Luna zero due

OK, I've read several reviews of this film in books, online and from sci-fi fans and usually the overall feeling of the film is split down the middle. I really enjoy this film, it has a very good cast; James Olson, Catherine Schell (Who would go on to star in the classic sci-fi series; Space: 1999), Adrienne Corri, Warren Mitchell, Michael Ripper (Hammer regular) and Sam Kydd, it had some great looking sets, a very capable director in Roy Ward Baker and the opening tune is one I can't get out of my head for days, after watching the film or listening to that track. Hailed as the first space-western, the film does it's best to combine a futuristic look with the ideals and wild ways of the old west. To sci-fi fans looking for something really serious and up on the technical feel of a straight-from-the-hip science fiction story, chances are you're going to be disappointed with the overall effort of the film, but if you like a film that can be serious at times and still poke fun at itself, then this is a film you're probably going to enjoy.....just don't go into viewing this in a serious mood! Have fun with it and relax.....the anti-gravity fight scene in the saloon is not to be missed!

Overall, Moon Zero Two isn't that bad a movie. It is curious that Mystery Science Theater used it as an experiment, albeit an early one. It is a decent movie with a good plot and engaging characters, something 99% of the other MST movies do not have.

The cartoon sequence in the opening credits along with the title song, suggest something along the lines of a Pink Panther movie rather than a science fiction movie. The be-bop jazz soundtrack is woefully out of place in dramatic scenes where something more serious is required, but this is nit-picking.

The fact that the MST episode guide does not talk much about this movie seems to speak more to the film's availability than to its actual lack of worth as a cinematic form of torture. (A similar movie would be "Quest of the Delta Knights".)

No one will confuse this film with 2001, but it's not Star Trek 6 either. I wouldn't set my VCR to watch this movie, but if there is nothing else to watch on a rainy Saturday afternoon, it's worth your time.

"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.

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