The Reluctant Astronaut
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Movie Reviews of The Reluctant Astronaut
Movie Review: "10.....9.......1....Blastoff!!!"
Summary: 5 Stars
Attaboy Luther!! It's about time Knotts came to DVD. Let's just hope they're all in widescreen!! Funnier than anything made today....Movie Review: Lighthearted space program fun, typical of the era.
Summary: 4 Stars
One of the all-time classic Don Knotts films from his heyday in the mid-to-late 60s, "The Reluctant Astronaut" is reliable family fare on a Sunday afternoon.Knotts plays Roy Fleming, a lovable loser who suffers from vertigo, but ironically runs a moonshot kiddie ride at the town park. When his ex-military and hyper-controlling father submits an application for his son to become a real astronaut, havoc ensues when Roy is accepted! But not is all as it seems when the newly-minted town hero finds that he is not actually an astronaut trainee, but a custodial trainee! Naturally, the kindly Roy is under pressure not to hurt his father and the whole hometown crowd by revealing the truth.
The plot and it's solutions are hardly a surprise to anyone by the time the picture ends. In fact, the only standardized element missing here concerns Roy Fleming's girlfriend. She starts out by ignoring the hapless Roy because he's a nobody, but when he becomes an astronaut, she's all attention. Pretty shallow, but so far so good. What's missing is the alternate/new girlfriend, who likes Roy for himself, not for his fame. That's usually the way romantic entanglements work out in this kind of picture, and it's kind of disappointing that Roy winds up with the "fair weather" gal.
But while the movie is fairly standard, the "space fever" and intense interest in the space program the characters display at every turn clearly reflects just how Americans felt about the program and its astronauts at the time (unlike today!). The movie will be a fun ride for those who recall those heady days as America's pride was in full force, and we good guys were battling Russia for control of space.
One think I liked here was the interesting and relatively rare NASA footage that pops up from time to time. The rocket sled sequence is especially notable for space program afficianados, as we get a good pilot's eye view of what it looked like to run down the sled track. We also get to see a few early rocket booster launches in real time, as opposed to the super-slow motion shots we're more familiar with.
If anyone threatens to steal the picture, it would have to be Arthur O'Connell as Roy's dad, Buck Fleming. Gruff, boisterous, and ultimately poignant, O'Connell gives the character just the right amount of stature and sympathy to compliment the awkwardness and desperation of Knott's Roy Fleming.
Jesse White (probably most famous for his role in "Harvey"), plays Fleming's gruff boss, and "Wagon Train" alum Frank McGrath is on hand as one of Buck Fleming's pals. Jeanette Nolan plays a relatively small and understated role as Roy's mother.
Fans of Leslie Neilson will get a kick out of his presence in the picture as the good-natured pilot and astronaut, Major Fred Gifford. In a way, his inclusion in the cast seems like a friendly wink to his landmark space role in "Forbidden Planet".
I have to ding the DVD one star for the lack of extras. We get the trailer, and while fun (and containing original material shot for the promo), that's about it. Some production notes on the crew's NASA interactions while filming would have been a huge win, but it's missing here.
While the film is typical of light space program comedies from the time, "The Reluctant Astronaut" is probably the best of the bunch, and certainly better than most.
Movie Review: Funny classic movie for the family
Summary: 4 Stars
They don't make movies like this anymore. A comedy that you can actually show the entire family. No bodily function jokes, no sexual innuendos, just Don Knotts starring in one of his funnier movies.Movie Review: The Reluctant Astronaut
Summary: 4 Stars
I found this movie was good but I have seen better from Don Knotts. If we sent anyone into outspace like this charactar, it would have sent space travel back decades.Movie Review: "We should have used a monkey or a dog or....something."
Summary: 2 Stars
Excruciating to watch because it's sad not funny. From the outset Don Knotts character (Roy) can only be viewed as hopeless as that's the way he's been written: afraid of heights, hitting on a pretty girl who obviously has no interest in him, coddled by his mother and held down by his father, 35 years old and his job is a spaceship that goes nowhere. It only keeps getting worse after that introduction. For reasons purely selfish, Roy's father applies for a job at NASA in Roy's name (in essence, enlists him to be an astronaut!). After telling Roy this, his father (played with a maniacal glee by Arthur O'Connell) marches Roy off to his room so he can take a nap...and Roy goes!
Once Roy arrives at NASA and finds he's a janitor one has to wonder what kind of application Roy's dad filled out, how did he get a hold of it in the first place, and wouldn't someone in personnel notice the difference? The story is filled to capacity with no end of aggravations meant to be funny (how many times can they milk his fear of heights?). The whole time Roy was at NASA, miserable with his janitor job, I had to wonder why he took a job he didn't like and why did he stay, no one was keeping him chained there. As written, Don Knotts character is basically just a big kid. As written, his father is either insane or pathologically stupid. As written, poor Jeanette Nolan (playing his mother) had nothing to do except periodically faint (the whole time she was probably saying to herself, why am I doing this? I once worked with Orson Welles in Macbeth!). As written, Leslie Nielsen's role could have been played by anyone known or unknown; he didn't leave an impression one way or another. The only time this movie took off, literally, was when Don Knotts was alone in the space capsule. Left to his own devices, Don can be quite amusing, but stuck in a lifeless story with little to do, not so much.
Not a keeper.