is an enjoyable and intelligent movie. Actually, with the proviso that this is indeed science fiction with regard to the more fantastic elements, they made a better fist of the science and technology than any of the Hollywood blockbusters about Mars. The production values are surprisingly high, although real space nerds will notice that the interior of the mars landing spaceship bears more than a passing resemblance to a shuttle mock up and Blake's 7 fans will notice the wandering-down-the-same-corridor-with-different-lighting trick.