Fifty-five years ago mankind achieved one of its greatest feats ever, as NASA's Apollo 11 landed the first men on the moon. Movie fans can relive a little bit of that history with Fly Me to the Moon, a new romantic comedy starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum that is more earthbound, focusing on the mission launch director and the marketing maven tasked with sprucing up NASA's image heading into this monumental moment.
We enjoyed the movie, as evidenced by our Fly Me to the Moon review, and if you did too perhaps you'd be interested in watching some more about the historic Apollo 11 mission. The good news is that there's a perfect option available for free online, the 2019 documentary simply titled Apollo 11.
Available on Tubi and The Roku Channel, US viewers can watch Apollo 11 right now on those services at no cost and with no need to sign up for either service; the only thing you'll have to deal with are ads. If you prefer not to watch ads and don't mind spending a few bucks, the movie is available to rent via digital on-demand platforms as well. For UK viewers, Apollo 11 is streaming on NOW TV, as well as being available on-demand.
What makes Apollo 11 such a fascinating and exhilarating rush is that it's uses archival footage to meticulously recreate the events of the launch, space travel and eventually landing on the moon by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, as well as the hundreds of people at NASA that worked on the mission. Having not been around when Apollo 11 launched, it's incredible to see actual footage from it and ultimately thrilling to see playout, even as we know what happened.
The documentary, directed by Todd Douglas Miller, was incredibly well received when it was released. Despite being a surprising omission at the Oscars for its year, Apollo 11 earned many laurels, including three Emmys, and has a 99% "Certified Fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes.
What makes it a nice companion piece with Fly Me to the Moon is that the 2024 new movie is centered around the historic launch but also plays with the conspiracy theory that the moon landing was faked. Apollo 11 presents the first-hand video evidence from NASA and the astronauts that flew the spacecraft that we went to the moon and back.
Fly Me to the Moon is now playing exclusively in movie theaters worldwide. Again, Apollo 11 is availableo Tubi and The Roku Channel in the US, NOW TV in the UK, as well as digital on-demand platforms.
