Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

American Astronaut, The

EMAILPRINTArtistic License Films

American Astronaut, The reviews
51
9.6 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 14 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Sci-fi

Written by: Cory McAbee

Directed by: Cory McAbee

Release Date:
Theatrical: September 5, 2001
DVD: February 22, 2005

Running Time: 91 minutes, B/W

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Cory McAbee, Rocco Sisto, Greg Russell Cook, Annie Golden, and Joshua Taylor

Follows the adventures of an interplanetary trader (McAbee) through his Homeric intergalactic journey to provide the all-female population of Venus with a suitable singular male, all the while being pursued by the cold-blooded and childish killer, Professor Hess (Sisto), an enigmatic figure from his past. (Commodore Films)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80

Chicago Reader Jack Helbig

Mott Hupfel II's noirish photography, Pete Beaudreau's smooth editing, and McAbee's wry script are all wonderful, and Dawn Weisberg's costumes are especially killing.

Read Full Review >
80

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

The result is a sui generis, love-it-or-hate-it exercise in homegrown American surrealism.

Read Full Review >
80

Film Threat Ron Wells

This musical epic is unlike anything I (or anyone I know) have ever laid eyes on.

Read Full Review >
70

TV Guide Frank Lovece

The characters may be one-dimensional ciphers with nothing much to say, but boy, do they not say it with style.

Read Full Review >
63

Boston Globe Jim Sullivan

Doesn't really have a climax that works, making you wonder whether all the nutso plot machinations were worth following. Maybe, maybe not. But there were a number of skewed bits that popped out and put a chuckle into this journey.

Read Full Review >
63

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A micro-budget black-and-white musical set in outer space, The American Astronaut is obviously not for all tastes -- but it's quite unlike anything else out there at the moment.

Read Full Review >
50

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Much of Astronaut comes off as tedious and self-amused, but the musical vignettes are fun.

Read Full Review >
50

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Rarely funny and straining to reach feature length, The American Astronaut achieves sweetness via its straight-faced take on utter gobbledygook.

Read Full Review >
50

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Soars as much as it crashes.

Read Full Review >
42

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Quickly becomes an endurance test: like watching an old Carol Burnett skit that's not working, or a high school play that's trying to be bad.

Read Full Review >
40

Variety Dennis Harvey

Unfortunately that blast-off heralds an orbit to nowhere, with initial delight fading as pic runs out of ideas all too soon, never building a sense of momentum or narrative thrust.

Read Full Review >
38

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

The best part of this proudly absurd experience is the music.

Read Full Review >
30

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

The fleeting moments of dry wit are too sparse to hold the movie together, so instead McAbee takes the kitchen-sink approach, hitting us with whatever he's got.

Read Full Review >
30

Los Angeles Times John Anderson

Has been described as a "midnight-style musical." And perhaps it should be seen that way, with a crowd of kindred knuckleheads and some moshing in the aisles.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.6 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

K. M. gave it a9:
This film is certainly absolutely nonsensical, and it certainly doesn't adhere those mainstream rules of "character development" and, say, "plot". But the music is wonderful. The photography is stellar. It will make you laugh. In the ways it wanted to succeed, it managed to, admirably.

Andrea A. gave it a10:
This is a movie you either love or hate- I loved it. I think the music alone makes it a classic.

Wilder S. gave it a10:
YES I love this movie. My mom would hate it but that's ok.

Nate gave it a10:
Hilarious, alive, original, vital, wonderful.

Joshua Y. gave it a10:
Great movie!

danny c gave it a10:
This film will go in history as a great original classic. A very clever film with extraordinary characters and score. The corporate reviews from above shows me how insipid and dead the world is becoming, I rate this movie a big 10.

Corey Y. gave it a10:
Like nothing I've ever seen before.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | Olympics | Lost | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use