Fly Me to the Moon (2024)

Fly Me to the Moon runs 132 minutes for a rom-com whose best idea, a backup moon landing, could carry a much leaner movie. Scarlett Johansson plays Kelly Jones, a Manhattan ad exec with a shady past who gets strong-armed by Moe, a Nixon operative, into selling the Space Race to a bored public. Channing Tatum is Cole Davis, the launch director who can’t stand her methods, like hiring actors to play scientists on TV. Their bickering is what you came for, and they have real screwball spark. Then Moe orders a fake landing, code-named Artemis, shot in a guarded hangar in case Apollo 11 fails, and the plot piles on twists until it sags under them. Critics split, giving it a 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it made $42.26 million worldwide on a reported $100 million. A 5.9 because Johansson and Tatum sparkle and the script keeps delaying the launch. $499.52 says your uncle who doubts the moon landing calls this movie a documentary.

What works: Johansson and Tatum have old-school screwball chemistry, and the fake-landing setup is a genuinely fun premise.

What doesn’t: The plot gets tangled and overstuffed in its back half, and the jokes thin out long before liftoff.

Who it’s for: Rom-com fans who’ll happily watch two movie stars bicker in sixties outfits for well over two hours.