once again, "Hollywood" has delivered another coulda-shoulda: one hour too long, and in that hour, throwing in everything but the proverbial kitchen sink.

seems the Producer/Director Writer have referenced CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THWE THIRD KIND, 2001, OUTLAND, HAVE ROCKET - WILL TRAVEL.

their story is something about: the earth's agriculture is drying up, so we better get on the stick (a navigational one for space) because we need to get outta Dodge soon! any decent fish left? OK...

well, it turns out that NASA has been sending people into space for quiet a while and an ex-NASA pilot has stumbled into a secret NASA "war room" - or was he "called", like the guy from CLOSE ENCOUNTERS THIRD KIND? (this dude in his 40s got an early retirement because of the ongoing bad economy - seems his extraordinary skills were not even marketable!).

some have actually settled on planets in another galaxy (see, an unnamed "helper" has carved out a piece of the sky just beyond SAturn, which is really a catapult to deep space, where habitable spheres exist).

if these presumptive aliens know about our agriculture problem, why don't they just send a few saucers down to meet with the Secretary of Agriculture, and leave them a disk with all the instructions on how to turn it all around? > Space is great, but why not make it simple? very interesting Science is also presented, though > our Hero must deal with the reality that when he returns to Earth, his Daughter is 42 and so is he. he finds other more serious challenges, however, while en route...and this kind of stuff is pupil dilating. will his exploration create any detours to throw his "schedule" off course? Michael caine, Ellen Burstyn, and JOhn Lithgrow are the only actors I recognize..oh yeah..the quiet dude from the Lincoln commercials. He is as expressive in this 2 .5 hr. epic as he is staring straight ahead, in a more mundane form of transportation.

The only bad acting job here is by the star. When he finally cracks a smile, the Gentleman Quarterly stud looks like Soupy Sales. (not a bad thing). All the rest of the cast is just fine. I hope their checks cleared.