# October Sky (1999)

### reviewed by
Ryan Davis

    Movie Review: October Sky (1999)
    A Review by: Ryan Davis
    Rated `PG'

A small town boy makes it big isn't exactly the most original of ideas, far from it. Although there is something about the story of seventeen year old Homer Hickman (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his friends trying to get out of their small mining town, that is quite charming.

Inspired by the launch of the Sputnik and scientist, Dr. Werner Von Braun, Homer and three of his friends decided to build a rocket. They hope to be able to win their local science fair and be able to go on to the national competition. At the nationals there are many colleges handing out scholarships, which would be their only way out of their town.

With the help of several of the local townspeople and their teacher, Miss Riley (Laura Dern), they start building rockets. After lots of misfires, they start to learn more and more about rocketry. Soon their rocket launches become well attended by the townspeople and they are all very proud of the boys. All except Homer's father, John Hickam, who is played skillfully by Chris Cooper. John wants his son to follow his footsteps, in the coal mines, but Homer wants nothing to do with it.

`October Sky' is an inspiring film and an entertaining one, even if its corny. The acting is kind of weak; most of the kids are quite bland. The script is good and tight; there are very few slow parts. But, altogether, it's a good film suitable for the whole family.

    Grade: B

-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews