Duller than rocket science and more reliant on formulas, October Sky -- an unnaturally earnest ''inspirational'' tale which was a small sleeper hit in theaters last spring -- re-creates the West Virginia adolescence of former NASA engineer Homer Hickam. We watch Hickam and his pallies, inspired by the Sputnik launch, overcome their town's parochialism and build a little missile of their own. Director Joe Johnston, who charted a similar trajectory in ''The Rocketeer,'' mines a lode of period and genre clichés; Gyllenhaal seems too sophisticated to be an Appalachian youth; Laura Dern doesn't have much screen time as a nurturing science teacher, but her hair looks terrific.