Subject: Review: Rocket Man (1997)

From: [email-masked] (Chad Polenz)
Date: 28 Oct 1997 22:10:20 GMT

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.

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(C) 1997 Chad Polenz