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MOVIES / ON DVD / THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT
The American Astronaut

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The American Astronaut (2001)

61%
67%
50%
N/A
N/A
N/A
61 %
Reviews Counted: 31 Fresh: 19  Rotten:12 Average Rating: 5.7/10
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Theatrical Release: Oct 12, 2001 Limited
Synopsis:
Space travel has become a dirty way of life dominated by derelicts, grease monkeys, thieves, and hard-boiled interplanetary traders such as Samuel Curtis (Cory McAbee), an astronaut from Earth who deals in a rare goods, living or otherwise. His mission begins with the unlikely... [More]
Space travel has become a dirty way of life dominated by derelicts, grease monkeys, thieves, and hard-boiled interplanetary traders such as Samuel Curtis (Cory McAbee), an astronaut from Earth who deals in a rare goods, living or otherwise.

His mission begins with the unlikely delivery of a cat to a small outer-belt asteroid saloon where he meets his former dance partner, and renowned interplanetary fruit thief, the Blueberry Pirate (Joshua Taylor). As payment for his delivery of the cat, Curtis receives a homemade cloning device already in the process of creating a creature most rare in this space quadrant...a Real Live Girl.

At the suggestion of the Blueberry Pirate, Curtis takes the Real Live Girl to Jupiter where women have long been a mystery. There, he proposes a trade with the owner of Jupiter: the Real Live Girl clone for the Boy Who Actually Saw A Woman’s Breast (Gregory Russell Cook). The Boy Who Actually Saw A Woman’s Breast is regarded as royalty on the all-male mining planet of Jupiter because of his unique and exotic contact with a woman. It is Curtis’ intention to take The Boy to Venus and trade him for the remains of Johnny R., a man who spent his lifetime serving as a human stud for the Southern belles of Venus, a planet populated only by women. Upon returning Johnny R’s body to his bereaved family on earth, Curtis will receive a handsome reward.

It all seems simple enough.

But while hashing out the plan with the Blueberry Pirate, Curtis is spotted by his nemesis, Professor Hess (Rocco Sisto). Possessed by an enigmatic obsession with Curtis, Hess is capable of killing without reason, unless his intended victim is someone with whom he has unresolved issues. Hess has been pursuing Samuel Curtis throughout the solar system in order that he might forgive him, then kill him. Along the way, Hess has executed each and every individual to come into contact with Curtis.

Unaware of this danger, Curtis sets forth on his mission.

After retrieving The Boy Who Actually Saw A Woman’s Breast from Jupiter, Curtis is contacted by Professor Hess, who makes his intentions known.

Fearful, Curtis and The Boy look for a place to hide. They come across a primitive space station constructed by Nevada State silver miners from the late 1800s. Inside they discover a small group of miners still alive, their bodies crippled and deformed by space atrophy. Unable to return home for fear that Earth’s gravity would kill them, two of the miners mated and give birth to a boy known as Body Suit (James Ransone). He has been raised in a suit of hydraulics to simulate Earth’s gravity with the intention of eventually sending him home. In trade for supplies and sanctuary, Curtis agrees to deliver Body Suit to Earth.

Once they land on the lush planet of Venus, the terrain dramatically changes, and Curtis is inspired by a plan. And it may just happen that in a solar system ruled by commerce and danger, sometimes good can prevail. -- © Artistic License Films [Less]

Genre: Musical & Performing Arts

Starring: Cory McAbee, Rocco Sisto, Greg Russell Cooke, Josh Taylor, James Ransone

Director: Cory McAbee
Screenwriter: Cory McAbee
Producer: William Perkins, Josh Taylor, Robert Lurie

DVD Info

Release:

Feb 22, 2005

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region (unknown)
  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen

Audio:

  • Stereo Sound 5.1 English
  • Mono 5.1 English

Additional Release Material:

  • Director's Commentary
  • Footage
  • Production Stills
  • Storyboards, Graphic Design
  • Sidewalk Drawings

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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No review available.

| Comment
06/30/05 03:35 PM
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
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Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
01/24/05 10:15 PM
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com
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It can be perceived as a pleasant antidote to the Hollywood mainstream comedy.

Full Review | Comment
08/03/04 09:59 PM
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
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It's a rockabilly space romp, often very bad but usually a visual treat.

Full Review | Comment
03/19/04 04:13 PM
Michael Booth
Denver Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

If Andy Warhol ever made a movie with Ed Wood, this might have been the result.

Full Review | Comment
02/09/04 05:11 PM
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly
N/R

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Full Review | Comment
10/01/03 05:01 PM
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle
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This musical epic is unlike anything I (or anyone I know) have ever laid eyes on.

Full Review | Comment
12/08/02 08:02 AM
Ron Wells
Film Threat
N/R

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Full Review | Comment
06/24/02 08:01 AM
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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A sui generis, love-it-or-hate-it exercise in homegrown American surrealism.

Full Review | Comment
06/24/02 08:01 AM
Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
L.A. Weekly
Ratings Image

Something somewhere between Six-String Samurai and Dead Man (but a science-fiction musical).

Full Review | Comment
06/20/02 05:44 PM
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central
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Every once in a blue moon some inexplicable force of cinema pushes all sanity and sense of aesthetics aside and leaves me defenselessly embracing a movie that has no apparent redeeming factor other than its cheesy eccentricity.

Full Review | Comment
03/07/02 12:06 PM
Mark Halverson
Sacramento News & Review
Ratings Image

Accepting its darkness, warmth and gentle ridiculousness, you'll find yourself heartened, though you won't be exactly sure why.

Full Review | Comment
01/18/02 03:01 PM
Kim Morgan
Oregonian
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A movie so goofy and affable about its willful, second-rate cheesiness that anger becomes a waste of time. You either go along with it or you don't go at all.

Full Review | Comment
01/04/02 03:10 PM
Joe Baltake
Sacramento Bee
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McAbee deserves much credit for not letting the obvious financial limitations constrain his imagination.

Full Review | Comment
01/03/02 03:43 AM
Michael Dequina
Mr. Brown's Movies
Ratings Image

McAbee is unable to fashion a cohesive enough storyline to keep this bizarro space odyssey engaging throughout.

Full Review | Comment
12/09/01 08:11 AM
Daniel Steinhart
Film Journal International
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Movies don't get much more homemade or endearingly eccentric.

Full Review | Comment
11/29/01 05:57 PM
Gary Dowell
Dallas Morning News
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It's equal parts creepy, campy, funny, and tedious.

| Comment
11/25/01 08:11 AM
Jim Sullivan
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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While The American Astronaut has the outlines of a potential cult favorite, it's too idiotic to sustain interest.

Full Review | Comment
11/23/01 08:11 AM
Kirsten Markson
PopMatters
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Like a very accomplished student film, amusing and annoying in just about equal measure.

Full Review | Comment
11/16/01 05:55 PM
Mark Rahner
Seattle Times
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Quickly becomes an endurance test: like watching an old Carol Burnett skit that's not working, or a high school play that's trying to be bad.

Full Review | Comment
11/15/01 05:40 PM
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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