Rent The Astronaut Farmer (2006)

Enjoyable family film. - The Astronaut Farmer review by CP Customer

This film is not a slapstick comedy, but is a serious fantasy. It does have some humour, and it has a barely plausible plot center piece; a man builds his own rocket, not just to launch like most do, but to take himself into orbit. On the surface it portrays American life, accurately as far as I can tell from UK. The opening seems to set us up for a comedy with the farmer wearing a space suit seemingly all the time and everyone calling him The Astronaut. As the film goes on, we realise he doesn't wear his space suit normally and he is serious about his rocket.

Wisely the film doesn't go into great detail on how he did the engineering other than collecting discarded items from scrapyards and resuscitating them, but we see impressive convincing glimpses of the rocket which conveys to us that he does know what he is doing. In the extras a NASA astronaut says it is more complicated than shown. but the film comes close.

Billy Bob Thornton, one of our favourite actors, is always good at unusual characters with different ideas to most on what is important in life. Virginia Madsen, another favourite, is excellent as the sympathetic and understanding wife. Bruce Dern, another favourite, plays the grandfather. Bruce Willis has a supporting role and gives the film his generous support. The administration is portrayed unsympathetically, but not too different to what might be expected.

The story should not be taken too seriously, it is really a metaphor saying, aspiring to your dreams is a good thing. It is a good family film, hopefully we will see more from the Polish brothers.

Don’t waist your time with this film - The Astronaut Farmer review by AO

The film was predictable and boring with real excitement to it what so ever. The only good thing about it was the special effects apart from that I wouldn’t recommend anyone waist there time with this film.