Space Cadet is a dumb movie and would have served itself better by totally committing to its “Police Academy only NASA” vibe. Instead, it’s a dumb movie that knows its dumb but should have either been 10% smarter or 10% dumber. It’s cute and harmless for half its runtime and then an interminable chore for the final act.

The flick stars a very committed Emma Roberts (who is the charm, not the problem) as a Florida party girl and mixologist whose life didn’t go as planned. Through a screwball series of events, she winds up a NASA Astronaut Candidate in Houston and wackiness and “Legally Blonde but NASA” stuff ensues.

The problem with this movie isn’t its credulity-stretching premise or braindead characters… that’s the point. Complaining about that is like saying The Three Stooges should stop hitting themselves so much. It’s what the movie’s about. I was mildly amused at the flick’s unlikely premise. I wasn’t worried when Tackleberry was let into the police academy or Elle Woods into Harvard… so fine, this eternally peppy dingleberry can be part of NASA. It’s aspirational… or just very dumb. Whatevs.

The flick was chortling along fine at a solid 3 star low-ambition-but-fun flick… until it hit its dire, sluggish, and inexcusably stupid final act. It crashed the film and whatever goodwill its silliness had went out the airlock (and nobody can hear your groan in space). Minor spoilers, but it’s an actual hand-waving space mission that crawled when it should have been peppy and was pretty stupid and unlikely in ways that aggravated me. I can’t define why the stuff on the ground was ok but this wasn’t… but that’s how the space cookie crumbled.

If I was just rating it on its finale, I’d give it an even lower score. But its first two acts were silly stupid fun enough so I’ll split the difference and go with a disappointed 72. There’s still a dumb fun merit to the flick as long as you turn it off right at the time jump and go about your more productive day.

Score: 72