The 90s NASA Cult Hit Comedy You Can Stream Without Netflix Right Now

Whenever a film has a 20 percent critical score against a much higher audience score of 72 percent, I want to see why there’s such a massive disconnect.

After watching RocketMan critically for the first time ever, I’m going to have to side with the audience’s assessment because as idiotic as Harland Williams’ character is, his over-the-top performance works well with the film’s pacing and surprisingly well-thought-out screenplay.

Let me explain. There is not a single ounce of fat in the form of unnecessary exposition in RocketMan. What’s more, every single seemingly inconsequential gag throughout this movie is a perfect example of how effectively Chekhov’s gun can be used in the context of an incredibly immature slap-stick comedy; every gag actually drives the plot forward in some way, shape, or form.

RocketMan tells the story of Fred Z. Randall (Harland Williams), an eccentric yet brilliant computer programmer working for NASA in preparation for their first manned mission to Mars. When astronaut Gary Hackman has reason to believe that his flight simulations are repeatedly failing due to faulty programming on Fred’s part, Fred is confronted by the team. Fred demonstrates that his program is perfectly coded, meaning Gary is messing up the math.

In an attempt to save face, Gary enters in his supposedly correct calculations, resulting in a head injury that makes him unfit to continue with the mission. Gary’s stubbornness sets the rest of the plot to RocketMan in motion because NASA now has two choices: to delay the mission, or train Fred to take Gary’s place.

Fred is put through a series of rigorous tests that prove he’s not only fit for space travel, but also capable of shattering all of Commander Bill “Wild Bill” Overbeck’s (William Sadler) records.

Fred is one of those unique characters whose idiosyncrasies I’m willing to overlook because his child-like enthusiasm, which annoys everybody involved with the mission to no end, is what ultimately saves the day in RocketMan.

The mission moves forward, but not without an onslaught of issues that compromise the integrity of the Pilgrim 1 shuttle that contains Fred and his cosmonaut cohorts. But thanks to Fred’s endless curiosity and ability to stay infectiously positive during the most dire of circumstances, he’s able to persevere.

What surprised me the most about RocketMan was how deliberately each event leading up to, and during, the Mars mission was plotted out in the screenplay.

For example, Fred breaks Wild Bill’s breath-holding record during his training, which comes into play when the crew’s oxygen tanks fail later in the movie.

The NASA isolation booth scene in which Fred obnoxiously sings “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt” for 24 hours proves to be an important detail when Fred gets locked out of his hypersleep pod for eight months, while the rest of the crew is sleeping, and has to find ways to entertain himself.

There are countless other unassuming examples of foreshadowing in RocketMan that I won’t get into here because most of them lead to spoilers, but I urge you to take note of every single gag in the first act because they all lead to unexpected and satisfying payoffs by the film’s conclusion.

In other words, I think RocketMan is deserving of its disproportionately high audience score on Rotten Tomatoes because it’s a lot smarter than it lets on. I’ll be the first to admit that Harland Williams’ shtick is exhausting, but it’s also not entirely pointless. In fact, it’s completely necessary in this context.

REVIEW SCORE

Leaning fully into the “guy who’s so smart that he’s dumb” premise that you’d see in a Jim Carrey or Jerry Lewis movie, RocketMan is incredibly satisfying to watch for the above reasons.

I’m happy to say that this movie’s slap-stick humor, which I loved so much before I had a fully functional brain, still has its merits while watching it as an adult because there’s more humor to be enjoyed when you look past the punchlines and see how they actually drive the narrative.

RocketMan is good, dumb fun for the entire family, and you can stream it on Tubi for free if you want to take a light-hearted trip to Mars sometime in the near future.