Luna zero due

Interesting effort here by the usually predictable Hammer Studios, best known for all those low budget Dracula movies with Christopher Lee and Frankenstein movies with Peter Cushing. Hammer actually worked in a number of genres during their heyday, with spy films and crime thrillers, wartime potboilers, pirate escapades. They had already crossed their usual horror motifs with a heavy dose of science fiction with their "Quatermass" series, but for whatever reason Hammer never made a traditional looking western, even though some of their principal talent had contributed to a couple. Too bad, I am sure they would have had an intriguing go at it.

This was their compromise, a clearly 2001 inspired concoction mixing some of the more obvious elements of a western -- six guns, saloons, claim jumping gunslingers, a fetching damsel in distress, a cynical hero -- with the then familiar trappings of science fiction space epics. Space suits instead of cowboy attire, moon buggies instead of stagecoaches, and a lady moon sheriff who packs twin pistols in holsters attached to her thigh-high Go Go boots. Whatever. The idea was viable enough for Peter Hyams to revisit in a more sober manner with 1981's "Outland", a subtle remake of "High Noon" set at a mining complex on one of Jupiter's moons.

The blend of genres will either go over well or create profound disbelief, as is evidenced by the film having been enshrined in Mystery Science Theater 3000's hall of fame of parody screenings with all those annoying, smug comments from the dorks in the front row superimposed on the screen. The film is silly enough in itself without their schtick (I'm not a big MST3K fan, sorry), and just as with Elvira, just because they choose to send up a given movie that doesn't mean it may not have some redeeming parts.

This one does, mostly in an endearing willingness to try anything, and for Hammer what was actually a pretty significant budget that let them pull off some ingenious little effects sequences. My favorite touch are the little Moon Fargo buggies, which sure are radio controlled models in the long shots, but by golly they have a sort of charm about them that belies their phoniness. We forgive because in the context of the kind of entertainment we are looking at, namely 1960s European made science fiction, they work just fine.

The story isn't much, but then again the whole show is in the production design, which as others point out apes Apollo era technologies as much as it does a 2001 inspired antiseptic, shiny rubberized look. Some may poke fun at the silly hairstyles and clumsy looking costumes, I say they fit in perfectly with the movie's aesthetic. There is even a healthy dose of realistic science thrown in alongside such recurring SF themes as artificial gravity, miniature space colonies, and foxy babes who casually strip down to their space age underwear once the air conditioning gives out.

Newly re-released by Warner's on a double movie DVD along with the equally long overdue "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth". Couldn't recommend them more, beats the crap out of anything currently projecting onto screens in empty theaters at the cineplexes in any event, and just stupid enough to warrant repeat casual guilty pleasure viewing.

6/10

This is not actually that bad a film, if you take away the stupid bits and ignore some of the wooden acting. But I'm afraid it hasn't stood the test of time that well, thanks largely to the awful music and costumes on show here. If you can ignore those, the story isn't too bad.

It's always interesting in these types of movies to do the "Hey! Isn't that...!" thing when the actors appear. Here we have Warren Mitchell as the bad guy.....who went on to play Alf Garnett in "Til Death do Us PArt" in the same year as this film, and for many years after. Also here is Catherine Schell, of Space 1999 fame. Of course the main star here, James Olsen, is probably more familiar from his roles in The Andromeda Strain a couple of years later, or the Arnie vehicle, Commando, some time later. Also present is that stalwart of Carry On movies, Bernard Bresslaw.

Of course, this movie has its bad points. The least of which is the music. It's just so 60's its almost criminal. Add to that, the PVC clothes which we all will apparently wear in the future, along with the garish, often lop-sided wigs (which must have been re-used in UFO, methinks) and you have a film which will always be dated to the time it was made.

Other bad points include the acting. I won't go into the many instances but at one point big Bernie Bresslaw (who plays a heavy) has to look bored and almost asleep during the plot exposition by the bad guy's scientist. He does this so well that you think he really is bored of the film, not the scene he's in.

The science isn't too bad for a film of this era. No one wandering about on the lunar surface without a helmet, for instance, or other foolishness.

But unfortunately, the costumes, wigs and music will always make this movie a bit of a chuckle. I suspect this was something of an experiment by Hammer, to see if they could break out of the horror genre. I don't know how well it went down at the time, but I guess it wasn't that well, as I can't recall any other Hammer sci-fi projects.

Anyway, a dated piece, but worth a look if there's nothing better on (or you just want to laugh at 60's fashions).

"Moon zero two" does not deserve such a low rating ;it is very entertaining ,its screenplay -which sometimes looks like a sci -fi western: the "saloon" and the 'gold digger " brother - is never dull;it even displays some humor :the "Moonopoly" is a very good idea! The two plots -although implausible- are smartly connected.The special effects are not bad for the time ,considering a relatively low budget.Actually it could be a comic ,a Flash Gordon adventure ;if you are looking for "2001" ,you 'd better move on ;but if you simply want to have a good time,you can watch it.

The only real horror is the cartoon of the cast and credits and an awful song.

What happens when you combine go-go girls, disco music, spaghetti westerns, and 60s sci-fi? "Moon Zero Two" happens, that's what.

The storyline reads like an after-school special, without much character development; but the parts are all well-acted. The miniatures and set designs are well-done, but true to the time; the costumes are mostly vibrant colors and PVC. There are honest efforts made to maintain credibility, such as the lack of noise in a vacuum, and no 'magic gravity' in space. The science is actually quite believable, especially in comparison to other 60s sci-fi.

There are elements ("Moonopoly", six-shooters holstered in PVC gun-belts outside space suits, the moon saloon) of this movie that make it painfully cheesy at times, but not the same "so bad that it's good" cheese one would expect. It's more of a "I'm embarrassed to remember when those things were cool" kind of cheesy.

Overall, an enjoyable watch (depending on your tolerance for '60s kitch) - 6 out of 10.

A space-pilot is caught up in a claim-jumping scheme on the far side of the Moon. Touted as the first 'Moon-western', the film would have been much better if it had simply lifted plot and character tropes from the classic oaters and dispensed with silly trappings such as the 'gunfighter-style' holsters and the awful 'saloon-themed' bar complete with the dancing girls and inevitable brawl (a particularly silly scene). On the plus side, 'Moon Zero Two' has the entertaining look of contemporaneous British science fiction with carefully detailed and well thought-out miniatures, and fashions and hair styles straight out of 'UFO' (1970) or 'Space 1999' (1975). The central plot is clever (albeit implausible) and the special effects generally good (although as usual the filmmakers couldn't resist adding sounds in space). The cast of British character actors is OK but they are saddled with trying to deliver an awkward mélange of adventure and parody through a tongue-in-cheek script that is nether very clever nor witty. Unfortunately, the end product is a film that is worse than it looks and likely of interest only to fans of genre fans or those nostalgic for the short skirts, austere jumpsuits, beepy machines, and vibrantly coloured wigs of the British vison of the future in the late 60s/early '70s. If you can sit though the goofy, incredibly 60s-looking, animated opening-credits sequence and tolerate the theme song, you can probably survive watching the film.