The Astronaut Farmer (2007)

Thanks for the memories!

hyped garbage

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The FBI, that is. Or at least, they will once you try to buy 10,000lbs of rocket fuel.I was surprised to find, after watching this well-intentioned, but woefully dappy movie, that it wasn't in fact a TV movie. It pretty much screams out to be released straight to network, but no... it apparently had a theatrical release. Needless to say, that release did not go very well and is probably why we never saw The Astronaut Farmer 2: Shooting for the Moon, or any such similar sequel.In terms of realism, it isn't very far ahead of that old 1979 TV show, Salvage One, which saw a junkyard owner building a ship out of old cars and going to the moon. Here, the main character builds a rocket... in a wooden barn... not fifty yards from his house.Of course, realism isn't what this movie is about. It is all about the feels and the notion that you should never give up your dreams.Now, normally, I'd applaud such sentiment, but when taken to the extremes that the titular character Farmer (played by Billy Bob Thornton) goes to - effectively bankrupting his entire family, I think the notion needs reigning in. Hopes and dreams are fantastic things, but one should never lose sight of one's immediate responsibilities. Farmer doesn't have a dream, so much as an obsession, and those are never healthy.Of course, despite bringing the family to the point of destruction, help arrives in the timely death of the father-in-law, who leaves enough money to save the farm and rebuild the rocket after an earlier mishap.Well... when I say mishap, I really mean certain death of the main character, Farmer. See, disheartened that nobody thinks his rocket will work, he makes an impromptu launch that goes horribly wrong. The rocket falls over and spends the next couple of minutes hurtling across the desert-like terrain with Farmer stuck aboard.This rocket sleigh-ride isn't at all tense. It's actually quite funny, with the rocket hurtling through the throngs of news-crews surrounding the ranch without any fatalities in a Wile-E-Coyote kind of way, complete with a less than impressive CGI rocket and a totally not dead Farmer at the end of it.Rockets don't generally fall over and not explode immediately. I might have bought it, except that the lower part of the rocket was actually below ground, so the fuselage would have ruptured on the edge of the pit as it tipped and... boom! No more Farmer.Of course, it all ends well ultimately, with dreams fulfilled, farm saved, family happy and Farmer a celebrity. Like I said... a standard sappy TV movie. It isn't the worst thing you could watch on a rainy day, but there are better uses of your time.SUMMARY: Ridiculous TV movie that wanted to play in the big leagues and failed. Not awful, but also not good. Confuses following your dreams with obsessive behaviour and has lamentable realism. There are better things to watch.

..and no kidding about that. I do not care that it technically was a financial flop. Some movies are just too good, and I truly mean that, to strike a universal chord with the general public. This is one of them.Strikingly shot, the entire movie glows visually, helped by the starkly desolate beauty of New Mexico. Yes, it is preposterous, per the premise that one can build a functional rocket in ones' barn, but if we discounted movies with far fetched plots, at least half would qualify, including such greats as "Wizard of Oz" and any based on fantasy, let alone sci-fi. The movie itself is so heartwarming, a family movie without the cloyingness of most family movies. Simply put, the faith/love of a family backing up the Don Quitote dream of a tinkerer father, in this case a tinkerer who builds rockets in his yard, planning to create his own manned mission into space. I truly think the movie was perfect in every sense, from the screen writing to the acting to the verisimilitude of the media coverage, including the great Jay Leno interviews. Just a wonderful little masterpiece, that hopefully will find the attention it deserves on video one day, ala the way Shawshank Redemption was "redeemed"!A true pleasure to watch this. One of the most heartwarming pictures I've ever seen. Precious....truly...

The movie itself is a fine example of an allegory, telling us about dreams and growing up. What it is not is a rocket scientist's manual... so? Perhaps a more interesting example is how many reviewers flaunt their scientific knowledge (help, someone please restrain me from using quotation marks), and keep missing the movie itself. Seriously, if one thinks those scientific "errors" are errors or bad science, the joke is on the besserwisser. Technical knowledge does not equal understanding, it seems. Every time someone does not see the forest from the trees, somewhere someone gets lost. Which suits Mr. B. B. Wolf only fine, of course.The very thought of building and intending to launch an Atlas rocket from your barn is so completely blatant even an elementary school kid would understand this is not your How to Build a Rocket in Your Barn manual or How Stuff Works. Rather a story about people and how important dreams (a bolo or a less than humane person would say 'objectives') are to people and people close to them - be them fulfilled or not. (Sur)realism of the rocket jockeying is beside the point and quite intentionally so, resulting in a pleasantly child's dream-like trip.The Astronaut Farmer is indeed not your dime a dozen Try Hard, Die Harder, and Anything Succeeds blah blah either. It is about dreams, hope, family and love. The technically a bit stretched rocket and astronaut theme is there only as a framework, and surprisingly (at least for most) it works. Almost every little girl or boy has sometimes dreamed of flying and now that we know of it, space. Above and beyond, dudes.If it even tried to be realistic, the whole point of the movie would tumble to Hell like an express elevator suffering an acute and complete cable failure and sporting greased pigs for brakes. You are not supposed to have any suspension of disbelief for some frakkin Atlas arc welded of empty beer cans burning a mixture of tractor oil and septic tank contents zooming 'cross the prairie before the Roadie can say "beep beep".I am not a fan of any of the actors, and indeed don't even recognise many, but Thornton & Co play their given roles solidly. The Polish brothers seem to love references and hat-tips or slight funny pokes at other movies and popular culture in general, which is always a fun little extra for people like me. Not all of them are obvious. But I'll be damned if choosing Bruce "Armageddon" Willis as the guy who says something like "this unrealistic piece of s... ain't never gonna work" wasn't intentional. You just gotta love the sheer camp of Government Men in Black (surprise: bad guys) having the Imperial March as a ring tone.Still, despite quite a few wry smiles it is not a comedy. A-Farmer manages to balance quite nicely between a completely tongue in cheek and mushy approach to the quixotic family problem of an obsessed man. Obsession here being the thing that for once ties the family together as a positive resource. As such, it is a nice rental (or bought at discount which in Finland means about the same 3-4 euros as a rental) and watched where it should be watched: at home with family or friends if lacking the former. If one lacks both, well, there is always Farmer's approach to the problem, not necessarily literally (although I secretly hope you do it). I wouldn't go to the silver screen for this, as most of the content does not particularly demand that kinda visual immersion although nothing wrong with them.So just sit back and and watch how this Farmer errant fights his windmills. If you want realistic fairy tales instead of faery tales, I suggest starting with a Proctor & Gamble catalogue.Caution: This motion picture may induce emotional reactions and give food for thought to men with teen or young adult children. Do not combine with a waning drunkenness or hangover. Absolutely fatal to losers having a middle age crisis. Emotions are bad, okay?

But I loved every minute of it.This isn't the first 'rocket in the backyard story' but it is perhaps the best of them. BBT has a gentle approach to his characterisation, and you warm to him and his family.There's plenty of ups and downs in this tale to keep you intrigued to the end, particularly when you think he's muffed the whole thing.Good all round support and a fine cameo by Bruce Willis, puts this in the top drawer. Suspend your belief, toss away your cynicism, and just enjoy this for what it is. Don't miss the credits at the end though, they add something to the whole mix.