Space Chimps Review

Ham III (Samberg), grandson of the first chimpanzee astronaut, is press-ganged by NASA to go on a mission through a wormhole. This slacker-braggart-misfit with self-worth issues and an uncontrollable smart mouth grates on his space-mates Luna (Hines), a sweet scientist, and Titan (Warburton), a thickhead hero – but equally wins them over by blundering successfully through an adventure on planet Malgor. Irving Thalberg once told the Marx Brothers it was a mistake to make a comedy with a funny premise, since the funniest movies arise from solemn situations: this is borne out by Space Chimps, which has an inherently hilarious idea (because, come on, chimps in space!) then hammers away so obviously at it that you’ll find more genuine laughs in the original Russian Solaris.