AMAZON PRIMES "A MILLION MILES AWAY" DIDN'T HAVE TO GO THAT FAR...

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - A MILLION MILES AWAY [2023] - [PG] - Amazon Prime - Directed by Alejandra Marquez. Written by Bettina Gilois, Hernan Jimenez, Alejandra Marquez, Jose Hernandez. Starring Michael Pena, Rosa Salazar, Garret Dillahunt, Sarayu Blue, and Ashley Ciarra. This specific film has a heavy Latin Production team, something that is very rare in the era of Amazon Prime films.

This is the life story based on Jose Hernandez [performed by Michael Pena], a NASA Astronaut, who came to the United States as an immigrant, worked in the fields as a child, graduated college, and after what seemed like years of applying for the space program, he was finally selected and went to space to make history. Through thick and thin, no matter how hard things got or how he's looked down upon for being known at work as the resident "enchilada guy," he works hard to prove himself and reaches for a dream he's had as a young boy. With the help of his supporting wife, he makes all of his dreams come true and he unknowingly enters the history books of American space flight.

THE GOOD - The films script was written from the eyes of the Latin/Mexican culture and community, so there is a lot of humor that is hidden within the film, but this feature is far from being a comedy. During the main characters young life, the director does a fine job laying out how hard times were during the 1970's in southern California. There is some incredible attention to detail, classic cars, and even some old cultural Mexican festivals and family hierarchies that are rarely presented in films today. Location spotting was absolutely perfect for this film.

THE BAD - IMO the director went a little too far with the character development, presenting the family moving from one place to another, and another, and another; when all of this could have been edited out and presented in a shorter sense to make more time for the big pay off of Hernandez actually going to train at NASA. Even though the director and writers were trying to sell to the audience that the movie was aimed at developing a "family is important" atmosphere, the point was drug out and very little time was spent on presenting how being an astronaut is a team effort; save one scene where the astonaut's are pushed to the limit underwater, and Hernandez makes a decision to save a teammate which gives the NASA leaders a green light to put Hernandez on the team for a space launch...presenting the team and their tough training sessions should have been a bigger focus in the film.

POST MORTEM - This is a good film, but there are a lot of slow parts and an extreme need to over emphasize “family” and what's happened to the old ways of doing things, living life, and how Hernandez had to progress out of the old culture to fit in with the ever changing society of success. There were no real stand out performances and there's sometimes where I feel that Pena is just lazily sitting there, performing his parts from one scene to another; looking like he could just take a nap to get enough juice to finish the next scene driving around. The true part of the film works and I always like seeing the end credits showing the real Hernandez family and where they are now.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫[3.5 of 5 Stars]

"MOONFALL" IS SCIFI, DRAMATIC FUN!

🎥🎞Movie Review🎞🎥- MOONFALL - PG - HBO+ - In the swirling drain of recent Hollywood trash films and unpolished series that are steaming and leaving many fans confused with bad story telling and unforgivable plot twists, MOONFALL is an incredible fantasy SCIFI film that was smartly written, which also presents a real life finesse to the struggles of having to learn that NASA has been hiding secrets from the American public. The plot is dubious, as a trio of NASA astronauts who make first contact with an alien entity during a routine orbital mission, that plots a course for the moon and quickly forces the moon's orbit to decay, potentially slamming the moon into the earths atmosphere and perpetrating potential world-wide destruction. Of course, earth is not prepared and the entire success of a dire mission to the moon lands on a three man team that have only one chance to fix the failing trajectory of the moon.

The film stars Halle Barry, Patrick Wilson, and John Bradley. The screenplay is by Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, and Spenser Cohen. Directed by Roland Emmerich. The movie didn't do so well in the box office, but on HBO+, the film has flourished and has received positive reviews where it counts. I was impressed with the visual effects, the acting, and the choice of music for the film. Bradley, who is widely known for his role as Samwell Tarly in the Game of Thrones, performs a stunning and humorous part of the "non-scientist" and conspiracy theorist, who has figured out the entire plot for the moon crashing into the earth at an increased rate, before any this real time information landed into NASA's lap.

The strength of the film comes from the performances of Barry, who always does a colossal job of transforming herself into the required role to give solid character development and bring some believable emotion to required scenes. Wilson plays his part well, and even though his has an exclusive skill of seemingly not being too excited for his part in any film, delivers a strong performance and provides the right temperament for a professional astronaut who is stripped from his job and future successes by NASA, in an attempt to keep the truth of aliens existing so close to earth.

The one weakness in the film is the story sub-plot, where the families of Barry and Wilson are left back on earth to struggle during the planetary holocaust that is crashing all around them. Obviously written in as filler, these parts in the film were cast with a bunch of nobodies that are let by veteran actor, Michael Pena. This story arc extension seems to drag, even though there are large explosions, action sequences that seem to go no where, and completely destroys any momentum made by the main arc being presented on the moon, the alien entity that is hell bent on killing all organic matter, and a separate alien technology that can restore the moons orbit and save the earth.

In my opinion, I found it really hard to bash this movie as it was clearly produced to entertain and not be taken so seriously as a historically correct film. But with better promotional advertising, a stronger trailer, and the editing out of the "family survival" story arc, this film could have done a whole lot better at the theater and might have flourished with an all time high in streaming on HBO+.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 [3.5 of 5 Stars]