Rocket Man
Chad'z rating: ** (out of 4 = fair)
1997, PG, 90 minutes [1 hour, 30 minutes]
[comedy]
starring: Harland Williams (Fred Randal), William Sadler (Cpt. Overbeck), Jessica Lundy (Julie Ford), Beau Bridges (Bud Nesbitt); written by Oren Aviv, Craig Mazin, Greg Erb; produced by Eric L. Gold; directed by Stuart Gillard.
Seen Monday, October 27 @ 6:50 p.m. at the Glenwood Movie Plex Cinemas in Oneida, NY by myself for free (free pass) (theather rating: **)
As bizarre as this may sound, it takes a lot of intelligence to make stupidity seem funny. Back in the 1980s Pee Wee Herman proved this as he didn't just rely on gags to make jokes, he created an original, detailed atmosphere in which the gags fit in perfectly. Unfortunately, the same is not true of "Rocket Man," a supposedly lighthearted, zany comedy which fails because it's actually not stupid enough.
The key to making a good comedy about stupidity is to first define a setting in which the ridiculous and the absurd is only slightly different from everything else. This film starts off on the wrong foot by giving us a seemingly normal reality but introduces us to a character who is both stupid and smart at the same time.
We meet Fred Randal (Williams), an idiot manchild who works for NASA and programmed the computers that will be used on the first manned mission to Mars. Fred is 30 years old, but often acts as if he's 10. Right from the get-go it's hard to believe he could act the way he does (and work where he does) without anyone noticing how immature he is. All the other characters are played straight, but there's no wit or satire, so the "idiot in the real world" shtick doesn't work. When Fred does his elaborate impersonations and many Jim Carrey-esque slapstick routines, it's not that funny because there's absolutely no reaction within the film.
At least the movie doesn't waste any time in getting to the point. When one of the astronauts slated for the Mars mission can't make it, Fred is selected to go in his place since he knows how the mission's computers work. Of course all of this is explained with complete logic which only enhances the overall lameness.
Most of the first act depicts Fred's space training and consists of one generic sight gag after another. The majority of them aren't funny because they're cartoony and just plain dumb. There's Fred holding his breath for three minutes and kicking the other guy in the groin, there's Fred throwing a monkey around the room and making monkey noises, there's Fred's face turning to rubber on the G-force simulators.... the list goes on.
Eventually the mission to Mars is a go and Fred finds himself on a space shuttle with the arrogant Captain Overpeck (Sadler), and the sweet Julie Ford (Lundy) - the pretty woman who despises Fred at first but will eventually come to like him. There's also Beau Bridges as Bud Nesbitt, a mission controller who botched the Apollo 13 mission, but forms a subtle friendship with Fred. How many times have these formulas been used before? It's not even worth holding cliches like these against the film because there's so many of them. It's like trying to scrape rust off a car made up almost entirely of rust.
This film is a comedy, which means it's meant to make you laugh. So does it at least succeed in this respect? There are a few funny gags here and there, but overall the film has a very low batting average. I'd say about one out of every 10 or 15 jokes actually works. And what's most annoying is that all the jokes are the same - sight gags, farting noises, moronic slapstick, and every two minutes hearing Fred say, "It wasn't me" (which seems like a rip-off of Bart Simpson's "I didn't do it"). In other words, the comedy is lowbrow, repetitive, and not very taxing on the brain.
The last act is just another generic attempt at some kind of seriousness and suspense, but since this is a comedy you know what will happen due to the blatant foreshadowing at the film's beginning.
Even if "Rocket Man" is seen as the innocent screwball comedy it intends to be, the fact remains it's not clever enough to use the stupidity to its advantage.
e-mail: ChadPolenz@aol.com (C) 1997 Chad Polenz
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