Just perfect...

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Seen it several times now and sure it is a formula film. Seen it all before, but it is done very charmingly. For the family you know. For the kids, who want to dream of becoming an astronaut, or just for kids who just wanna dream they can become anything they want. Because as Billy Bob Thornton' s character said to a kid: "you can better know what you wanna become when you are young, otherwise somebody else might choose for you".Adults can also enjoy this feel good flick, about some crazy american farmer (Billy Bob Thornton) who is building his own real space rocket in his barn. Nobody takes the guy seriously, and really that begin part is the fun part of the film, because it could haven been based in reality. Personally I like to see some credibility in stories, even if they are bizarre. Kids wont mind that this crazy american farmer actually succeeds in launching his rocket from his barn, adults would scratch their heads ofcourse. But this underdog story is told with so much charm and wit that I took for granted all the obvious credibility flaws in the story.It is a great family picture. Full of warmth and family bonds. Watch it together. EVeryone will be pleased. And the kids maybe wanna become an astronaut after watching it.Nice supporting roles by Bruce Willis and Bruce Dern.

I loved this movie. I just watched it, and I'd like to share some of the messages I got from it: First, follow your dream(s). You may or may not reach your star, but the lesson from this film is that it's not the destination that's critically important—it's the journey that counts. Don't let anyone burst your bubble, either. Go for it, cherish the ride, and share that ride with those who are important in your life. When you experience bumps in the road—periods of discouragement—they will provide the fuel you need to continue.Second, while it may be true that money rules the world, it's family that really matters. The Farmer family was a true inspiration to me. There were a lot of smiles and laughter at the Farmer table during meal times. Charles and Audie demonstrated their love for their three children through so many words and actions. And the kids reciprocated that love. I was moved by the love that bound this family together.Third, make a plan and follow it, making adjustments as needed along the way. Don't expect things to just happen (although sometimes they do).Finally, sometimes the feds just get in the way, demonstrating that they're not there to support us, but rather to serve themselves and their own agenda.Billy Bob Thornton was brilliant, but I expected that. Virginia Madsen gave a very moving performance as a loving wife and mother, and their children—the little ones, Jasper and Logan, were wonderful. It continues to amaze me that kids can act well on sets and on location, with all those lights, cameras, crew, and other actors. Bruce Dern…what can I say, he was perfect as the kids' grandfather, Hal. Last, but certainly not least, Max Thieriot. He was amazing as Farmer's teenage son, Shepard (Shep). He is as convincing here as a member of a relatively functional family as he was as a member of a highly dysfunctional family in The Family Tree. I won't give away the ending, but I will state that during the last 10 minutes I was on my feet, applauding at times.As others have posted on this board, this is certainly a family movie with many important life lessons for children—well, for everyone, really. I was certainly inspired!

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?

Since we've lived through the very beginning of commercialized spaceflight, the notion of an engineer and former astronaut trying to build a working rocket and space vehicle in his barn isn't that difficult to entertain, on one condition. The ATTEMPT makes for a good story, but so long as the film takes itself at all seriously, the man shouldn't be able to actually succeed. The first half of this picture is an interesting film about a man, Farmer, who is putting the finishing touches on a Mercury-Atlas style rocket, complete with capsule and what looks like a surplus Mercury project spacesuit (which he wears positively everywhere that he goes, much like a five-year-old carting around a favorite stuffed-animal). His family believes in him seemingly because it's more fun to entertain his fantasy than it is to rain on his parade, his neighbors are taking bets on whether or not he'll die much less succeed, the government is investigating him ever since he tried to obtain 10,000 gallons of rocket fuel (two awkward FBI agents are inserted for comic relief, and the FAA plays the heavy with threats to shoot him down) but no one except for Farmer himself authentically feels that he'll ever launch. Up to this point, the film is kind of like Fitzcarraldo with a booster rather than a steamship -- you don't believe he'll pull it off, but you keep watching to see just how he'll fail. And, had he actually failed, even if he'd given up after his first fantastic, life and property endangering horizontal launch, the film would have worked as an inspiring story about a genius with a crazy dream who knowingly bites off more than anyone can chew, but keeps right on biting.Instead, the film changes direction mid-stream and crams so many suspensions of disbelief into such a short time that it looses whatever credibility that it may have spent the first half gaining. How would a man under investigation by the government for building his own rocket be able to obtain another junk booster for his second attempt? How could Farmer completely rebuild his rocket from scratch in such a short time period that his very young girls don't look noticeably older from project start to project finish? How would a barn and a house within walking distance survive the launch of an Atlas booster unscathed? How could a fifteen-year old boy single-handedly man both launch control and mission control for an orbital flight, AND maintain contact with a spacecraft on the far side of the planet without any help from relay stations over yonder? They go on and on. I guess the biggest question is, why did the writers of this film resort to such a cop-out as suddenly endowing their never-succeed-but-never-give-up main character with the Midas touch, when they've spent half of the film laying out all of the reasons that Farmer's dream really wouldn't work? Maybe they figured we'd have so much fun watching the thing go up that we wouldn't ask these questions. Maybe some watchers will.If you set out to make a fantasy, don't ask us to place it in reality for half the film. If you set out to do a story about a man whose dreams get knocked down again and again, don't suddenly make him inhumanly successful at all he attempts. I liked the first part of this film, but to paraphrase a line from a more famous movie, Flying into space ain't like dusting crops. Depicting it as such takes more suspension of reality than I wanted to give this film.