I almost passed up completely on this movie.  As noted in prior rant about the way that Hollywood advertises the heck out of movies that won't be out for quite a while, I had grown frustrated with the whole "when will it be out?!?" question that went with the commercials for the movie.  After being bombarded with ads for a few weeks, and still not having the opening date of the movie in site, I was pretty much ready to just blow off the movie and wait for it on DVD or one of the premium cable/satellite channels.

As it turned out there had been ads for another movie that was sneak previewing this weekend and the Mrs. got interested in possibly seeing that movie.  Unfortunately for the makers of that movie they had also engaged in far too many commercials leading up to the movie and the Mrs. decided that while she was and is interested in seeing that movie she wasn't ready for a movie of that type this weekend.

So, off we went instead to see The Astronaut Farmer (this weekend's "big new release").

It's a family friendly, live the dreams adventure flick starring Billy Bob Thornton and Virginia Madsen.  There's one other big name actor in a cameo role as well.

The movie is somewhat predictable, but still entertaining and worth going to see on the big screen.  While some parts of the film have been spoiled by the commercials, there is still plenty of entertainment to be found in the few hours spent watching the screen.