Fly Me to the Moon
Sony Pictures Releasing | Release Date: July 12, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 49 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
25
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJul 9, 2024
Even though the conspiracy theory that NASA faked the moon landing is deeply and depressingly cynical, there isn’t an ounce of cynicism in Greg Berlanti’s sweet, comical and joyous film. “Fly Me to the Moon” uses great screenwriting and good old-fashioned star power to bring a far-fetched concept back down to Earth. Read full review
83
Original-CinLiz BraunJul 11, 2024
It seems to be about a lot of things — a kinder, gentler America, early feminism, truth in advertising, an impartial media. But above all, it’s a pleasant few hours at the movies with charismatic actors Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum. Read full review
80
Screen RantRachel LaBonteJul 9, 2024
This is the kind of movie I'd like to see more of, the kind that wears its heart on its sleeve and takes us on a ride. A meandering ride, sure, but even a long trip can have its perks. Read full review
80
ColliderJeff EwingJul 8, 2024
At its core, Fly Me To The Moon is a thoroughly enjoyable, memorably novel rom-com that regularly surprises in a genre that often doesn’t, and we're all better for it. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJul 8, 2024
Fly Me to the Moon only needs to sell one thing: that beneath Kelly and Cole’s fast-paced dialogue and combative flirtation, there exists a mutual attraction compelling enough to keep us guessing. We already know how the lunar mission turns out, but never tire of gazing upon stars such as these. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 11, 2024
With director Greg Berlanti (“Love, Simon”) skillfully weaving in a myriad of storylines that justify the 132-minute running time, Rose Gilroy delivering a crisp and funny script (based on a story by Bill Kirstein and Kennan Flynn) and Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum igniting the fuse with good old-fashioned, Grade A movie-star chemistry, “Fly Me to the Moon” is a “go” from the get-go. Read full review
75
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerJul 10, 2024
During the film’s livelier moments, there are some real laughs that erupt, and watching Tatum and Johansson play off each other is a charming reminder of a simpler time. One when America dreamt of the moon, and stars were still the reason audiences went to the movies. Read full review
75
ObserverEmily ZemlerJul 9, 2024
The movie, brought to life in part thanks to the efforts its star and producer Scarlett Johansson, is a charming, cute possible history, invoking rom-com tactics and old-fashioned appeal in a way that is fairly successful. Read full review
73
The AtlanticShirley LiJul 15, 2024
The film doesn’t offer much wisdom about how we should deal with our growing unreality, but it is a charming diversion. In a way, its very shallowness is the point: Sometimes, the film posits, what we want to see matters more than what we actually do. Read full review
71
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerJul 9, 2024
It’s pleasant summer-evening entertainment like something out of 1995, and only occasionally gets too puffed up about what should be modest aims. That’s the advantage of pastiche: It’s hard to do it quite so self-seriously. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredCharlotte SimmonsJul 19, 2024
A powerhouse screenwriting debut, inspired direction, and a Scarlett Johansson-shaped heartbeat ensures that all systems are go for 'Fly Me to the Moon.' Read full review
70
Film ThreatAlan NgJul 12, 2024
A heartwarming and entertaining romantic comedy, Fly Me to the Moon brings a fresh twist to the moon landing era. Strong performances from Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum offer an enjoyable viewing experience. Read full review
70
CNNBrian LowryJul 11, 2024
Less than weighty in the comedy part of its equation, the film largely works as a vehicle for Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, even without completely sticking the landing. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicReia LiJul 10, 2024
Fly Me to the Moon shines when it doesn’t try to just tell a story about the moon landing, but instead examines how those stories get constructed, and why. Read full review
70
SlashfilmJeremy MathaiJul 9, 2024
Tatum and Johansson are the stars of the show, oftentimes conveying with a mere look what entire monologues couldn't have accomplished. These are the two engines propelling the movie into the stratosphere, taking what could've been a disposable, forgettable effort and transforming it into an experience that'll have you floating on air out of the theater ... likely as you hum a very apt Frank Sinatra tune to yourself.c Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJul 11, 2024
It’s smart enough to gesture at current-day concerns – most especially in the dangers of a flexible relationship to truth – but not incisive or insightful enough to land a punch. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJul 17, 2024
Fly Me to the Moon, a breezily farcical variation on Apollo 11 history in which the truth prevails, is a time-capsule curiosity—marking a movie landscape that’s slowly fading, alongside our ability to tell fact from fiction in media of all kinds. Read full review
63
Washington PostTy BurrJul 11, 2024
Fly Me to the Moon strains to achieve liftoff, sometimes quite amusingly. But in the end, it’s just too heavy to get off the ground. Read full review
63
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJul 9, 2024
Fly Me to the Moon is best when it’s not taking itself too seriously. And the most worthwhile concept it sold is the idea of Johansson and Tatum (which, by the way, is a great reminder to rewatch “Hail, Caesar!”) as a modern Day and Hudson. They have the charm. They just need material that does it justice. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJul 15, 2024
Part of the problem is that while Johansson is deliciously minxy and manipulative as Kelly, the usually likable Tatum has all the charisma of a carpet tile in this clenched-jawed, buttoned-up role. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJul 12, 2024
Not quite a history lesson and not quite a rom-com and certainly not an epic, the movie is a mild but pleasant mishmash of genres held together by the sheer charisma of Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson, two actors who seem unexpectedly well suited to each other’s energies. Read full review
60
IGNA.A. Dowd Jul 11, 2024
The subplot involving the production of a simulated, backup lunar expedition never quite takes off, comedically speaking, but there’s plenty of appeal in pairing an uncommonly bubbly Scarlett Johansson with an agreeably earnest Channing Tatum. Read full review
60
Total FilmKate StablesJul 9, 2024
Despite leaving its love affair on the launch pad, this sassy NASA romcom fulfils its mission to entertain. Read full review
