"Astronaut Farmer"

Billy Bob Thorton, Farmer, and Astronaut. Five words that most certainly spell complete and total disaster for a movie. Nothing but shear boredom forced my hand to place this DVD in my player. I leaned back in my recliner, and got comfortable for a nice long nap. I had already started planning the beginning of my blog, and how I would enjoy tearing this movie into little shreds, and then 10 minutes later I was still awake.

To my total shock and dismay, this movie actually took on a form. I found myself chuckling at the cute kids that played the two daughters of Charlie Farmer, and his son who is suppose to be his personal "Mission Control" come blast off time.

"Farmer" as all the locals call him is a retired military aeronautical engineer who has decided to build his own rocket, and launch it into space. He is already the laughing stock of the small town he resides in, but quickly becomes a curiosity world wide when his lawyer makes a clever move to attract the press that ends up camping on his front door.

As the family, and outside characters start to build around the story, with its twists and turns, I noticed that I had begun to actually enjoy this strange tale. Some of the town folk are pulling for him, while others scoff, and others of course think he is simply lost his mind. the problem lay with the fact that he actually has the knowledge, equipment, space, materials, and time to actually build a real rocket.

The next problem Farmer encounters is when he tries to buy fuel to propel the rocket. The F.B.I. are questioning if he might be building a bomb, and F.A.A. are quickly in the mix wondering if this crazy country boy is going to blow himself up. If Farmer does not already have enough problems the local bank is trying to foreclose on his ranch.

The interactions between the Farmer family during the good, the bad, and the ugly are all priceless. All of the local town folk who have known the Farmers since childhood drift in and out of the different scenes adding a colorful and funny nature that can only come from a small town where everybody knows everybody else's business.

Billy Bob has had his fair share of disaster movies, and he has also been part of a few movies that i have probably watched, and re watched over a hundred times, so being the mixed bag of nuts that he is, you just never know what you will get from him. While this will not be a movie I will probably watch more then the one time, I must admit that almost everything about this movie was enjoyable.

I recommend this a good, wholesome, family movie, that everyone can enjoy together, or even a good home date for curling up on the couch.

I give this DVD a rating of 7.00 out of 10.00