“Nice shirt, dude.”
Directed by: Antoine Bardou-Jacquet
Written by: Dean Craig
Cast: Rupert Grint, Ron Perlman, Robert Sheehan
Swift shot: A comical farce based on a true conspiracy . . . theory. Probably the most far-fetched theory I have ever seen, but I actually enjoyed this flick for its ridiculousness. Not once did it take itself even remotely seriously. It was exactly as the director wanted it, a film about stupid people getting into fights, set with a backdrop of the ’60’s space race with the Soviets. And, it stars one of my favorite actors, Ron Perlman.
It’s 1969, and the CIA has decided to approach Stanley Kubrick to stage a phony moon landing film, just in case the Apollo 11 mission goes tits up. And when you consider all the conspiracy morons that eat this crap up, who think we didn’t actually land on the moon, there may be something to the notion of a redundancy plan to film a fake landing.
There is this obscure Australian film, The Dish, that I happened upon awhile back that focuses on one town’s fame as the only satellite dish that is able to transmit the signal of the landing. And Dan Aykroyd is convinced we faked the whole thing out of some studio in Oakland Park, FL, which incidentally is a few exits off I-95 from where I grew up.
For my part, I think it’s possible we made a fall-back film, but not to fake the landing, but to fake the footage on the off-chance the signal itself couldn’t be broadcast. To me, that makes the most sense about why there may be logistics trails, and the like, tied to this alleged operation.
But, I can tell you unequivocally – this is not how the CIA would have gone about producing any such film. Oh sure, they very well might have tried to buy Kubrick, but they wouldn’t have waited until so close to the landing, and they would have entrusted such a sensitive endeavor to their best and brightest and made damn sure to have checks in place to keep tabs on the mission.
Agent Kidman (Perlman) is a grizzled combat veteran of Vietnam, he has the worst case of PTSD you can imagine, he sees ghostly images basically stalking him constantly. Kidman is the embodiment of unstable. Yet, the CIA and the powers that be opt to send him to London to get Kubrick to direct the phony moon landing.
Jonny (Grint) is a loser rock and roll manager with more debt than he can handle. He’s borrowed money from a gang called the Iron Mongers to help get his godawful band some gigs. Jonny has one last chance, his cousin is a film agent in London. He even represents . . . you guessed it, Stanley Kubrick!
Kidman happens upon Jonny thinking he’s Kubrick’s agent and basically tells him he wants to give his client a ton of money to take on a sensitive project. Thing is, he’ll only give the money to Kubrick. I mean, Kidman’s not a total idiot. Jonny is. Stupid people tend to flock together, and Jonny has an actor flatmate, Leon (Sheehan) who is easily tricked into playing Stanley’s part.
So, you have the stage set, Kidman gives the US government’s money to these buffoons, and hilarity ensues.
This film reminded me of those old ’60’s flicks that were zany and psychedelic with a far-fetched plot that counted on the bad choices of brainless weirdos. Moonwalkers is a “what-if” flick of outrageous proportions that delivers some solid one-liners and the fight sequences are actually damn nice!
But, the stand-out performance is Tom Audenaert who plays this totally bat-shit insane director, Renatus who ultimately is hired to film the moon landing. He is an actor without shame, and his scenes were glorious. His Renatus put a refreshing smile on my face in every scene.
If you enjoy action comedies, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by Moonwalkers. And, if you take it seriously, lay off the acid!
