Moonwalkers

MOONWALKERS

Running time: 107 minutes

Rated: R (for strong bloody violence, graphic nudity, plentiful drug use and language)

Theatrical Release Date: January 15, 2016

For many years after the first Apollo spaced program that successfully launched two men on the moon, in order to ensure that the United States would win the “space-race” portion of the Cold War, there were many moon landing conspiracy theories as to whether or not it actually happened or whether they were all staged. The moon landing theory actually sounds like a great concept for a film, just not for this one.

“Moonwalkers” -- actually a great movie title -- is one in which fires on all the wrong cylinders, resulting in a very flat movie in which not all of the weirdness can save itself from. It also suffers from poor casting. It revolves around CIA agent Kidman (Ron Perlman) takes on a mission to locate the famed director Stanley Kubrick for a “highly classified, top secretive project”. When Kidnam questions his superior why get Kubrick involved, the answer he receives is that Kubrick “knows about space” (an oblivious reference to “2001: A Space Odyssey”, even the movie’s title gets mentioned). He is put on a flight to London, where he is supposed to meet up with his manager Derek Kaye. Instead of meeting Kaye, he meets a guy who poses as Kaye. Not only does Kidman end up getting fooled by Johnny (Rupert Grint), but Johnny gets his flatmate Leon (Robert Sheehan) to pose as Kubrick. When Kidman catches on and discovers the ruse, he is forced to join the pair and make sure the pair follow through: so they hire a pretentious avant-garde filmmaker (Tom Audenaert) to film the staged moon landing, as the US government is sure it that the actual moon landing will fail.

The fault of this comes at Dean Craig’s script and Antone Bardou-Jacquet’s directions. The only thing they get right is the time period and manages to use Kubrick’s film references to its advantage. However, the references are wrong. Instead of choosing “Dr. Strangelove” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” as source materials, they pick the entire opposite and delve into the strange and obscure territory that is “A Clockwork Orange”. At least the somewhat positive comment is that the music choices are inspired (particularly where an operatic suite from “The Thieving Magie” is used in a ultra-violent fight sequence, and to itself was inspired by a similar sequence in “Clockwork”)

I’ve seen some of Perlman's other films, and given the right script he can excel at anything he’s in. In this one, he seems far out of his element and seems that his character is out of a different time period. While he tries to play the CIA agent character who suffers from PTSD from his traumatic experiences in Vietnam, it seems that the role could’ve been handled in such a way that it doesn’t feel, at times, overwhelming. Rupert Grint is still trying to break out of his Hogwarts shell, and this type of role actually suits him more, but he could’ve helped if the script was handled in a way that we actually care about his character.

“Moonwalkers” could’ve worked if more thought was actually put into the script, however it’s attempts at being a false comedy, or a false satire for that matter, is what ultimately grounds this into a screeching halt.