The Worst Film Ever
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
View MoreThis is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
View MoreIt's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
View MoreWow. I was just talking with friends about movies that I remember watching on television when I was young and this gem came to mind.The main character is an avid fan of the moon program and comes up with a plan to get up close and personal with a rocket on it's way to the moon. He manages to stay on board during the launch and that's when the fun begins. Yes, it's simplistic in that it ignores some of the basic physics of space flight but I'm sure the core audience of this movie - young fans of the Apollo missions - really didn't notice.If I remember it right they discover him on the way to the moon and he ends up saving the day as the pilot of the command module comes down with the flu and the kid looks after him and helps him recover while the other astronauts continue with their mission of landing on the moon. The return trip back to Earth gets rough as the kid almost freezes but does survive as they make it back to Earth. He ends up becoming somewhat of a hero at the end.Yes, it pushed the boundaries of realism but, hey, the Appolo program was still going when this came out so it was easy to overlook the small details.9 out of 10.
View MoreIt's been so many years since I last saw this. Sort of a children's version of "Marooned" or an earlier, better version of "Spacecamp."Young EJ is an intelligent, young boy with an obsessive interest in the space program. So he hatches a plan to sneak past the launch support crew and surveillance cameras during the launch preparations for the "Camelot" moon mission, managing to get himself into the Apollo space capsule. Once they're en route to the Moon, he's discovered. His presence causes problems and strains the resources of a spacecraft meticulously designed to hold only three men, but he also helps solve other problems that arise and so gains the respect, friendship and admiration of the astronauts.Child actor Michael Link did a fine job in the titular role. EJ was written as highly intelligent but not a precocious smart aleck like so many child characters today. A young nerd, as it were. Most of the adults were fine as well, including veterans Lloyd Bridges and John Carradine. Note that all the scenes at "Houston" were actually filmed in one of the Kennedy Space Center firing rooms (launch control center) in Florida.It was the daydream of many a young boy and certainly some young girls (paging Dr. Sally Ride) in the years immediately following the Apollo missions to be an astronaut. "Stowaway" took that a step further with a dream of going into space without having to grow up (and grow old) first. But show this movie to most kids today and they would be likely to not only find the special effects lacking (which is not all that important) but the space program dull and uninspiring.. How times have changed. No longer does the nation cluster around TVs, holding its collective breath throughout each mission People have become jaded to space, even though the shuttle only goes up every few months at most -- no more often than the Moon missions did. If JFK could see the level of disinterest today, he would cry. Shows and movies about the space program (as opposed to space operas, alien invasions and the like) are rarities today. Only a few come to mind from the last two decades. The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, From the Earth to the Moon, Spacecamp, Space Cowboys. Alas, the last two were targeted at diametrically opposite age groups. All of us would benefit if some of the early wonder were instilled in generations now and yet to come.
View MoreSure I can remember seeing this on TV when I was 9, the kid weighed about 87 lbs, and if I remember right, nearly freezes to death while they are circling the moon(?)-there was some suspense and all that. I had never heard what this was called but I remembered parts of it all these years.Yes this is worth seeing if you can find it; not a bad rainy Saturday afternooner thing for your kids at the least. And hey, it has John Carradine AND Lloyd Bridges. Not bad.**1/2 outta **** at least.
View MoreThis is a sweet, simple story about a boy who stowaway on a spacecraft the night before lift off. It appears that he really thought this plan through, he studied up on space travel and the complex nature of traveling in space. This kid is smart, he knew what he was doing!This is 1974 and the security technology has not yet been available. It's impossible to get away with some thing like that today. I like the way this story is told, it's not corny, but neither is it overblown.This film also brings back the memories of the Apollo space program, while I was only 5 years old when Apollo 11 mission to the moon, I still remember the event because it was all anyone talked about at the time.This is good story telling. I give it ***1/2 out of *****.
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