No doubt this Spanish production was hoping to cash in on Hollywood’s Red Planet and Mission to Mars, sadly for Stranded both of those films flopped. When the first manned mission to Mars results in a crashed ship the five survivors must try and find a way to survive on the hostile planet until a rescue mission can arrive. With rescue at least two years away it becomes clear that there is only enough food and air to save two of the crew with the others going for a last walk on the red planet.
For the first hour the film attempts a serious examination of the plight of the stranded astronauts before throwing an ancient Martian civilisation into the mix almost as an afterthought. While it almost feels like a different film, it’s this final third that is the most interesting part of the movie. Unfortunately it runs out of ideas, leaving one with the feeling that the ancient civilisation is there just to allow some of the crew a chance at survival and too pad the running time to feature length.
There are some familiar faces among the crew – Maria de Medeiros (Pulp Fiction), Joaquim de Almeida (Desperado) and Vincent Gallo as a sleazy engineer who sees imminent death as a chance to get laid. Rounding out the crew are Danel Aser and María Lidón who both give weak performances that suffer in comparison to the more seasoned pros they share screen time with. Lidón is also responsible for the rather dull narration, she’s just found an alien civilisation but from the excitement in her voice you’d think she’d discovered the local Sainsbury’s. Strangest casting goes to Johnny Ramone (of the Ramones) as the astronaut left aboard the orbiting section of the ship.
As well as starring María Lidón also directed the film, under the appropriate nom de plume of Luna. The film has some impressive visual touches, although there is far too much of the astronauts static riddled spacesuit cameras (possibly to cover up deficiencies in the sets). Unfortunately the performances often have an amateur dramatics feel to them, largely due to some silly dialogue, and it’s hard to accept that Gallo’s sleazball would have been accepted on the mission.
I’ve had this DVD for quite a while, it was free with the now defunct Total DVD magazine, but I’d never got around to watching it because, to be honest, I though it would be crap. It was nowhere near as bad as I expected and it held my attention for its 90 minute running time, I don’t think I’ll be watching it again any time soon though.
