October Sky Reviews

Since it is a rather obscure feature, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it but since Jake Gyllenhaal was starring, I thought I should check it out. To my surprise, I actually really loved this flick. The funny thing is that I’m not a huge fan of those real-life based stories and I would never expect from Joe Johnston (‘The Wolfman’, ‘Jurassic Park III’, ‘Jumanji’, ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’) to make such a heartfelt and sensitive drama. It was also pretty neat to see Jake Gyllenhaal in his first major part and he did a pretty job good here but the other actors were not bad as well. Of course, the whole thing follows the traditional rules of your typical inspirational drama but, somehow, it did work very well , at least for me. I don’t know, maybe it has to with the fact that those boys were trying to be really smart, instead of becoming the next football/basketball/baseball/whatever star. I think that there is something awesome about those blue-collar kids trying to build something really neat, an endeavor which was seemingly out-of-their league. I mean, to think that this guy eventually ended up in working for the NASA was just, well, really inspirational. To conclude, even though it is really obscure and even though the whole thing was actually rather pedestrian, it was so well made and the story was just so neat, I really loved this flick and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

And one more time at all, watching without knowing that it was based on a true story. The story is very beautiful, despite overcoming the prejudices and limitations they had at the time, beyond the relationship between father and son that he shows in a way pretty intense. I was impressed with the performance of Jake aged at 19, won me over. And priceless the first scene of Jake Gyllenhaal and Chad Lindberg in the car listening to Jailhouse Rock by Elvis! Great movie, it's gripping and fun at the same time... and why not, it is also stimulating, encouraging. Well worth seeing!