Rocketman

Bomb Rating: 

However big the stretch, (Harland) Williams -- who's the Jim Carrey for the ADD set -- plays an idiot.

By its very nature, a movie like this forces me to lower my expectations considerably. That it wasn't even able to meet those pathetic standards doesn't say much for the effort put forth by the people at Disney and Cable ACE award-winning director Stuart Gillard.

You know, if one astronaut is going to share his air with another astronaut and then fart in his space suit, the fart at least ought to have enough power to blow the other guy's head apart like in "Outland." The best "Rocketman" can do is have the farter, Fred Randall (Harland Williams), make a funny face while the fartee, Commander Bill Overbeck (William Sadler) says something along the lines of "Gee, that smells bad!" I say stop forcing the comedy writers in Hollywood to swallow Prozac like it was Pez and let them give actual "writing" a shot. Then again, I suppose the decapitated-astronaut T-shirt doesn't do very well in the Disneyland gift shop.

However big the stretch, Williams -- who's the Jim Carrey for the ADD set -- plays an idiot. He's designed the software for a manned Mars mission and becomes a candidate for said mission when one of the regulars is brutally gang-raped by Mickey Mouse and Goofy (or something like that). Williams bungles his way to approval and then through the mission.

This idea of the idiot as hero occurs in movie after movie quite suspiciously. If movie executives would only begin listening to their therapists and accepting themselves for who they are, audiences could be spared such torture.