Really great fun - perhaps Peter Hyams' best film, a terrifically entertaining combination of conspiracy thriller and action film. The thesis is bold, simple and effective - NASA fake a landing on Mars. Astronauts James Brolin, OJ Simpson and Sam Waterston are forced to go along with it but Elliot Gould, a journo, figures out something is going on.
The first half of this barrels along like a freight train - there's not an ounce of fat on it. It sags a little in the middle with some repetitive scenes - in particular the Brenda Vaccaro moments felt like padding, or extra bits to give her. All she really needs is to tell Gould about the camp they went to which she could do in one scene, but she has two scenes with Gould and one with Hal Holbrook. Also there's two scenes with Gould and his editor whereas they only need one.
But it recovers for a splendid climax with two helicopters chasing Brolin around the desert. One of my favourite moments in action cinema is when the two stories interconnect and Gould lands in the desert in the plane piloted by Telly Savalas (who almost steals the film in a great cameo) and waves for Brolin to jump on board. It's a fantastic moment. That and running to the funeral.
If you think about the story too hard it gets wonky - I mean they go to a lot of trouble to erase the existence of Gould's friend (someone living in his apartment for a year? Why not just cause a fake accident/) and it's a bit slack to leave the studio where it was all filmed unoccupied.
But there's so many good things - the rousing score, the all star cast (people like Karen Black shine in small parts), the desert sequences where the astronauts get pummelled (this helps make the climax so satisfactory), the slangy dialogue.
Great fun.
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