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Fly Me To The Moon is set in the time of the space race, even though the film doesn’t bother to tell us what year in which it actually begins, so we have to piece that together from the likes of mentions of various Apollo missions, as well as the Vietnam war.
Enter Scarlett Johansson (Asteroid City) as Kelly Jones, experienced in PR, who’s hired to promote the Apollo 11 launch to the American public, and try and restore interest in the mission, even going to the lengths of hiring photogenic stand-ins for the key characters, when it comes to onscreen interviews, whether for the likes of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, but also for NASA launch director Cole Davis (Channing Tatum – Bullet Train), who never quite made it as an astronaut.
There’s also a change to come from government bod Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson – Champions), with a backup plan in case the mission fails: stage a fake moon landing with the actors, and have that ready to go out to the cameras, just in case!
Fly Me To The Moon passes a couple of hours, but does overstay its welcome and starts to drag. There’s a few small laughs along the way, but ultimately, it’s only been made to appeal to the jingoistic ‘Hey, this is America!’ crowd.
And, I would say that Woody Harrelson plays Woody Harrelson, but then everyone else also only plays themselves. No-one’s really putting in much effort, here, and even for the laughs you do get out of it, there’ll be nothing deserving of a rewatch. That’s a shame, as it’s another of those films that looked brilliant from the trailer, yet was quite something else once released.
Despite this film claiming to have a release date of July 12th, with previews on the weekend before this (when I saw it), this actually means, like IF, The Garfield Movie 3D, and Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie, this will boost the opening weekend box office figures.
Technically, the films could stay on and have an opening ‘9-day weekend’. Confused? Well, most films are released on a Friday, with some coming out on the Weds or Thurs before, on occasion. However, for its first ‘weekend’, it’s actually allowed to release on the SATURDAY before the weekend in order to try and boost that.
For kids films, though, it’s only really worth concentrating on the Sat & Sun for the previews, and the only film that springs to mind for trying to take advantage of those extra days, is 2014’s Transformers: Age Of Extinction. Interesting that Fly Me To The Moon didn’t also go for that, but maybe Apple didn’t want to spend the extra cash.
Fly Me To The Moon was in cinemas last weekend, and is back again from Thursday, and at a later date on Apple TV+, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 132 minutes
Release date: July 8th 2024
Studio: Sony Pictures Releasing / Apple TV+
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (ARRIRAW(4.5K))
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 5/10
Director: Greg Berlanti
Producers: Keenan Flynn, Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Lia, Sarah Schechter
Screenplay: Rose Gilroy
Music: Daniel Pemberton
Cast:
Kelly Jones: Scarlett Johansson
Cole Davis: Channing Tatum
Moe Berkus: Woody Harrelson
Senator Cook: Colin Jost
Lance Vespertine: Jim Rash
Henry Smalls: Ray Romano
Chuck Meadows: Peter Jacobson
Press Agent Walter: Christian Clemenson
Jolene Vanning: Stephanie Kurtzuba
Cole Impersonator: Bill Barrett
Henry Impersonator: Greg Kriek
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.