This movie sucks. I decided to watch this hoping to see an interesting flick about an amateur astronaut, but what do I end up seeing in my movie box? A pathetic, idiotic family that live on sentiment and daydreams that would never work. The whole point of the movie is that dreams will get things done. But that's not true. Dreams do nothing, doing things gets things done. Farmer would have never been able to build the rocket. Period. Judging from his whimsical character, he didn't have a practical side to him. He had no scientific basis behind anything he was doing. For example, deciding to switch fuel types, and saying "I think it will work". Or something to that effect...Plainly said, the scientific terminology in this movie was non-existent, and what the writers did put in was so thinly stretched it made no sense at all.When the rocket shot out like a flying sausage across the Texas landscape, it shouldn't have. In a real accident in such a case, the rocket would have exploded right there in the barn and blew the bleep out of the cows, the house, the media, and started a wildfire.There is no way he could have recovered the rocket from that accident, even if he would have survived. Then to think his idiotic family would find a way to rebuild it is beyond me. None of the characters in this movie had any sense of reality at all, and even though they use some key words to make less educated viewers think that they know "science" it is obvious they don't have any clue what they are talking about.I'm all for people building rockets and going into space and stuff. Actually, it is my passion. I study physics and astronomy and I really hope that more and more people get to go into space. This is why I cannot help but point out the unbalanced sentiment(90/10)science aspect of this movie. Adding to that, the whole reason why he wanted to go into space was just to go. He didn't have any plan for doing any sort of scientific activity up there. That is the way to get funding. Of course he's going to look like an idiot.Base line, if you are thinking of watching this movie in hopes of seeing anything remotely related to real science and amateur space exploration, pass this one on by. The makers of this film definitively made it to market to people with limited knowledge of how science works, and play entirely on "family element" and emotions. There is nothing else to this movie. A little interesting orbital CGI, but not worth waiting for.

..and no kidding about that. I do not care that it technically was a financial flop. Some movies are just too good, and I truly mean that, to strike a universal chord with the general public. This is one of them.Strikingly shot, the entire movie glows visually, helped by the starkly desolate beauty of New Mexico. Yes, it is preposterous, per the premise that one can build a functional rocket in ones' barn, but if we discounted movies with far fetched plots, at least half would qualify, including such greats as "Wizard of Oz" and any based on fantasy, let alone sci-fi. The movie itself is so heartwarming, a family movie without the cloyingness of most family movies. Simply put, the faith/love of a family backing up the Don Quitote dream of a tinkerer father, in this case a tinkerer who builds rockets in his yard, planning to create his own manned mission into space. I truly think the movie was perfect in every sense, from the screen writing to the acting to the verisimilitude of the media coverage, including the great Jay Leno interviews. Just a wonderful little masterpiece, that hopefully will find the attention it deserves on video one day, ala the way Shawshank Redemption was "redeemed"!A true pleasure to watch this. One of the most heartwarming pictures I've ever seen. Precious....truly...

I wanted to like this movie, and it caught my attention at the beginning... but as the movie devolved into trite, feel-good, sentimental mush I went from enjoyment to frustration.I know people will say this is a family film, but I like my family to have good role models - not some dreamer who pursues his desires at all expenses. Yes it is important to pursue your dreams, but when you start a family and need to be there for a wife & three children, you don't gamble everything on a foolhardy mission likely to kill you. That's not admirable, it's not responsible... it's selfish.So the core message is white-washed, and then you get other junk messages like throwing a brick through a window is okay if you were angry and you apologize later, ... and promiscuity is okay in your teens (when Charles reminds the shrink he asked her "to go to the moon with him" and she said that was just about getting laid.) The acting wasn't bad, but the music was bland (cue "We Did It" music, cue "We're going through a rough time" music, etc.) . My initial thought was that this movie might be okay for my 10-year old... but the more I thought about the messages and the annoyances, I don't think so.

I will be honest and admit that I wasn't looking forward to watching it. I had just seen Evan Almighty and feared that I had watched the more entertaining movie first and then the depressing movie second.Nope. I was wrong. Sure it was depressing, and sad. Sure there were troubles and sorrow. But isn't that what life contains? The movie started out slow but I got into it quickly enough. I felt connected easily and loved the character's personalities. The failed launch made me feel that he was going to give up. I didn't think that he'd do it again.The second one was really amazing. It got me crying because I knew the joy they were feeling. I really liked how it ended. There were many sorrows in the movie but many joys as well.It would be 10/10 but there was swearing.