"FLY ME TO THE MOON" DAZZLES WITH A ROBUST CAST!!!

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - FLY ME TO THE MOON [2024] - PG13 - Apple+ - Directed by Greg Berianti. Story by Bill Kirstein and Kennan Flynn. Screenplay by Rose Gilroy. Produced by Keenan Flynn, Sarah Schechter, Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Lia. Stars Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson, and Jim Rash. Budget $100 Million.

Not based on actual facts or historical events, this is a story about Kelly Jones [Johansson] who has worked most of her life as an advertising manager [of sorts], who has scammed her way through some high profile companies and made a name for herself. She is approached by a high Government official named "Moe" [Harrelson], who enlists her services to help save the American space program [NASA] by building enthusiasm in the America through some unique advertising ploys. Jones becomes smidgen with NASA Launch Director, Cole Davis [Tatum], and together they not only fall in love, but they work together to save the NASA space program from the clutches of Moe who plans to fake the entire landing on the moon.

THE GOOD - Fantastic location spotting. Transforming area scenes to the 1960's with some awesome classic cars. Some brilliant performances between Johansson and Tatum. Ray Romano plays a strong part in the film, doing very little, but some of his most impressive, dramatic works that I've ever seen from him. Harrelson brings a quirky, dark character to life and it's good to see him doing dark comedy again. Some very well produced CGI and practical effects which would help explain how a moon landing was faked and better yet, why. The story is perfect with the time and I liked how the "theory" behind needing to fake a moon landing was explained.

THE BAD - Even though there were some good selections in the sound track for this film, none of the tracks used in this film were memorable after watching the film. A time piece like this film should have a memorable sound track.

POST MORTEM - This was a pleasing film and had all of the elements that a good film should have. IMO the advertising for this film was poorly produced and damaged any chance of this film gaining strength in the box office. This film won't win any nominations as there were no sex scenes, no lesbians kissing or gays working together, no violence, no explosions or super heroes to save the day. Writing films like this has unfortunately gone the way of the Dodo bird. A film to watch when there's nothing else to watch on TV.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [4 of 5 Stars]

EPIC INDIE SURGE FAILS WITH “UNDER THE SKIN”

🎥 🎞 Movie Review 🎞 🎥 - UNDER THE SKIN - [R] - Amazon Prime [2014] - Independent films come and go every year. You would have thought that the term "independent film" would have actually meant; "Made by complete nobodies with a micro-budget that fails in comparison with big Hollywood, but hey, this one has some class in it." But Skin is the proverbial "slap in the face" that proves that some Independent films, even ones written so badly, can somewhat aspire if you throw in a big Hollywood name, especially one who has an upcoming summer action film, and present her naked for all to see in a cheesy, classless pile-of-shit.

 

Now, not all piles-of-shit have a half life of zero seconds, and please keep in mind that Scarlett Johansson truly didn't do anything in this film that made me think, "Hey, this is where her real career started!" - nope, it was way far from that. Directed by Jonathan Glazer, who also wrote the script with Walter Campbell, this pile-of-shit won some big Indie film awards for it's musical score, the direction, and of Johansson's performance[???]...Uhhmnn, did I miss something here? I think that most of this films success comes from the fact that Brad Pitt was somewhat involved in it's development and casting.

 

Well, lets break down the story little and you tell me what big success this pile really has to offer it's viewers...most of whom will be males after I reveal the big surprise in the film. Okay, so without any real description, an alien arrives on earth and becomes a woman. She is helped by a biker-alien who loves to zoom around the countryside looking for her. She wonders from town to town, trapping men into entering an abandoned house, luring them in with sexy temptations to walk into a black muck of liquid that traps them - like the Venus fly trap plant. She discovers that she's more woman than alien and it becomes her weakness; I think Johansson delivers maybe twelve [12] full lines of dialog throughout the movies run...Oh, did I mention that Johansson reveals her naked body seven [7] times in the film, even revealing her bird in a closeup?  If you ever wanted to know what you might expect if you had a chance with her in bed, this is your chance to see her in the nude...yep, that's it.

 

The director claims that there was this really heavy CGI sequence in the film that he really wanted to keep in, but that it was taken out from the film to leave more questions about the alien motif and their technology, which was not explained at all. There are two parts of the films special effects that really took me into SciFi/fantasy excitement, but it came at the end of the movie and there was nothing more question as the en credits popped up after starring into several snowflakes landing on the camera lens; like a quasi Forrest Gump ending. The visual effects were sharp and produced well, but the aimless walking, scenes without dialog, and the doll-like performance by Johansson did not move me at all to keep focused on the film; it definitely did show a glimpse of why she might have been picked to play the lead role in Ghost in the Shell.

 

The cinematography was okay. Most of the film was shot in a guerilla-style filming format which the director felt at the time that he wanted to "catch real peoples reaction" to whatever the alien was doing when walking through town. In my opinion this whole award winning film was a waste of time and just another reason to build up the "what does Johansson's body really look like under all of that plastic and leather" curiosity with her male friends. I'm sure if your male, you won't pass on this movie...I certainly didn't. ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫   [2.5 of 5 Stars]