Fly Me To The Moon Review: A Summer Favorite

I’m a huge sucker for NASA-centric movies, so naturally I jumped at the chance to see director Greg Berlanti’s take on the moon landing. Fly Me To The Moon stars Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street, Magic Mike) as Cole Davis, the flight director of NASA’s Apollo program and Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story, Black Widow) as Kelly Jones, a hot-shot advertising agent brought in to spruce up NASA’s image in order to keep the project funded.

Fly Me To The Moon is the perfect easy-to-watch summer movie. It’s lighthearted and hopeful is a way that a lot of movies just aren’t any more. There’s plenty of well-written humor here that had a large portion of my screening audience laughing too. Channing Tatum nails the “do the right thing” good boy role and plays it very well off of the fast-talking Scarlett Johansson. The pair has great chemistry even when they don’t see eye to eye, and both are adept at navigating sincere and serious moments as they come along.

In a classic case of a movie being undersold by its marketing, Fly Me To The Moon is not a will-they-won’t-they love story woven over the top of whether or not the United States faked the moon landing back in the ‘60s. In fact, the concept of a fake moon landing doesn’t even come into play until the final third of the film. Instead we’re treated to a hopeful story centered around the unbridled optimism of a small team pursuing the goal of a very real moon landing.

Cole and Kelly’s romance isn’t set up to string us – or them – along at all. From the very moment they meet their attraction is clear and Cole addresses it out loud to Kelly. This allows us to see the relationship flourish as they work alongside one another rather than run us through various tropes and misunderstandings. There is still conflict there, especially as their ideals and ideas of how the Apollo mission should be run and marketed clash, but their conflict is not rooted in feelings that are hidden, misconstrued, or miscommunicated.

The movie as a whole is overwhelmingly fine. It’s not bad by any meaning of the word. It won’t win any awards – not all the jokes land and some story beats are just a bit too convenient – but it is fun. Woody Harrelson and Jim Rash are clearly having the time of their lives playing their over-the-top roles, and again, the humor is, for the most part, very well written and witty. There’s also just something about seeing a plan come together that’s inspiring and hopeful, especially when that plan results in a big rocket shooting off into space. Other than that, the film feels just a tad too long and there’s a sequence in the big climax of the film that feels a bit hokey and contrived in a way that feels out of touch with the rest of the movie.

Fly Me To The Moon won’t be a summer mega hit that audiences flock to see, but it should be seen. It’s one of my favorite films of the summer so far, even if it’s not perfect. If nothing else, it’s a good time with a great cast and some funny jokes, and you’ll get to see a few rocket launches along the way.

Score: 7.5/10

FLY ME TO THE MOON

Directed by Greg Berlanti

Written by Keenan Flynn, Bill Kirstein, and Rose Gilroy

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, and Woody Harrelson

Release Date: July 12, 2024

Rating: PG-13

Synopsis: Marketing maven Kelly Jones wreaks havoc on launch director Cole Davis’s already difficult task. When the White House deems the mission too important to fail, the countdown truly begins.