SPACE CAMP (1986)

SPACE CAMP (1986)

Tagline : The stars belong to a new generation…
(Sci-Fi, Family, Adventure) [PG]

I can't believe it; I'm not going up. They chose Andy Miller instead of me... he gets airsick in cars...

It seems like the fascination with movies involving NASA somehow never dies, but the movies themselves seem to need to be spread out to capture audiences. SPACE CAMP must have failed at both because it barely made back half of what it cost to make. The movie was also pushed back due to the Challenger space shuttle disaster, so it came out at a point where people “even me” were disillusioned with NASA all together. Movie goers of the day would also have had no clue, how huge some of the stars in this movie would end up being, or how much talent they had at such young ages. 

This movie has a pretty simple plot. A group of kids is going to space camp on summer break. After befriending a NASA robot handyman, Max, (played by Joaquin Phoenix in his first movie role ever, who was then known as Leaf Phoenix, but was actually born under the name Joaquin Rafael Bottom) ends up being the reason his space camp class is launched into orbit while being aboard the shuttle Atlantis during an engine check. The kids along with Andie (played by Kate Capshaw from INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM), must pull together as a team and defy multiple chances of dying an icy cold and suffocating death. Kind of like when you haven’t taken out the trash in a few days, and they are starting to get out of control. 

If you had to measure the amount of cheese in the dialog of this movie, it would fill a football stadium. The cinematography is decent for the 80’s, but some of the space suit effects feel weak given that we’d seen space movies before this done better. It does look like they used some actual NASA launch footage so that was a smart decision, as well as actually shooting at a real space camp. Acting wise aside from Phoenix and Capshaw, Lea Thompson (from BACK TO THE FUTURE and SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL), Kelly Preston (from SKY HIGH and JERRY MAGUIRE) and Larry B. Scott (from the REVENGE OF THE NERDS series) are all in this and all do a pretty great job. The soundtrack is just okay. 

We do get some fun scenes in this movie, but it never struck me as funny or even remotely as a comedy which it was originally meant to be. It does however strike me as being “not terrible” and it probably didn’t deserve the box office fate it got. All the characters are pretty likable and there is actually a bit of character development going on. Some of pointed out the lack of realism in the movie and I can see that from a certain perspective, but it’s not a documentary so for me that wasn’t an issue. You know if you read my reviews I rarely go to any movie or watch any movie trying to find realism. 

For me this movie gets a 3 out of 7. It’s not something I would feel the need to own or watch more than a few times. I will say that if you are a fan of Joaquin Phoenix though, it is a bit surreal seeing him as a little kid. Like, even stranger than watching Leonardo DeCaprio acting when he was a kid. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF ABC MOTION PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.  

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless. Until next time.