RocketMan Reviews

Harland Williams is just one zany guy, mining the same vein of slapstick comedy that audiences have been lapping up in the form of Jim Carrey ever since ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE. Blundering computer engineer Fred Z. Randall (Williams) is the genius behind the operating system for a historic NASA Mars expedition. Through a series of mishaps -- most of them Randall's fault -- he becomes the goofiest and most unlikely guy ever to join a space expedition. Does it need to be said that the other three expedition members -- cocky Wild Bill Overbeck (William Sadler), lovely Julie Ford (Jessica Lundy) and even requisite chimp Ulysses (Raven) -- doubt that Randall, who seems to be suffering from a particularly nasty case of attention deficit disorder, will have the physical and mental abilities to withstand extended space travel? No... anymore than it needs to be pointed out that what appear to be Randall's most glaring liabilities -- the hyperactivity and childlike openness that lead him into one disaster after another -- also lead him to solutions where more conventional minds see none. Unfortunately, Williams isn't as protean as Carrey, and this material lacks the nonsensical verve of ACE VENTURA, though it does feature what may go down in history as one of the longest fart jokes ever committed to celluloid.