Space Cadet
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(PG, 100 minutes, Prime Video)
3 stars
Some movies are just perfect for a teenage girls' sleepover.
Films like The Princess Diaries, She's the Man, Legally Blonde, The Breakfast Club, The DUFF, The Edge of Seventeen, Just My Luck, Miss Congeniality, Some Kind of Wonderful...
They're not necessarily brilliant movies in their own right, and some plot points are definitely of questionable logic, but they serve a purpose.
And that purpose is to give viewers a lightly good time with no need to engage their brain. The movie can be followed while leaving the room to get more popcorn, failing to hear dialogue due to laughter, and ignoring five-minute stretches to have another conversation.
In Space Cadet, we've got another perfectly suited movie to add to the marathon.
The film, which feels like it was made in 2007 (in the best way), sees Emma Roberts' Floridian party girl Rex Simpson accepted into the NASA space program after her zany friend Nadine (a delightfully offbeat Poppy Liu) enhances her resume with qualifications the bartender definitely doesn't have.
Only four candidates will make it through the program, and Rex - once she learns that she was accepted with a fraudulent resumé - is determined to make the most of her undeserved opportunity.
We learn that she would have gone on to college on a scholarship after high school if her mum hadn't gotten sick, and despite constantly using "applied engineering" to whip up various contraptions - including a manatee gate - when two roads diverged, "Rex took the one to the rave, and that has made all the difference", her father (played by Sam Robards, looking more and more like Ryan Stiles) says.
Her fellow space cadets are a fun mix of personalities, including a secret romance writer, military types and an ultra-competitive mum. Filling in the romance quotient is The Umbrella Academy's Tom Hopper as program coordinator Logan.
Space Cadet's third act is completely ridiculous, but highly entertaining nonetheless.
Props to the music department for clearing such bops as Welcome to Paradise, Mister Jones and Call Me Maybe, further enhancing the sleepover vibes.
The film is from writer-director Liz W. Garcia, whose previous credits include Purple Hearts, The Sinner and Cold Case.
