I don't know about you, but I really like Joe Johnston as a director. I'm a pretty big fan of HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS and of ROCKETEER. Hell, I even like JUMANJI though I catch some hell for it. So it is with some expectation that I say I've been looking forward to hearing about this film. Hopefully it is as good as Bandato here says it is. Personally... I can't wait.
The Bandato here, with a lil' bit of info you might be interested in.
After spending last Saturday with Dawson and his cronies in that pathetic football movie, I was delighted to find out that I had a chance to see "October Sky", a movie chock full of young actors that didn't smirk constantly and speak in a hideous, nails-on-the-blackboard drawl. Oh, the joys of actors actually acting!
I journeyed to the theater, delighted at the concept of not having to pay 9 bucks for a movie. We're ushered in (I cringed as I passed the Varsity Blues poster), handed stuff by a little guy in a red shirt ("Special Guy", as we came to call him) and evantually found my seat, which happened to be right next to this creepy old guy that kept asking me questions. Ughh... Creepy old people.
As I had some time to kill, I read the handout thingee. Seems they're having trouble figureing out how they should market this movie, as they asked for suggestions and gave you postcards to send to your buds in a cheap attempt to spread word of mouth. "Hmm..." I remarked to myself. "If they're this desperate to get people to beg their friends to go see this movie, then it must be a complete turd."
Well, the movie began, and I gotta say, IT FUCKING ROCKED! It blew my mind. It took every coming-of-age cliche in the book (Father who dissaproves of his son's strange ways, Loser Kid that's actually pretty cool, tough guy with abusive stepfather, rebel teacher that sees the good in students that everyone else thnks are delinquints, etc.) and actually PULLED THEM OFF. The movie didn't come off sappy, or corny, or even unorignal; It was poignant, thought-provoking, tearjerking, ass kicking!
The plot revolves around poor old Homer Hickam, a high school boy growing up in the shadow of his older football playin' brother. The town in which he lives is a coal minin' town, and everyone there mines coal. The whole town is owned by a coal company. Homer's father is the grand-daddy of coal mining; he's the local expert. And, someday, Homer is expected to follow in his father's footsteps.
Homer don't like this scenario, though. He can't get out and go to college though, cause everyubody's poor. If he could get a scholarship fpr football, then maybe. But that ain't gonna happen, 'cause 1) Big bro is getting one, and 2) Homer sucks ass at football.
However, the laanch of sputnik gets Homer all riled up. He sees it pass over his house (the whole town gathers to see that kooky shitass soviet thingee speedin' by in the night sky), and from then on, he decides he wants to build rockets, much to the dismay of his papa. He recruits his friends, the local dweeb, and they set out to make themselves some rockets.
From there, the story begins to unfold. The boys are accused of setting a forest fire with their rockets, there's a subplot with the teacher (Laura Dern, whose surprisingly hot) and some disease she catches, and then the whole deal with a scholarship awarded for the best entry in a national science fair. Hell of a movie, you just gotta see it.
Another cool aspect of the movie is that it's based on a true story. At the end, they do the thing where they write out on the screen what happened to all the characters. But when they do it, they show actual footage of the afctual people, back from 1957. For homer, they show the REAL homer, you dig? Mighty groovy stuff, if I do say so myself.
All in all, Universal has a movie on it's hands that really deserves to be a hit. Lots of cool shit, great perfromances, funny as hell one-liners... This movie one that deserves to be a hit, and might just pull Universal out of its post-Spielberg rut. It might hold the studio afloat untill Jurassic Park 3 (At this time I would like to state, for the record, that IAN MALCOLM IS THE SHIT!).
A great flick, Harry, one you should really check out! You won't be dissapointed! Release date somewhere around the middle of Febuary, be sure to check it out. If you don't... Well, it's your ass, not mine.
~Bandato
