Fly Me To The Moon

 

      Billed as a romantic comedy,  this new film starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum is neither romantic nor comedic. The forced "screwball" chemistry between the stars falls flat and the comedy is sabotaged from the very beginning when the film opens recounting the tragic loss of the Apollo One astronauts, killed in a capsule fire, before they even launched. That terrible accident starts the film and any lighter moments are quickly forgotten when the accident repeatedly comes up (Mr. Tatum's character was the control director on that mission).

      Greg Berlanti directs the film like a bad sit-com with no laugh track and the pace of a snail. He does nothing to make the chemistry of the two stars credible and the subplot of a faked moon landing (that theory has existed for years), played better in "Capricorn One".

      The film co-stars Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson, Jim Rash, Anna Garcia, Noah Robbins, and Donald Elise Watkins. Mr. Romano's natural comedic ability is underused, Mr. Rash is an offensive stereotype but Mr. Harrelson is well cast as a mysterious government agent.

       Fact and fiction don't blend well in the script and don't even get me started on Mr. Tatum's terrible hair piece. There are a few funny lines and one comedic scene that works but they don't make up for this film's "failure to launch". 

       And for the second time this year, a cat steals the film.