Movie Review: Fly Me to the Moon

On July 20, 1969, after 10 years of effort and the work of over 400 thousand workers from numerous external vendors who assembled and tested thousands of parts in one of the most dangerous and ambitious missions in human history, NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration) landed two men on the moon.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first two men on the moon for Apollo 11. After Apollo 11 five more successful missions to the moon happened, ending with Apollo 17 on December 7, 1972. The one failure, Apollo 13 on April 11, 1970, did not make it to the moon due to an explosion, that turned out to be one of NASA's finest moments when they saved the lives of three Astronauts and brought them home despite impossible odds, the subject of Ron Howard's great film, "Apollo 13" (1995).

Since the last moon landing in 1972, five movies have been released suggesting that the moon landings were all faked. "Capricorn One" (1978), "Astronauts Gone Wild" (2004), "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon" (2001), "Dark Side of the Moon" (2002), "Room 237" (2012). The last movie, Room 237 was a documentary about Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" (1980) that had clues about Kubrick's involvement in possibly faking the moon landings.

Considering the ongoing conspiracy theories documentaries and movies that still proclaim that the NASA moon landings were faked, it makes no sense that now after over 50 years NASA has not come up with a huge marketing campaign that includes two-hour documentaries, segments on 60 minutes, books, magazines that finally put to rest forever, these constant lies about the moon landings being faked.

Rather than an aggressive marketing campaign putting all of the conspiracy theories to rest, NASA policy through the years has been "Overall, NASA provides ample evidence and relies on the scientific community to support the reality of the moon landings, focusing its efforts on continuing space exploration and scientific discovery." However, taking the high road for over 50 years has not killed the ongoing lies about the moon landings. The new movie "Fly Me to the Moon" is yet another film that includes a storyline about Apollo 11 being faked by a Hollywood producer and director.

Fly Me to the Moon stars Scarlett Johansson as Kelly Jones, an advertising executive hired by NASA to promote the space agency and raise money for the space program by linking the agency to as many products as possible. Channing Tatum plays Cole Davis a NASA mission administrator who is in constant conflict with Kelly Jones as she tries to market NASA to make money for the space program. The original idea of this film is at first very good, with some good drama and comedy as ongoing problems and arguments between the two main characters carry this story. During the last 1/3 of this movie, Moe Berkus, a government official working directly with the White House, played by Woody Harrelson comes up with an idea to have a fail-safe video feed that NASA will show the world, in case something goes wrong if/when the Astronauts land on the moon. The good part of this is that this movie does not proclaim that the moon landing was faked, only that the attempt to fake it did exist to save NASA from potential embarrassment. What follows is what comes off as mostly a comedic parody ending that saves this story from being just another conspiracy theory movie and in some ways tries to make fun of the 50+ year "the moon landings were faked" conspiracy theories.

As far as the movie, that acting was good, some of the comedy did work, some other parts did not. The Rotten Tomatoes rating of only 67% is too low, with my rating a solid 75% and a recommendation because this film is entertaining enough to recommend.