Stranded

If you dislike slow pace, and needs lots of explosions or adventure in your science-fiction films, avoid Stranded. You won't enjoy it.

But if you like slow, realistic, thought provoking sci-fi (films like 2001 or Solaris) with a twist of psychological drama, then give Stranded a go.

On a tiny budget, I believe the makers of Stranded have achieved a deeper, more interesting Mars film than any other to date.

Six Astronauts aboard the first mission to Mars, crash their ship when landing, and the only hope of rescue is a potential 3 year wait for another ship from Earth. With not enough air, water or energy to last for 3 years, the film asks - what would you do? The settings are believable, the acting a little varied (some accents might even be dubbed), and the special effects merely OK. It looks like a mere BBC TV special. But try not to be distracted by these quibbles.

Apart from an initial space travel shot or two, special effects aren't needed. The film's real strength is the tension between the characters as they sit huddled in the wreckage of their ship, and the harsh reality of their situation.

Even a science fiction twist at the end remains believable, thanks to it's understated nature.

I went into this film expecting a terrible b-grade sci-fi film. Instead, I found myself on the edge of my seat from beginning to end, and was frankly blown away by it's mature effort (on such a tiny budget) to portray a sci-fi scenario on Mars.

Highly recommended for lovers of sincere and realistic sci-fi drama.

I originally rented this movie as something to watch while my mom and sister watched "Must Love Dogs" in the other room. Within ten minutes I found myself preferring the chick flick. The opening scene of the movie was all I needed to realize I had just wasted five and a half bucks. The film begins with a newscast in which a reporter sets the scene for the rest of the film. A good idea, right? Except that the reporter delivers in a deadpan. He says, "This is a historic moment" in a voice you'd probably expect to hear in a lecture on earwax. The rest of the movie follows this pattern to the point where I wanted to throttle the lead actress while screaming, "Have you even READ the script?" In short, I've seen beer commercials with better acting, better writing, better special effects, and better story lines.

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.

Yep," Stranded" (2001) is a standard formula crash on mars. They do not attempt to slowly reveal the plot. It is an in-your-face yep someone's gotta go who gets to pick and where do they go story. But you knew this before you bought this movie.

Even though this film is foreign and some of the acting and reading is stilted we're still fascinated with the interaction of the characters and how they are going to get from point A to point Z. The film does not have to be original or professional; all it has to do is hold our attention and show us their version of the well-known story.

The two points that stand out to me are first how Luca Baglioni (Vincent Gallo) wants to spend his dying moments with Jenny Johnson (Maria de Medeiros.) We could've "made book" on that answer. The second which might've been a little drawn out but I enjoyed it anyway was the reference to Barsoom and Barsoom's characters; I half expect John Carter to pop out from behind the rocks.

I wish there were more science-fiction films like this one being made today.

I can't understand all the negativity towards this flick! Here's a modest little film that doesn't depend on huge special effects and gratuitous action sequences in order to tell a cracking little story, with enough twists and turns to keep an old sci-fi fan like myself guessing until the end.

The premise is certainly nothing we haven't had before (think "Mission to Mars", or "Robinson Crusoe on Mars"), but this particular storyline was dense and well paced, no loose ends, everything for a purpose.

The other aspect of the movie I liked was the atmosphere that it managed to build through, what I think, are all the things that people have criticized it for.

It had a sense of calm, other-worldliness, to which the non-US accents, and at times off-beat delivery by some of the actors contributed. The dialog is more naturalistic than in a big-budget Hollywood action sci-fi flick, and this may be why some people found it "weird".

Some of the dialog was a bit corny, but I think deliberately - a little tip of the hat to earlier tales of that ilk (one of the characters conspicuously starts quoting from "John Carter of Mars" at one point, and we feel we're in an entirely different movie for a moment)

The sedate narration from the main actress, the gorgeous locations shots, and even the interior of the Martian complex with its mysterious technology, all contributed to a dream-like and alien quality invoked by this movie.

Great fun!

Rating - 10 out of 10.