Rocket to... nowhere near the moon

Jules Verne doesn't have the greatest luck with movie adaptations.

This comes off more as 'Carry On... Up the Moon' than anything else. Some of the comedy is passable, some is painful, and the film lacks the lightness or subtlety that other sci-fi comedies of the period (e.g. 'Mouse on the Moon') manage to balance with flights of fantasy.

Here's the SPOILER-y bit...

Despite over 90 minutes of rocket-building and talking about space travel... the rocket doesn't even make it to the moon! Which, given the title of the film, is essentially fraudulent. At least when Verne ended his novel, he gave broad hints that his astronauts made it to their destination (and then he wrote a sequel about them on the moon) - here, it's all a big joke and the rocket lands in Siberia.

Unfortunately, it feels like the joke was on the audience.