October Sky [Blu-ray] [1999]

This Best Buy exclusive release of 1999's October Sky shows Jake's future potential. It has a beautiful score by Mark Isham and is based on the true story of Homer Hickam. In the special features, more light is shed on the real story of Homer, by Homer himself. The relationship between Jake's character and his father, played by Chris Cooper, is heartfelt and powerful. I highly recommend this film and this excellent high definition transfer to blu-ray!

In 1950's mining town called Coalwood, Homer Hickam is a kid with only one future in sight, to work in the local coalmine like his father. However in October 1957, everything changes when the first artificial satellite, Sputnik goes into orbit. With that event, Homer becomes inspired to learn how to build rockets. With his friends and the local nerd, Homer sets to do just that by trial and a lot of error. Unfortunately, most of the town and especially Homer's father thinks that they are wasting their time. Only one teacher in the high school understands their efforts and lets them know that they could become contenders in the national science fair with college scholarships being the prize. Now the gang must learn to perfect their craft and overcome the many problems facing them as they shoot for the stars. This stellar movie brings this true story to life. If you've never seen it, check it out.

Set at the crossroads of the 1950s and 1960s, this is a very well done adaptation of Homer Hickam's Pulitzer Prize nominated autobiographical book 'The Rocket Boys' about how he and a group of high school friends, who were the least likely to succeed in school, were inspired by a one in a million teacher to excel and shoot for for the impossible goal of winning the grand prize in the National Science Fair competition (and the collage scholarships that went along with it), the only hope they would ever have of escaping their coal mining company town of Coalwood and their otherwise certain fate of following in their father's footsteps into the mines and into the very difficult lives of coal miners. The conclusion of this film will move anyone with a heart capable of being moved. Highly recommended!

This is an exceptionally well-done movie that should have been available on Blu-ray long ago. It's great that it is finally available. I'm no expert with Blu-ray transfers, but the picture is very detailed, and the movie sounds great too. Those who are fans already know that the story and the acting are excellent, even though you get a pretty good idea what the conclusion will be before it happens. Not sure why it was an exclusive at BestBuy in the U.S., but if that had anything to do with it finally being put on Blu-ray, then I'm all for it, and definitely willing to support only BestBuy having it, even though a movie as good as this should be available everywhere. More movies should be like this one. Recommended.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Chris Cooper work so well together in this family true story of a rocket scientist. The time period, look, characters and story is so well created. If you like Joe Johnston films then this is a no brainer to own. The video and audio is good on the Blu-ray and it even includes a 30 min documentary on the real people it is based on.

This is a really well done move about the space race and kids growing up in a coal mining town wanting a better life for themselves. Well written, well cast, well acted, and some good humor is thrown in too. I've been waiting for this to come out on Bluray and was thrilled when it finally did; the picture quality is a nice improvement over the previous release on DVD. This doesn't have reference caliber audio or video, but when the movie is great, that doesn't matter so much.

If you haven't seen OCTOBER SKY, go see it now! It's a heartwarming true story about Homer Hickam who dreams of building and launching rockets for NASA. (If you haven't seen the movie, I'll leave it up to you to find out what happened to Homer.) His home life isn't the greatest and his best supporters are his friends and his teacher. There is some melodrama to enhance emotions but they work. The events supporting the melodrama were all true stories so they work even more. On a technical level, Universal's Best Buy exclusives (this, The 'Burbs, Money Pit, etc.) aren't the greatest. There is a lot of digital noise, no remastering was done. Audio is DTS-HD MA and it works for what is is. For budget prices and very little or no extras, you get what you pay for. But this movie is worth more!

I remember seeing this movie back in grade school & when I saw it was available I had to get it as it’s based on a true story about space & the journey or a scientist