| 83 |
Entertainment Weekly
After teeny indies, this studio release retains the trademark love of warped American gothic that the Polishes share with David Lynch and the brothers Ethan and Joel Coen. But the unexpected streak of yearning sunniness -- the Spielbergian touch of boyhood dreams propelling a grown man -- gives The Astronaut Farmer a warmth that's new for them.
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| 80 |
LA Weekly
This is gloriously self-aware hokum, a fantasy movie that is, above all, about our need for fantasy and escapism -- and even our need for movies like The Astronaut Farmer -- to help us combat the depression and disappointments of the everyday.
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| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
Much of the credit for the movie succeeding goes to Thornton. In his able hands, Farmer is not so much someone who simply has faith in what he is doing but a man who believes with incontrovertible knowledge of what can be accomplished.
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| 75 |
Premiere
Stephen Saito
Still, the film actually earns the description of being inspirational, not only to those of us with a dream, but to those who thought the quality family film had died long ago.
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| 75 |
ReelViews
The Astronaut Farmer is one of those movies that makes an audience want to cheer and clap.
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| 75 |
New York Daily News
It's hard not to like a movie so determined to make you feel the love of a family, to make you feel that every dream can become a reality and that every mortgage - no matter how close to foreclosure - can be rescued by the sudden death of a family member and his inheritance.
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| 75 |
New York Post
The Astronaut Farmer stalls narratively in the third act, but rest assured it finally achieves liftoff. See it before it disappears into the ether.
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| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
The Astronaut Farmer's goofy quality makes it totally endearing. It's also super entertaining. Critics are fond of referring to movies as a "great ride." With this one, the words couldn't be more apt.
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| 70 |
Washington Post
Sure, it's the corniest of conceits, but "Astronaut" taps delightfully into one of our deepest cultural values: the one about the pursuit of happiness. And the movie's unpretentious lightheartedness, which echoes the old-fashioned, corn-fed lore of Frank Capra, or even "The Andy Griffith Show," makes it blissfully easy to sign on for this good-natured voyage.
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| 70 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Sura Wood
The Astronaut Farmer, is goofy, wholesome and, well, sweet. Despite some droll humor and on-target political jabs delivered deadpan by a uniformly strong cast, "Astronaut" often is too corny for its own good; it could have used more of those zingy lines.
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| 70 |
Variety
Thornton carries the film with relaxed authority, though the earnest tone doesn't let him explore the nuttier aspects of a character who, from any reasoned distance ought look more screwy than heroic. Madsen is radiant.
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| 70 |
Village Voice
Robert Wilonsky
This movie works precisely because it's bereft of modern cinema's cynicism.
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| 70 |
The New York Times
The opening shots, of Farmer on horseback in his space suit, hint at a strangeness that the rest of the movie never quite lives up to, but it does have a visual freshness that makes the bromides and clichés palatable.
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| 67 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Too odd for a studio movie, too cornpone for the independent scene, The Astronaut Farmer finds its creators stuck awkwardly between worlds, making what amounts to a deep curiosity.
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| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
If the Polish brothers haven't quite mastered the mechanics of mainstream filmmaking, they have succeeded in bringing an independent spirit to the studio film.
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| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
Fans of the Polish brothers and fans of inspirational movies may all depart the theatre scratching their heads: The Astronaut Farmer is not exactly the movie any of these viewers expected to see. This is almost always a good thing – even if the movie is a deserved head-scratcher.
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| 67 |
Portland Oregonian
The result is a modestly accomplished, modestly agreeable, altogether forgettable film.
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| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
As stories go, The Astronaut Farmer is engaging, even if it serves up a kind of Plains State brand of Rocky-esque hooey.
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| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
Wobbles between its comic and dramatic concerns; even those who buy the film more wholeheartedly than I might consider the overall tone uncertain.
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| 50 |
Charlotte Observer
Before The Astronaut Farmer, I'd have said such dumbed-down filmmaking was beneath the Polish brothers. But if their dream is to ride Hollywood's gravy train once, I suppose I'll have to respect it.
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| 50 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rarely have I seen a movie which made me feel more skeptically Canadian. Please -- it's not true that you can do anything. Stop trying. You might make things worse.
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| 42 |
Baltimore Sun
Painfully earnest, The Astronaut Farmer is, sad to say, a bunch of hooey. It's Frank Capra without the genuine heart, certainly without any sense of perspective.
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| 38 |
Boston Globe
The real problem with The Astronaut Farmer is that it has no spark.
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| 38 |
TV Guide
A dreary, downbeat "Field of Dreams."
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| 25 |
USA Today
In most cases, doggedly pursuing a dream is laudable. But if it does nothing else, The Astronaut Farmer demonstrates that not every dream is worth pursuing. At least not the belabored one of a narcissistic crackpot masquerading as an admirable dreamer.
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| 25 |
Christian Science Monitor
Some movies are so flagrantly awful that they achieve classic status. To this rarefied company we must now add The Astronaut Farmer.
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| 20 |
Wall Street Journal
The oddest thing about this very odd movie is that it doesn't seem to know what to make of itself.
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| 0 |
Chicago Reader
A piece of mythmaking stupidity.
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