Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello once again, and welcome back to another episode of movie Deputy Reviews, where we are interrogating something special for you. I sincerely want to apologize for the last one, the last episode that you listened to, but it's that movies like that are the reason why I do this. I mean, I do this for the good ones, too. But I have already gotten some feedback on Saturday's review of kinds of kindness that it has been greatly appreciated by those that have seen the movie and those that have not yet seen the movie. So that's kind of one of the reasons that I do this to begin with is I want to be that voice. I want to be that beacon that kind of helps illuminate things. And thankfully, I'm getting to talk with you about a much, much better movie tonight or today. It's still dark out, so it's morning, so I'm not sure if it's a night or day. Depends on, I guess, the job that you work or your schedule, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. But so here I am, and I am here talking to you about a movie that it almost seems like it could be historical, and in ways it is, but in ways it's not. And the title of this movie is going to be very familiar to those of you who are familiar with old blue eyes. Now, if you don't get the reference on that at all, I'm referring to Frank Sinatra. Now, he has nothing to do with this movie, but the title of one of his songs is the same as the title of this movie. And what is that movie I'm talking about? Well, it is, of course, fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars. The second part I added on there, it's not part of the title of the movie, but I can just hear him singing it in my head and just, I don't have the permission to play the audio. Otherwise I would, I don't want to get in trouble. And I'm still kind of, I've gotten some warnings on some other fair use stuff I've done and I'm like really? Like up to a certain length that's supposed to be fair use stuff. And I just don't want to hassle with it. So it's just easier not to. Now this movie, before I even get into the who, what, where, why and how of the movie itself, I'm going to break this up a little bit. And I am going to tell you I'm giving this movie a guilty rating.
[00:02:33] I'm also going to let you know the score right up front. Yes, I know. Surprise, surprise. But that's why I like to mix it up. I don't like to always do the same thing. But the score I am giving to fly me to the moon is a 6.25 out of ten on the deputy scale. Now, you may think that's a bad score, but. No, no, no, no. It's really not. I mean, it's still. It's a good story. It's memorable, and it's. It's one that there are some flaws in it, and that's kind of what I'm going to touch on here in just a minute.
[00:03:05] But there is just something about this, and it's the lightheartedness and it's. Okay, it's a date movie, but it's also a movie of anybody who remembers the space race. And it's a movie for just kind of bringing it to light for the people who've never experienced this.
[00:03:28] So it's just kind of a whole new everything with this. Well, but it was. It was one. It was new once upon a time. I mean, it's old news now, especially to a lot of the generations who have no idea what the space race even was. It's like, we deal with a lot of kids nowadays, and I was talking to some friends, kids of mine or some kids of theirs, sorry, getting tongue tied here, and I was asking them what the space race was, and I. They thought it was gonna be like two space shuttles racing in space.
[00:04:02] Honestly, that made me chuckle a little bit.
[00:04:05] So I'm just like, okay, that's like, probably gonna be under the next big movie or something coming down the pike later on. Who knows if this inspires that. I want some royalties, just if anybody's out there is listening.
[00:04:18] But no, I had to kind of explain to him what the space race was. And they were so confused. So confused. And I was just like, face palm and stuff like that. But in this one, it kind of goes back to post Kennedy, just kind of the whole thing of the space race. We get to hear Kennedy's speech of that, why we. Why we need to get to the moon. And then we could see how the Soviets or the force wants to actually put a man in space. But of course, we were the first men on the moon. We were in the United States was also the first astro to put the first astronaut in space that was orbited the earth. And so a lot of things like that now, mind you, they did beat us on Sputnik. And just kind of, with all of that but it really was a race to see who could do it better, faster, safer.
[00:05:09] There were some tragedies. Getting to the point, the movie focuses a lot on Apollo Eleven. And, of course, Apollo Eleven is the one that Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins went to the moon. And that is just one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. And a lot of people are making fun of this movie, thinking, okay, that's the movie where they're making fun of the space racer. That's the movie where they're making fun of the moon landing. Yes and no. So that's what I'm kind of going to get into a little bit here.
[00:05:44] That's kind of what I was expecting out of this, too. And that's not really the whole story. But I need to say, if you are coming into this movie expecting historical accuracy to the story itself, you're going to be sadly disappointed. This is not supposed to be a documentary. This is not supposed to be just a mark for Mark. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Historical recollection of the story. Now, they do touch on accurate pieces of the story. They do show actual footage of what was going on with some of the launches. And, of course, with the walk on the moon, we get to actually see the footage from that. And I'll kind of get into that a little bit more as I'm getting into this review. And, of course, you know me. No spoilers.
[00:06:32] But it was about America just kind of getting a little bit disillusioned with the whole space race stuff. I mean, people were really freaked out with Sputnik going up and just the fear of the cold war and just kind of everything going on. And so people were more focused on their safety, of their families, more so than the space race.
