Review of Moon 44

Moon 44 (1990)
3/10
In space, no one can hear you yawn.
13 March 2013
Not the sequel to Moon 43, as most folks would guess, but really a boring sci-fi flick set in the future, where rivals companies duke it out to control mineral sources in space. One such company keeps losing shuttles (Huge machines that mine for minerals) to a rival company, so they get the big idea of sending ex-cons to man Moon 44's defence system, which is run by a bunch of geeks. Additionally, the company send an internal affairs cop up there (as an ex-con) to find out exactly where some missing shuttles have gone up to, and therefore Moon 44 begins it's slow, soap opera like plot.

Your ex-cons (including Brian Thompson of Hired to Kill) don't sit well with the geeks (including that guy from 976-EVIL), and head of the station, Malcolm McDowell (of Cyborg 3: The Recycler) tries to mediate between them both. Our hero, Stone, seems to upset just about everybody and is first up to man the defence system, which seems to be a toy helicopter driven by Stone with remote help from his allotted geek. This is even more boring than it sounds, as we're subjected to really bad special effects involving toy helicopters flying around a canyon, and not much else. I'm not one to rag on bad special effects either, but there's really not much else going on except for the drama.

You've got the cons up against the geeks, not helped by one con botting one of the geeks against his will. You've got Brian Thompson versus Stone, and Stone versus Maclom McDowell and some Sargeant guy. Add to this that everything looks like the director really, really likes Ridley Scott and James Cameron (the interiors are all Blade Runner and Alien like), complete with evil corporation, and you've got a film with plenty of set up and no pay off. The bad guys, when they do appear, kind of look like Johnny Five if he'd turn to crack cocaine and flew off into space.

Moon 44 is a drag from start to finish and I was just waiting for it end, which it thankfully does without a single surprise. I can take bad effects and cheap sets, but the one thing I do not like in a film is nothing happening. For McDowell fans, he's here for about five minutes total and doesn't do much. This film chugs off donkeys for cash. Behind a skip in Shipley.

I've just realised that this was directed by a hot shot director! Well the guy that gave us Independence Day at least.
7 out of 16 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed