Moon Zero Two (1970)

Who payed the critics

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It was around this period that the Hammer film studio started to try other film genres, probably because audiences were declining for their period horror movies. "Moon Zero Two" was radically different than anything Hammer had done before, and it would be nice to report it was a solid effort, but for the most part it's not. The main reason why it fails is the script. It has the one-two punch of not only taking forever to get going, but once it gets going it doesn't progress at an acceptable speed. The movie is dull and slow moving. It's not a total waste of time - the idea of making a western in a future space environment was a new idea at the time, and occasionally this radical update of an old genre shows something a little interesting. And the props, sets, and special effects are pretty good by 1969 standards. All the same, most viewers will probably fall asleep before the end. If you want to see a movie that's more or less a western out in space, you'd be much better off watching the Sean Connery movie "Outland". It's not a great movie, but it's a heck of a lot better than "Moon Zero Two".

The movie billed as the first space western sets out to entertain, and it succeeds. "Moon Zero Two" is set in 2021 on the moon, where a colony (presumably built by Newt Gingrich?) has attracted a number of people. A former astronaut gets more than he bargained for when he takes on a mission to bring down a sapphire asteroid.The movie very much has the look of one of those 1960s-1970s sci-fi flicks, including some go-go dancers. It's fitting that the movie got released not long after the moon landing, and a lot of the movie appears to have taken inspiration from "2001: A Space Odyssey". The cast includes James Olson (Father in "Ragtime") and Adrienne Corri (Mrs. Alexander in "A Clockwork Orange"). Warren Mitchell played bigot Alf Garnett on "Till Death Us Do Part", on which "All in the Family" was based.You gotta love Hammer movies.

I read these other reviews of this film here and see where people who wish to come across as Oh-So-Savvy and smart, condescendingly make fun of the period look, the soundtrack, and the costumes. 'Oh yes, by all means, let's show everyone how chic and up to date we are...' I swear, I don't know whether to be more disgusted at the shallowness or the stupidity. It truly is a toss up...Anyway, that is PRECISELY why I personally read EXTERNAL reviews of films here on IMDb; and, along those lines, I became aware of this very little known film by way of the excellent MORIA movie review site, which I consult regularly about any and all Horror and Sci Fi films. I don't always agree with the fellow there and sometimes I quite violently disagree with him (such as with 'THE HAUNTING' (1999) and 'THE LOST BOYS') However, he has a very nice three star review of this film and I pretty much agree with his assessment. YES, of course the film was made in 19 frigg'n 69 for God's sake, so give it a break. OF COURSE it's gonna look like the period; but, I'll tell you that it looks a HELL of a LOT better than any film made around 1978 or so which when I see the 'styles' and look of that period I immediately and simultaneously lose consciousness and take a colossal dump in my pants.Sorry... I got a bit off track there. So, as I was saying... As Richard says at MORIA, it IS a bloody HAMMER film after all and the script is quite solid, really. The story is very engaging and the acting and direction are a LOT better than a number of other horribly goofy films made around that time. With an obviously severely limited budget, I think that they did quite well with the look and design of the Lunar buildings, machinery, and landscape. They did the best they could with the cinematography, clearly taking a lot of effort to make the best out of what they had.I really enjoyed the soundtrack (another thing that some mindlessly tasteless @sshole reviewer snidely and contemptuously said to 'ignore'. GEEZ, is it REALLY illegal to kill people like that...?) Anyway, seriously, the soundtrack went everywhere from Psychodelic power pop to sounding like Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock, to Jazz Flute, you name it. Not bad at all. Even the 'dancing girls' kind of had a seductive charm. What is amazing is that this film was made at that time and with this very low of a budget and yet it always seems to stay (just barely) this side of CHEEEEEEEZ. You know what it sort of reminded me of, especially being a British production, is the most excellent and truly hip UFO series, which I dearly love. It wasn't THAT sexy, but I will tell you that in my lowly and wretched opinion the mood, style, execution, and design were frigg'n LIGHT YEARS & orders of magnitude better than Gerry Anderson's later series SPACE 1999. GEEZ that was a real stink'n turkey in just about every way.No, I think what really kept this one entertaining and engaging was that it was seriously and competently done. Roy Ward Baker had just come off directing some excellent HAMMER films like one of my ABSOLUTE all time favourites 'QUATERMASS AND THE PIT' (aka: '5 MILLION YEARS TO EARTH'.) He was a very good director and really knew how to put together very entertaining films that many, MANY other directors would have turned into a HUGE CHEEEEEEZ fest.So, if you happen to like older Sci Fi films (I'm not talking about the REALLY creaky 1950's Sci Fi here) but sort of the 1960's stylized, hip, Sci Fi (sort of like the excellent Space Operas that came out of Italy at that time like 'WILD, WILD, PLANET' for example - although this one isn't nearly as stylish as that one) then you should really enjoy this fun little Lunar Science Fiction movie.

A gang of nefarious criminals lead by arrogant evil rich jerk J.J. Hubbard (nicely essayed with deliciously wicked relish by Warren Mitchell) plan on hijacking a small asteroid made of valuable sapphire and landing it on the moon. It's up to stalwart space pilot for hire Captain William H. Kemp (a likable performance by James Olson) and plucky Clementine Taplin (the fetching Catherine Schell) to stop them. Competently directed by Roy Ward Baker, with an endearingly cornball script by Michael Carreras, a hilariously dated "groovy" psychedelic rock theme song, sexy go-go dancers at a funky nightclub, a funky-diggin' score by Don Ellis, an astonishingly inept slow motion barroom brawl sans gravity, a nifty animated opening credits sequence, and several clumsily staged action set pieces, this hopelessly ridiculous sci-fi/Western handy dandy combo hybrid makes for a good deal of amusingly campy fun. The cast struggle gamely with their silly roles: Adrienne Corri as fiery sheriff Elixzabeth Murphy, Ori Levy as Kemp's jolly engineer Korminski, Bernard Bresslaw as Hubbard's hulking henchman Harry, Dudley Foster as smarmy brainiac Whitsun, Sam Kydd as the gregarious Len the Barman, and Michael Ripper as a testy card player. Paul Beeson's polished cinematography, the cool special effects, and the bleak lunar landscapes are all surprisingly up to par. A total laugh riot.