The Movie: October Sky is one of those pretty great family-type movies that is meant to inspire you to reach for more than just your lot in life. Based on the true story of real-life rocket scientist Homer Hickam, the film follows the story of a group of teenage boys inspired by launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik, in their own attempts at building rockets.

Of course, in their tiny town where every man eventually works in the coal mine, people think these boys are crazy -- especially his father who manages the mine. But even against all the pressure to just do the normal thing, Homer and his friends reach for the stars.

It really isn't a bad movie, and actually, I know quite a few people that really love it. I think it's just pretty good though... I think it's just wrapped up a little bit too neat and tidy of a package for my tastes. But it is a good movie. Check it out.

The DVD: The anamorphic video transfer was fairly clean, but it was also lacking somewhat in the contrast department, and had a general washed-out look to it. The transfer was probably further hindered by having a low bit rate due to the inclusion of two full versions of the film on one disc. Audio was clean and functional enough, though nothing too special.

I did not end up going through all of the special features, but they do include a commentary track, a behind the scenes featurette, a trailer, and some text-based features like cast/crew bios. For the time this DVD was released (1999) it was a fairly average DVD release, but times have changed and standards have improved, so I've gotta call this one slightly below average for today. Not that you won't get the emotional impact of the film or anything though.