Space Cadet Review | Emma Roberts Goes Legally Blonde at NASA

Summary

• Emma Roberts stars as Tiffany “Rex” Simpson, a Florida bartender who aspires to join NASA’s space program in the Prime Video movie
  Space Cadet
  .
• Emma Roberts creates a lovable character with Rex. Poppy Liu is hilarious as Rex’s sneaky friend, and Tom Hopper is reliably charming.
• Space Cadet
  is too silly for its own good and doesn’t seem to know whether it wants to be a kid-friendly Disney movie or a slightly raunchier rom-com. It’s still a fun, light, inspiring flick for the Fourth of July weekend.

Shoot your shot, as they say. Elle Woods went the lawyer route and achieved stardom at Harvard Law. Yes, Legally Blonde was Reese Witherspoon’s rise to ultimate stardom, and it helped that the film’s title was spot-on in multiple ways. Two decades later, there’s Tiffany “Rex” Simpson, a blonde Floridian who goes from tending bar to potentially becoming the next Neil Armstrong after shooting her shot at NASA’s space program. Emma Roberts plays the lovable Rex in the new Prime Video movie, Space Cadet. Yes, it’s similarly pun-worthy as Legally Blonde, and folks will notice parallels between the tales — which writer-director Liz W. Garcia is well aware of and even intended.

Space Cadet might work best when played on the living room TV while your July 4th barbecue ensues around it, but if you pull up a seat and pay attention, the sometimes laugh-out-loud performances by Roberts, the reliably silly Poppy Liu and utterly goofy Tom Hopper might just keep your interest piqued. And hey, if you get through the cheesier moments, you may even feel a bit inspired and self-empowered as the credits roll.

Rex Gon’ Give It to Them

Space Cadet (2024)

3/5

Tiffany “Rex” Simpson (Emma Roberts) has always dreamed of going to space, but life isn’t going quite as planned. Determined to turn things around, she aims high and with the embellishing touch of her supportive best friend Nadine (Poppy Liu), her “doctored” application lands her in NASA’s ultra-competitive astronaut training program. In over her head, Rex relies on her quick wits, moxie and determination to get to the top of her class. NASA program directors Pam (Gabrielle Union) and Logan (Tom Hopper) certainly take notice, but can this Florida girl get through training and into the cosmos before she blows her cover?

Release Date July 3, 2024

Director Liz W. Garcia

Runtime 110 Minutes

Writers Liz W. Garcia

Where to watch Amazon Prime Video

Distributor(s) Amazon MGM Studios

Pros

• Emma Roberts and especially Poppy Liu are lovable and hilarious.
• Though cheesy, Space Cadet is ultimately inspiring, light fun.

Cons

• Space Cadet is a little too silly for its own good, and sometimes has weak production values.
• It’s sometimes hard to tell what demographic this movie is for.

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Space Cadet might be Roberts’ best role since the critically acclaimed Palo Alto, given that her latest character, Rex, is instantly likable as a charming bartender in a party-friendly Florida community with dreams of something bigger. Liu plays her supportive pal Nadine, who even helps Rex apply for the nearby NASA space program after catching wind of Rex’s aspirations — and after Nadine works her mysterious (and a tad illegal) magic, Rex finds herself accepted into the program.

It also helps that one of NASA’s program directors is Pam (Gabrielle Union, nice to see you), who’s been urging her colleagues Logan (Tom Hopper of The Umbrella Academy) and Rudolph (Dave Foley, a standout in the latest season of Fargo) to think outside the box and find candidates who aren’t just geniuses on paper. Enter Rex! Sadly, that means she’ll have to bid her dad Calvin (Sam Robards) farewell for now. He’s hilarious as a con-artist filmmaker who runs a TV show that tricks its guests into thinking certain houses are haunted — with Rex usually hiding upstairs to create mysterious noises intended to freak out the guests on-air.

Yes, Rex is indeed ready for something more fulfilling, and hopes NASA might offer something along those lines. But let’s not forget this is a comedy film at heart, which means the other candidates Rex meets at the program are perhaps equally quirky. That includes her neurotic roommate Violet (Murder Mystery 2 star Kuhoo Verma) and classmates Grace (the sharply appealing Yasha Jackson) and Jack (Andrew Call, often trying a bit too hard at physical comedy — you’ll see).

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Poppy Liu Stealing the Silly Spotlight

With a title like Space Cadet, and given the bright, almost kid-friendly nature of this ensemble, your millennial mind might veer off to Hilary Duff’s Disney Channel Original Movie Cadet Kelly, where the titular heroine is forced into military academy but ultimately thrives. Space Cadet has similar inspirational and comedic vibes, especially when Rex’s pal Nadine is back home trying to continue spinning a doctored web of lies that had helped Rex get into the NASA program in the first place. It’s hilarious seeing actress Poppy Liu try to impersonate multiple “professional references” while Logan (Hopper) routinely checks in with her to reconfirm that Rex indeed possesses the impressive background that appears on her made-up resume.

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The kid-friendly nature, however, is one of the areas where the movie falters, since there are plenty of adults-only humor moments as well. So maybe think twice before having the Disney Channel crowd gather around the telly for this one — though it’s not completely inappropriate stuff. Space Cadet is also just downright silly most of the time, to a fault at many moments, so it’s as if the film can’t figure out its own demographics.

But perhaps straight-to-streaming silliness is just what people will want amid the Independence Day holiday, at least in this heated political climate. If nothing else, Space Cadet offers viewers a reason to maybe put a pause on time-wasting social media and revisit your career goals and what’s important to you before it’s too late. Hey, it worked for Rex. Space Cadet will premiere globally on Thursday, July 4, on Prime Video. You can watch it then through the link below:

Watch Space Cadet

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