terrible... so disappointed.

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

On the surface, this movie should have been a great one. Here we have a great true story, involving a relentless search for truth, a government agency cover-up, a secret confidential source, and a tragedy that shook the nation. Coupled with a hero in the charismatic, eccentric and brilliant Richard Feynman, this could easily have been as good or better than say "Spotlight", or any other great movie of that genre. Yet, this movie, although OK, somehow misses. It's not great, has no great powerful moments, nor particularly funny or self deprecating. Something to watch when nothing else is on and no more.Some of the blame must go to the portrayal of the main character, on which the entire story revolves - prof. Richard Feynman. One of the greatest physicists in history, with a crazy rich past and eccentricities that are legendary, and he is simply boring! It is clear to me that neither William hurt who plays him, nor the director has bothered to watch any of his many televised lectures ind interviews. First of all - the famous Brooklyn accent. Than the constant cocky smile and sharp humor. The many anecdotes and metaphors that are often his way of explaining. Non of it are present here. If it were up to me Alan Alda would play him as he is both sorta looks like him and is funny, serious and can do a great accent. Also the constant emphasis on his illness is over the top and distracting.About the only really good thing I can attribute to this film is it's uncharacteristic accuracy. I didn't notice any factual errors, and that is rare in Hollywood.In summation, this is a mediocre movie, that with a better cast and writing staff could have been a great one. Too bad!

I can't believe William Hurt, who to me, has always been a great actor, didn't get award recognized for his portrayal of brilliant real life scientist, Richard Feynman, called in to help find the source of the 1986 Challenger disaster. Feynman working tooth and nail, becoming work obsessed, his health not the best, was the one, who pinpointed the cause. This is a very engrossing movie, where over 90 minutes, it deals with the aftermath of that horrific day, where Feynman was called to Washington, from His L.A home I presume, to help with the investigation, and gets entangled into political issues, going up against the big guns, making a few enemies, quick. Feynman was an admirable character, and Hurt gives it such clout, in what really is a remarkable performance, no acting credit or not. This is a character you can't pull the wool over or befool. Joanne Whalley was really good, surprisingly really good, as his concerned wife, while Brian Dennehy was solid, as the slightly shady guy leading the investigation. One CIA Sergeant (Bruce Greenwood, solid as always, with this being no exception) teams up with Hurt, where they become good friends. Greenwood uses discreet methods to divulge some info, for why the shuttle took off that day, which was quite disheartening. On the whole, this t.v. movie is engrossing like I aid, where the other plus is Hurt. Why can't he make a comeback, which I what I say to myself with each recent film he does. A movie that has you from the word "Go", it's last scene, memorable.

28 years ago the USA faced another test of openness and truth during the aftermath of the Challenger explosion. Richard Feynman uncovered the truth and is one of my heroes. My colleagues and I knew of his commission findings at the time and greatly appreciated his presentation at the open hearings. He had continued along the path of scientific analysis, and even after getting sidetracked with a wrong assumption (turbine blade micro-cracks), he stubbornly persisted to find the true cause of the failure (booster O-ring inelasticity). As a professional engineer involved with safety in the chemical industry and cryogenics, I was glad that an definitive cause of this disaster was made public so it would not happen again. I believe this story/movie can show viewers the need to be open and truthful and the foolishness of deception. Feynman's brilliant scientific "cold O-ring test" and explanation is an example for all engineers and scientists to follow.Don Finan P.E.

This is an extremely well done telling of the investigation surrounding the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986. Despite the fact that we all know the outcome of the findings, there are constantly rising stakes here which help keep you glued to the story.William Hurt is exceptional as physicist Richard Feynman, a member of the fact-finding commission, who almost single-handedly recognized the cause of the disaster and pushed the commission in the right direction. I did find his failing health issues to be important but overdone. The "peeing blood" and dialysis tended to take me out of the story when I'd already gotten and understood his health problems with the "x-ray" scene.Brian Dennehy also did a remarkable job of channeling William Rogers (as head of the Challenger fact-finding commission) who from the beginning wants to whitewash the whole the thing. Rogers was the Secretary of State under Richard Nixon which is hardly a vote of confidence for the man and any real neutrality.Overall, it would seem that history is not going to be kind to the Reagan Administration. The film does bring out facts that were never a part of any official commission findings implying those were repressed for apparently legitimate national security issues of the time. In a nutshell, the Reagan budget cuts caused NASA to promise the military the ability to launch military spy satellites via the shuttles almost on demand instead of the military developing their own new missile. Decidedly, putting temperature restrictions on such shuttle launches would not be something to tell the Soviets about. However, maybe in future years someone will realize that even this was a false concern because the launches would have been from the California coast where freezing temperatures would be almost non-existent.I highly recommend this film to relive this piece of recent history.