Stranded

It's low budget. It's a Spanish sci-fi. The acting can only be described as wooden, especially by Maria Lidon. The science will not hold up to even cursory scrutiny. So why is "Stranded" so interesting? It's original, that's why. There are no sand monsters, in fact there is nothing to do battle with, except the hopelessness of the crew's situation. The underlying logic drives the film, not c.g.i. and that is why the originality. If you enjoy the thrill of discovery, and the deliberate pace is not going to be a problem, then this is a must see. The Martian landscapes are stunning. Even the ending is no cop out, which adds to the realism that has preceded it. - MERK

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.

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

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.

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.