Touches You

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Here we have Astronaut; The Last Push, (2012) Directed by Eric Hayden who also wrote it. It runs 85 long minutes and covers a three year period. Spoiler Alerts I will be talking about this film. First of all, Thanks for the terrific quality, Superb. What we have here is basically a one man show. The man being Astronaut Michael Forrest played by Khary Payton. His partner dies early, and shows up in flashbacks. Now he gets to talk to Mission Control's Bob Jenson, played. by Brian Baumgartner. The mission is to Europa, to visit Seaworld. However when things go south, it is a journey to get back to the Earth, from Venus. They were going to use Venus as a sling shot to gain speed to get to Jupiter. OK, maybe. What it turns into, is an exercise in isolation and tedium. Three years to get from Venus back to Earth, as the mission is aborted. The following year (2013) the movie Europa Report was released, It had a better ship, and a bigger crew, and ultimately was a better movie. This movie deals with the effects of Isolation, You have to give Khary Payton credit for giving us someone interesting to look at, almost full time. He reminds me of Obama in looks, his mood is almost perpetually dour, but living in cramped quarters, with little to do but mend the ship, and survive and go through isolation hallucinations to maintain our interest. A tall order.Repeated shots of exercise, sleeping, eating, and pooping are the framework this story is hung upon. The technical failures, each one life threatening, must be tended to, The claustrophobia is oppressive, There is not even a window to look out of. The effects are good. Only when the ship is within arms length of Venus, does a sense of wonder display itself. The music. simplistic and repetitive complements the dreary hours that make up a three year journey. Only swelling from the bland four note format, to a grander tonality as the views of Venus are revealed. Taking a final cue from movies such as the 1936 Things to Come, The movie strives for the Heroic note to end upon. Concerning mankind's drive to the stars, "For man, no rest and no ending..." We watch as the Astronaut virtually takes on a suicide turn to resume the aborted mission. He did not have to. I give this one Six out of Ten "Miles to go before I sleep" Stars.

Simply put this movie is boring. Nothing interesting happens and don't expect it to happen. What you see in the first 20 or 30 minutes of the movie is essentially all you are going to see. I wouldn't bother watching this film ever again nor should you. Don't bother.Anyways, to summarize his film for those that want to know. A problem happens on a Space ship while traveling to Venus to slingshot to Europa (one of Jupiter's moons). This source of this problem is never fully explained.One guy dies and the other guy is left alone to live in the Space ship for 3 years on his own recycled flavored poop. He decides to abort going back to Earth and the movie ends.

Rare in literature, though developed from time to time, technologically optimistic themes are almost never encountered in cinema. Astronaut: The Last Push doesn't skirt any of the tough issues - the vulnerability of humans in space, the devastating impact of technological failure, the cruel vagaries of chance, and the isolation of the lonely venturer. And then it also transcends them, in a plausible and credible manner. Not a high-budget film, there are scenes in this movie that have not been exceeded in films made with budgets a thousand times greater. Credit all the players for their dramatic skills as well. This is a masterpiece. One of the singularly great works of science fiction film-making: a work that will stand for all time. A victory at levels that have seldom been attempted. I am glad to have ten stars on IMDb. They have been used. I have been moved and inspired by this outstanding film.

This was a very enjoyable space movie. For much of the film you only see Khary Payton's character Michael Forest, doing his day to day routine astronaut activities. What could be a boring concept is not and you are entertained by his performance making you care deeply about his character Michael. You'll be asking yourself how would I handle being all alone in space. I am sure I would not be able to do it. I have even more respect for astronauts after watching this movie. All in all I think Payton's performance anchors the film and allows it to build to a surprising ending. I recommend this film to all movie lovers out there. If you collect space movies, you will definitely want to add this one.