Un viaje a la luna

As a movie collector for decades who considers himself very critical & picky about films, I can't help myself, I love this movie. Yeah, it's maybe a little far-fetched or corny sometimes but there isn't a second of it that's not enjoyable – it's just too charming and well directed with exactly that effect in mind, and with a beautiful musical score, superb cinematography and a tight script. I think Ted Danson possibly gives his best performance ever as Washington Bellamy, an enraptured-with-knowledge elementary school teacher who also collects beautifully oddball classic cars. The story line described above about trying to match the distance the Apollo crew travels by simultaneously driving over a large part of the country to the Spires of the Moon National Park is already a remarkably charming idea. This will be his "one perfect act" as he brings his very cute young boy with him, leaving behind an quirky paranoid wife who is always afraid to leave the house. Mary Steenburgen plays this part with superb humor as she sets off after her husband and son. Of course, interesting adventures and troubles occur during the journeys but it's Washington's never failing enthusiasm for life and its wonders that really make the film's ideas all work. I've watched this film a number of times and will watch it again into old age and when I'm no longer able to enjoy it I'll be ready to die.

B"H Being an old-car nut, this movie appealed to me because of the '49 Pontiac Eight that is one of the "stars" of the movie. Ted Danson's acting was a little overdone, and some of the plot was thin. My kids hate the flick.

However, watching Washington and Andy drive through the 1969 West in the Pontiac was fun. Besides the '49 Pontiac, there was an Amphicar (driven by Mary Steenburgen) as well as some neat oldies from the '40s sitting outside the Bellamy's home which Washington kept as collector cars.

Ultimately it was fun to watch the Bellamy family together again, being saved from a police manhunt as they drove the Amphicar across a lake to Canada.

Two parts of the movie were ridiculous; one was Andy Bellamy in his own father's science class, and putting a "455" V8 into the old Chief would have required major body modifications as well as a new transmission, impossible to do in a single night.

Inspiring was watching both the astronauts and the Bellamys preparing for their voyages at the same time, the liftoff and that shift of the old Hydra-Matic Drive into DR was a lot of fun to watch.

Pontiac Moon is such a perfect movie that it's easily one of my top 5 favourites. It's intelligent, fun and perfectly crafted and acted. Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen and Ryan Todd perform as if the roles were written for them and they carry the film with gusto and subtlety. It is such a joy to watch (and I've watched it several times) that I can't help but wonder why others can't "get it" but must pick at points that are simply irrelevant. Do you question whether Superman can actually fly or where is the exact location of the Shire? Pontiac Moon is a movie for heaven's sake and it's hugely enjoyable, moving and entertaining. It encourages you to step out of your box and go out into the world because life is meant to be an adventure of the mind and body. This is not for people who wish to live average and mediocre lives of quiet desperation. I'll watch it again and again.

Thank you, Ted Danson.

I really liked that movie for the originality of the plot. From the beginning, on the one hand, you have Apollo XI taking off to the Moon in the boldest and riskiest adventure in all the history of humanity, and on the other hand, you have Katherine Bellamy, who can't even step out of her house because she is too afraid of the world out there. And between those two extremes, you have Washington Bellamy, his husband, who has a drive to explore and discover but hasn't made a single trip with his 11-year old son because Katherine doesn't even want her son to step into a car.

Now Washington is too inspired by the Apollo odyssey and decides it is time for his son to discover something more than what you can find in books. They will drive from their home in California to a natural crater in Idaho, in exactly the same time as Apollo XI gets from Earth to Moon.

The parallelism between the father-and-son trip and the space journey is maintained from the beginning to the end. Of course, the father and the son will strengthen their ties during the trip, the son will learn why his mother is so timorous and... maybe there's a happy ending over there!

Ted Danson snoozes his way through the film with real-life wife Mary Steenburgen. Very bad script, very bad direction, very boring - tries to be a grand epic with hidden meanings but it is just not. Bad acting, especially on the child's part. A Haley Joel Osment he is not. One to skip.

2/5 stars -

John Ulmer