By Nick Nitkowski

We all know about the moon landing. It’s embedded in our history. We even had an Oscar-winning movie about it six years ago. But now comes a new take on the moon landing all about marketing in order to fund such a venture and potentially faking said moon landing. Now, one of the first things you’ll notice is that this movie does not market itself as a “based on a true story” type film. This is purely a fictitious depiction that just plays with the notion of faking the moon landing. So don’t take the workings of this film to heart, conspiracy theorists. With all of that out of the way, how was the movie?

The film overall was enjoyable. It was surprisingly more humorous than I thought it would be. There were quite a few jokes that got a few chuckles out of me. There were also some jokes that didn’t work, but those were few and far between. There’s also some romance building between Scarlette Johanson’s and Channing Tatum’s characters because of course there is. Was it necessary? No, but it didn’t bother me too much.

Another thing to note is that this movie is not entirely about faking the moon landing. The first half of the movie is all about marketing the moon to the public in order to help finance it and complete the mission before the Russians. The faking of the moon landing doesn’t even come into play until the last half of the film even though it was heavily promoted in the trailer. Because of that, it certainly made the film feel long. The movie’s runtime is clocked in at 2 Hours and 12 minutes. I personally think it could have been trimmed down a bit.

The performances, aside from some good comedic timing, were fine. Scarlette Johanson and Channing Tatum did well and I would even say that they played well off of each other throughout the film. Although, I don’t foresee any Oscar nominations for these particular performances. But the biggest stand out in the film to me, with the brief amount of screentime he had, was Jim Rash as the uptight director. He’s not in the film too much, but his mannerisms were such a joy to watch every time he was on screen. Woody Harrelson was also good even though he wasn’t on screen much either. And Ray Romano was Ray Romano. 

Overall, I would say that “Fly Me to the Moon” is a passable film. It didn’t exactly “wow” me in any way, but it didn’t bore me either. It took a concept that many have theorized about and ran with it to make a comedic take on a real historical event. I still think that the runtime could have been trimmed down a bit and I can see this movie not being for everyone, but I myself had a decent time with it. Is it worth seeing in a theater? It’s a stretch. I could see this movie having the exact same impact for its audience at home as it does on screen. So, if you were hoping that this movie would fly you to the moon in return, it might be best to bring your expectations back down to earth. 

3 stars