60
Time OutWhelan BarzeyJul 9, 2024
Even with its two A-list stars as jet boosters, Fly Me To The Moon’s bloated runtime and messy plotting mean that it doesn’t quite make it beyond the Kármán line. Then again, the art of the formulaic romcom isn’t rocket science. Houston, we have a likeable, if somewhat forgettable romcom – and that’s okay. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyJul 9, 2024
Match-making two stars with the natural zing of Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum ought to be a breeze. It’s funny, then, that this 1960s space-race caper specifically fails at being a romcom, because the “rom” keeps dragging us back to Earth. Read full review
58
IndieWireRyan LattanzioJul 9, 2024
Zippy at first with the charisma and verve of a Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie, before it way outstretches its welcome across multiple encores and a 132-minute running time, Fly Me to the Moon has the patina of a straight-to-streaming movie tossed into theaters due to a backend deal or to appease filmmakers. Read full review
52
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJul 11, 2024
The film spins off into several tonally unsteady directions. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedJul 15, 2024
At a sorry time when most movies are about nothing, Fly Me to the Moon, a rom-com set in the chaos and cross purposes of the heroic Apollo 11 moon landing, deserves attention because even though it is a sad, silly, over-produced disappointment, at least it’s about something. Not very much, I’m afraid, but something. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinJul 15, 2024
The inevitable head-butting, sexually tense banter between the super-serious (and frankly dull) Cole and the vivacious, near-magically-capable Kelly never quite takes off, nor, surprisingly, does the chemistry between the two leads. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 12, 2024
Fly Me to the Moon isn’t a complete failure to launch (thanks primarily to the not-inconsiderable charisma and energy Johansson brings to the production) but neither does it have the thrust to make it into orbit. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireJul 11, 2024
Tonally messy and overlong, director Greg Berlanti’s film ultimately squanders the considerable charms of its A-list stars, Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, who are individually appealing but have zero chemistry with each other. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJul 11, 2024
The pieces are clever enough that the film is rarely boring—it keeps a viewer hoping that the spark of life will strike sometime before the lights go up. But it’s not to be: it remains a movie in search of an animating spirit. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJul 11, 2024
Someday, someone will pair up Johansson and Tatum in a better movie. In the meantime, watch this one with low expectations, and dream. Read full review
50
The New York TimesGlenn KennyJul 11, 2024
As the movie progresses, its story grows convoluted and belabored. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 11, 2024
The script never quite feels itself; it feels like contradictory impulses playing out in shuffle mode. And the scale of the movie does the putative romance no favors. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubCindy WhiteJul 10, 2024
Unless you can put aside everything you know about the space program, government, advertising, and television broadcasting, you may spend a good deal of the film’s two-hour runtime frustrated by its plot holes and contrivances. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJul 9, 2024
Director Greg Berlanti’s romantic comedy, which imagines that Richard Nixon’s administration really did film a fake, backup moon landing in 1969, is a mystifying misfire all along the way from initial concept to end credits. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJake ColeJul 9, 2024
Fly Me to the Moon’s sudden shift toward the weighty throws off the pace of what had been a formulaic but charming rom-com, as the heavy-handed look at both Cole’s and Kelly’s past demons fails to mesh cohesively with the antic silliness that preceded it. Read full review
50
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJul 9, 2024
Aiming for the stars, it proves a laborious affair that rarely gets off the ground. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesTara BradyJul 12, 2024
This underpowered, $100-million-budgeted space oddity was originally intended for streaming. And it shows. Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensJul 11, 2024
Fly Me to the Moon’s foundational silliness could have been compensated for, and maybe even turned into the premise for a lightweight but charming romance, if not for two things: the failure to grapple with the larger historical implications of the fake-moon-landing subplot, and the fatal miscasting of Johansson and Tatum as oil-and-water opposites. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneDavid FearJul 10, 2024
Given the talent involved, Fly Me to the Moon should be the stratospheric answer to our summer-movie prayers. Instead, it can barely get off the ground. Read full review
40
EmpireIana MurrayJul 9, 2024
Greg Berlanti’s revisionist comedy offers a fresh take on the Apollo 11 moon landing, but its convoluted conspiracy fails to capitalise on the charms of Johansson and Tatum’s workplace romance. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 9, 2024
Here the romance and adventure of the actual Apollo 11 achievement are undermined for a smirking, tonally jarring non-laugh. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJul 10, 2024
The reason romantic comedies fail so often is that they attempt too much. “Fly Me to the Moon” may be the busiest example I’ve ever seen. It’s also one of the worst, despite its eclectic needle drops convincing me that I need to buy its soundtrack album. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJul 11, 2024
Fly Me to the Moon could have worked beautifully, if only someone had first figured out a coherent story. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckJul 8, 2024
Veteran television director Greg Berlanti (Riverdale, Everwood), who demonstrated real cinematic talent with Love, Simon, is unable to make any of this remotely convincing or, more problematically, entertaining. The wild tonal shifts leave the viewer in the dust, and not even the two stars are able to make any of it work. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 12, 2024
Ill-timed for an America fighting and losing its endless battle with reality and “facts,” “Moon” is glib, dull and ahistorical. Not a romance, kind of comic and too stupid to be satire, it wastes leads Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 9, 2024
Fly to the Moon is absolutely awful. The only interesting thing about it is how long it takes for a viewer to figure out how bad it really is. Read full review
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