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Hollywood is a machine. Every week, every month and every year countless films are released into theatres and not every one is as successful as the studio heads would hope. Sometimes the publicity machine was askew, sometimes the movie targeted an odd demographic, sometimes the release was steamrolled by a much larger movie and occasionally the movie is flat out bad.

But Hollywood's loss is our gain. There is a veritable treasure trove of film out there that you may not have seen. I will be your guide to this veritable wilderness of unwatched film. It will be my job to steer you towards the action, adventure, drama and comedy that may have eluded you, and at the same time, steer you away from some truly unwatchable dreck.

Hopefully we'll stumble across some entertainment that may have slid under your radar. Wish us luck.

The Astronaut Farmer (2006)

Ah, here we go. As I've stated numerous times, the reason I write this column is to take a closer look at movies that have come and gone and left very little in the way of impact. The Astronaut farmer is a perfect example of a film that fits this demographic. It was released in 2006 and it grossed $11 million from a $13 million budget. In Hollywood terms, that's an ouch. Low budget films should really have a better shot at showing profit, but this one came up just short. Realistically, this film has probably turned a profit of some sort with DVD sales and licensing to aftermarket by now, but that money never gets figured into the final tally.

The film itself is loaded with an eclectic cast. The only really big names are Billy Bob Thornton as Charles Farmer, Virginia Madsen as Audrey Farmer, Bruce Willis in a cameo role as Colonel Doug Masterson and Bruce Dern as Audrey's dad Hal. And two of those four names ceased to be big names some time ago. The rest of the movie is littered with character actors who you will rack your brain trying to place. J.K. Simmons, Tim Blake Nelson, John Gries and Elise Eberle all have small but important roles in the film. Well, most of them have important roles. Eberle is cast as a waitress in the restaurant Audrey works in and seems relegated to rolling her eyes and giving disapproving looks at people.

The entire film is based around the premise that Charles Thornton had joined the Air Force and eventually NASA with the intent of being an astronaut. A family tragedy on the eve of his launch forced him to drop out of the program, however, an event that haunts Charles to this day. Naturally, like any normal American with a degree in Astrophysics, he decides to build an Atlas rocket in his barn so that he can launch from his backyard, perform an orbit around Earth, then parachute into his own backyard in time for dinner.

I'm not kidding, that's his actual plan. The title isn't a clever play on words, there is an actual Atlas rocket in this character's barn. The only things holding him back from launching are the $600,000 in debt that he has accrued, the impending foreclosure of his family farm where he stores the rocket and a complete lack of fuel to power the rocket into orbit.

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