Lune de sang

What a shame that somebody retitled this film to MURDER BY MOONLIGHT, which makes it sound like any bog standard murder mystery or film noir. The original title, MURDER ON THE MOON, is much better and a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of title: this is a straightforward murder mystery with the twist that the entire film is set on a Martian moonbase in the near future.

It's a straightforward effort, constrained by the nature of the TV movie into neither being particularly sexy or violent, but saying that it's a film which holds the attention throughout. The storyline sees an astronaut being murdered and an American (Brigitte Nielsen in an unusual casting choice) and a Russian (Julian Sands in another unusual casting choice) forced to team up to solve the crime.

The film keeps you watching throughout, even if Nielsen's acting ability isn't really apparent. Julian Sands is much better and it's fun to see him before he was typecast as a stock British bad guy in the movies. The British nature of this film means that there are supporting roles for people you wouldn't expect to see in this kind of production, like David Yip and Brian Cox, with Celia Imrie particularly incongruous. Even ALIENS's Ricco Ross pops up in an early cameo. American director Michael Lindsay-Hogg was best known for his work on the famous BRIDESHEAD REVISITED TV miniseries of the early 1980s.

This 1989 made for TV movie is worth checking out. Brigitte Nielsen gives an OK performance as the sleuth, but what kept my attention was the writer's attention to detail... In terms of the mystery. Science fiction fans will find a lot of aspects about this film (the political situation, the murder attempt in the library, etc.), a bit hard to swallow. But, hey, give these guys a break. The movie was made before the Berlin Wall fell, and as for the science, well, they don't attempt to explain anything away with technobabble, nor do they forget that the moon has no atmosphere. The love story between the investigators didn't gell, but again, they don't dwell on it. The resolution is a great twist on the concept of "hide in plain sight."

I watched this on the UK Horror Channel and what do you know, that's spot on just where it should be! On the plus side, the plot is not too bad if very dated, the set of supporting actors is really good, Brian Cox and Celia Imrie set the tone with Julian Sands making a valiant attempt to play the Russian 'NastyBecomesNicey', and the settings are fine.

On the other hand...

It's marred by chronic 2D character stereotyping. As always we have inflexible Russians all plain looking in dull dingy outfits, and cool suited attractive Americans, sad because they are unable to communicate meaningfully with them. And it's killed off by Brigitte Nielsen's managing to make the whole thing look like it's acted according to the Plywood school. Whoever thought that she could possibly contribute to making it a watchable film should have their cabin airlock bolts cut and be flushed out into space. She honked in Rocky but was hailed because, lets face it, anyone would have looked passable with Sly Stallone to compare against, and she honks here.

if - - you - - are - - irritated - - by - - having - - to - - read - - this - - written - - like - - a - - list - - you - - will - - know - - just - - what - - I - - mean - - it - - is - - just - - like - - briquette's - - delivery - - of - - even - - the - - simplest - - lines.

Good for a sozzled night in with nothing else to watch, but if you expect anything to draw you in and engage you as many old films of this era can, look elsewhere.

Instantly we see the death of an American astronaut on Russian soil on the moon. Dennis Hull played by Gerald McRaney wants an American there to investigate rather than under just Russian investigative eyes. In comes Brigette Nielsen as the American Maggie Bartok and Julian Sands as the Russian Major Kirilenko. Due to the political strife the movie does have some tension between the characters and in the end a little better than I was actually expecting mainly due to the usually good Sands. But this TV movie has some big problems. One is the acting by Nielsen just doesn't help the movie at all, she seems to just smile a lot and punch through her lines. But, an even bigger problem is there is absolutely no set up to the murder victim or any of the characters before the murder or their interrogation by the investigators. Which is too bad, because the mystery angle to this movie isn't bad, just really poorly plotted through the early goings.

Set in the near future, American and Soviet mining companies have set up moon-bases. A murder happens and a KGB man is teamed up with a NASA investigator to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Murder by Moonlight is a TV movie whose limited budget is never disguised. It has some name actors in fairness, yet they don't contribute much. Brigitte Nielsen sports massive shoulder pads but gives a very weak performance, Julian Sands sports an over-done Russian accent but is also somewhat lacking, while the usually reliable Brian Cox has no more than a clichéd support role as a Soviet official. The two principals Nielsen and Sands are the sleuthing duo who, as is customary, begin at logger-heads with each other but gradually get to like one and other. They even go as far to develop a romance, which it has to be said was very unconvincing and lacking in any chemistry. Matters are also not helped very much by a cheap tinny soundtrack that constantly reminds you of how low budget it all is. I do like a murder-mystery but this one was handled in a somewhat dull manner, although I will give it credit for at least having a memorable culprit.