[00:06:59] And it. In this movie, what we see is a young woman named Kelly Jones, and she's basically the kubrick of commercials. That's actually a line in the movie, but she has to sell space to the american public, and she has to make it appealing, and she has to help Americans connect with what was going on in space. Now, was there a real Kelly Jones? No. At least not to the best of my knowledge. It doesn't. Didn't even reference anybody in the movie.
[00:07:27] But the way that she had to sell space. And she had somebody that was kind of like a picture of marionette or a puppet, and somebody's pulling the strings, and she had kind of somebody pulling her strings a little bit. And this somebody, his name was Mo Burkus. Well, he was absolutely determined that this had to succeed to the point of even kind of going against NASA a bit and insisting that there be a camera on the eagle, that that is the actual lander that landed on the moon itself. And so he wanted to put a camera there so people could actually see, because originally, at least as it's told here in the movie, there wasn't going to be any footage of the actual landing, and he wanted to do that. But on the odd case that something didn't work out or something didn't go right or there was any glitch, I mean, okay, we are talking 1960s technology here, so we are talking. I mean, I have more memory on a single app on my phone than all of NASA's computers had. Like, I'm not even exaggerating that in the least. It's just. It is. It's mind boggling, to say the least.
[00:08:40] And so as a backup plan, just in case, he wanted to recreate it here.
[00:08:47] And that's kind of how this movie plays out, is they. They're. They are actually going to the moon. They're actually landing on the moon, and all this is happening, but as a backup, just kind of save face that the american people, with all of the hype that they're doing on this, they did this whole thing on this soundstage. And honestly, if you are an animal lover, it is a kitty cat that steals the show. I'm not going to give you any details on that or anything to spoil that. But there is some. A certain little black kitty cat is the belle of the ball in this movie.
[00:09:27] Like I said, I won't give you any of the details on that, but you're gonna have to. Kind of have to keep your eyes out if you do go see this.
[00:09:34] Now, when I was watching this, and the reason that I know that they actually did use some of the actual footage is I'm gonna talk about my personal life a little bit here, so bear with me. But I was actually connected. And to the. My classroom was connected to Christina McCullough's classroom. And for those that don't remember the name, she was the teacher that went up on the challenger. And so that day I will remember for the rest of my life. But I wanted to have a happier memory to go along with our shuttles. And, okay, we had, like, the Apollo missions and we had all of those. And then, of course, we have the shuttle. We had the shuttles. And the very first shuttle mission was sts one. And that was the US. That was the Columbia many years ago. Well, STS 133 was the last launch of discovery and my husband and I actually had the privilege to go down to Kennedy Space center and we were there to witness the live launch of the discovery, making her final voyage to space.
[00:10:43] To say that, I mean, I've got goosebumps here just talking about it, but to say that that was an experience is an understatement. I mean, to, to see that lift off and to. You literally hear the air crackle and you feel the ground rumble. I'm not exaggerating this in the least. Like, the ground legitimately rumbles and the air just cracks, crackles. It's like you just feel it. And the day that we were there, it was such a crystal clear day that we actually could watch it as it's arcing and just the whole thing. And people with binoculars could even see as the boosters separated. And it was just so incredible.
[00:11:25] So being there and witnessing something like that and having connections to like, the challenger and then seeing how they honored some of the, the tragedies that happened along with the Apollo things and how things.
[00:11:41] Just to witness how it started, to see where we are now. I mean, obviously the shuttles are long done and it's gone more privatized and everything now with SpaceX and all these other companies out there, but to see it from its earliest days onward and acknowledging these tragedies that ever changed not only these families, but changed our country. It changed our.
[00:12:11] The way that we looked at getting into space. It changed the way that we were moving forward with all of this. And even though this is fictitious, it is still, it's captivating. You are drawn into this and it's. It's entertaining. It's like I said, it's a cute date movie. It's a cute, just feel good movie. It's. It's not all kissy face, over the top romance type stuff. There are. There's a few laugh out loud moments in it. There's just. There's a little bit of language that's a little bit much for some audiences, which is why I'm giving it the guilty rating. But there is just something about this that is captivating. I, for one, will probably see this again, and when it eventually comes out on tv, I'll probably watch it then, too.
[00:13:08] Sorry. Sounds like I've been having a. Sounds like some of my kitties were getting into with each other a little bit out in the other room, but. So again, I'm giving fly me to the moon a 6.25 out of ten on the deputy scale, a guilty rating. And I hope that you have enjoyed this. I really hope so. It's like I kind of have a unique perspective of the fact that I had some connections to Challenger and the fact that I got to actually witness Discovery's final launch with my own eyes. I mean, just seeing that, experiencing that, just.
[00:13:41] It's life changing. Seeing something like that. It's just sometimes you can't really put that into words. And it's like I said, I've literally got goosebumps.
[00:13:51] But I love bringing movie reviews like this to you. And I love talking to you about how my life has a connection to some of these stories like this. And it's just.
[00:14:03] I don't know. I love it, and I hope you do, too. So if you love it as much as I do, you know which buttons to push. Of course. Like subscribe, share, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
[00:14:14] And of course, I will be back soon to talk to you, talk with you about another movie. Bye.
