***SPOILERS*** I have a dream...Its full of technical flaws and Saccharin Emotions.
Yah okay....Well good dream -- schmaltz acting/dialogue/drama.
If you've not seen the movie - bow out now - because I am going to discuss the riveting plot! (The plot seemed to have more rivets the rocket!)
This is the story of a kid who has a "fire" inside of him to honour his father, by restoring an old "Red Stone" rocket, (which they picked up for a mere $80,000 at their local junk yard, and a extra "Mercury 10 Capsule" --(never launched) that was part of a museum exhibit.
The kid Todd, and his friend propose building a launchable rocket out of the left over space junk from the Mercury Program as part of their school science project? Are you buying this? Heck their teacher said -- "It's a go!" The plot is very predictable. They accomplish with just a handful of high school students, in a few weeks, what trained NASA technicians couldn't do in 3 years. Yeah that's believable. NOT!
Even more unbelievable is the predictable plot. They test fire the rocket (umm where's the water?) which they have restored (gee it still looks like painted plywood to me!)
Boom! In drop the Feds! "We're shutting you down! Why if you even want to paint it you have to follow these rules we have a court order!" - Oh yeah that's gonna stop em!
Well they sit all broken hearted until, wait are you following the predictable plot? Oh yeah -- well the Space Shuttle Endeavour gets into trouble - and Nasa can't turn the other Space Shuttles around for 30 days. And the Commies, er I mean Russians - well they don't have anything. SOOOO. TADA! Guess what brilliant idea the script writers come up with? Come on come on take a guess? You'll get it right! What's the most predictable course of action? Of course the Plywood Rocket they just restored! (shhh don't tell anyone its just fake plywood!) SOOO they crate up the Plywood (err rocket - yes its plywood that vaguely looks like a rocket!) and off to Vandenburg AFB.
Well Gus (Played by Robert Wagner - the ONLY actor who was NOT a no name!) decides that it burns burns burns, that ring of fire. (No wait that was Jonny Cash!) SO Gus said well the only guy for the job is Todd. SO despite all odds, and throwing out every scrap of knowledge you know about Space Vehicle Launches (like clean rooms, water pouring into the Rocket lift off Area), etc etc. WOO HOO -- Todd goes on the fakiest ride of his life. To rescue the space shuttle endeavour. Now I don't know about you, but I have actually seen a Mercury capsule - the inside is NOT much bigger then a telephone booth, on a good day. Why this was spacious and roomy! My my....Oh yeah - its PLYWOOD not the real thing!
Any way, Todd saves the day, sees his long dead Dad, and then automatically lowers the hatch (hey wait a minute - the hatch on the Mercury had to be sealed from the outside, so how did Todd accomplish this?) Oh yeah plywood - I keep forgetting!)
Comes back to earth a hero.. That was the most unbelievable part. He and the capsule are safely aboard the shuttle, which now works. So do they bring him home? Nooooooo.... They turn him loose to do the re-entry on his own.
They had a litle head start on NASA in that they had done the work for a Mercury launch .... but .... this was a modified, untested launch with extra boosters added to gain the extra altitude. So all their figures and advanced planning were out the window. The re-entry was rather Apollo 13-esque, needless to say.
Given the damage to the shuttle, I doubt that they would have had the room to bring sufficient spare parts in that Mercury capsule. On second thought, maybe the kid was better off returning to earth in the Mercury capsule. We never did see whether the Shuttle made it back safely or not... <g>
Very very predictable plot -- not a bad family movie, if you can forgive the plywood and technical flaws. 1 reel out of 5.
As a family entertainment movie - it was OKAY -- More Technical flaws.. Did you see the cheap @$$ stand they had the rocket on when they were at the farm? Man able to withstand millions of psi of weight and yet, made out of cheap ordinary steel Oh what about the retaining bolts when they were doing the test firing? What held the RedStone in place and prevented its launch? I KNOW!! It must have been the gantry tower at top able to withstand millions of pounds of sudden thrust without budging a millimetre.
One thing that confused the heck out of me -- ALL rocket test firing I have seen, were done with the rocket horizontal, NOT vertical! I wonder why they did it "THAT WAY?"
Wayno
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