Astronaut: The Last Push (2012)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2012
Running Time	84:45
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Eric Hayden
Studio Distributor	Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	Khary Payton Lance Henriksen Brian Baumgartner James Madio
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Kimberly Hayden

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     When in the near future photographs of Jupiter’s moon Europe reveal whale like creatures living in the oceans beneath the ice, billionaire businessman Walter Moffitt (Lance Henriksen) finances a live space mission to investigate. Two astronauts, Michael Forrest (Khary Payton) and Nathan Miller (James Madio), leave the Earth and are placed into deep sleep for what is expected to be a thirteen year mission. However, two years into the voyage their space craft is hit by a small meteor; Miller is killed and Forrest brought out of deep sleep into a damaged craft. Forced to live in a small part of the spacecraft, alone for months except for video contact with his mission controllers on Earth, Forrest must attempt to make the manual repairs that may enable the craft to return to Earth while retaining his sanity.

     The cast name displayed prominently on the packaging of Astronaut: The Last Push is Lance Henriksen. He had some good roles for James Cameron in the 1980s, including the Terminator (1984) and Aliens (1986) films, and although he has continued to since work steadily he is hardly a star and his role in Astronaut: The Last Push is minimal. Instead the film is carried by Khary Payton in an impressive performance. He has 107 credits listed in the IMDb, mostly video game voices or TV. I don’t think I have seen him in anything, but in Astronaut: The Last Push he is totally believable as a man slipping into madness in the isolation and loneliness of space.

     Astronaut: The Last Push is a very low budget film written and directed by Eric Hayden. This is his first feature as director although Hayden has a range of credits for visual effects, model making and special effects, including working for the master Stan Winston. As a result there are some spectacular model shots of the craft in space superimposed upon planets which helps open the film out slightly, for nearly every other scene is Forrest within a small, fairly bare, enclosed space, eating, exercising, sleeping, repairing and talking to his mission controllers. This could be boring, but in fact in Astronaut: The Last Push Hayden does an excellent job over the film’s 80 minute running time of keeping the tension, and interest, at a high level with interesting intercutting, documentary style footage, camera angles and fades. He is also assisted by an atmospheric electronic score by Kimberly Hayden and, of course, the performance by Payton.

     Astronaut: The Last Push is not a science fiction film for those who demand explosions, lasers, aliens, robots or hurtling starships. While the film has a science fiction setting, but is really a psychological study of isolation, loneliness and madness in a claustrophobic environment that just happens to be in space. This is more realism than fiction and the film makes the most of its miniscule budget to provide a tense and compelling experience.

Video

     Astronaut: The Last Push is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, the original ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     Astronaut: The Last Push is a low budget film shot using RED cameras. The sequences of the ship in space are sharp and crystal clear, the detail in close ups is very good. The film utilises a lot of TV screens and monitors plus documentary type footage that has been deliberately manipulated to look soft and blocky, and these look as intended. Colours are natural and blacks solid, although some shadow detail can be indistinct. Brightness and contrast is consistent.

     Other than the introduced artefacts, the print was without artefacts or marks.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The packaging of the DVD indicates that the audio for Astronaut: The Last Push is a 2.0 track, however my computer and review system both indicated the film as having an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track at 448 Kbps. That said, there was nothing in the rear speakers, so the result was indeed a 2.0 stereo that was actually quite good!

     Dialogue is always clear and easy to hear. This is not an action film although the front speakers were impressive with electronic beeps and the buzz of machinery but the highlight was the constant electronic score by Kimberly Hayden that was very effective in constantly adding tension and atmosphere.

     Lip synchronisation is fine.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     No extras at all, not even a trailer.

     The Region 1 US of Astronaut: The Last Push is listed on Amazon as being in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and without extras, but as I cannot find any reviews I cannot confirm this. There is no Region 2 UK release. Buy local.

     Astronaut: The Last Push is a very low budget film that makes the most of its miniscule budget. It is not sci-fi action but an impressive study of isolation, loneliness and madness that just happens to be set in space. The film, perhaps to my surprise, completely drew me into its world and the running time flew by.

     The video and audio are fine. There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall