Movie Review – Moonwalkers

One of the most infamous conspiracy theories is that the 1969 moon landing of Apollo 11, instead of being a great accomplishment by the United States space program, was a hoax, filmed on a movie set, with the intent of convincing the world that the USA beat Russia in the space race. Believers also reason that Stanley Kubrick would have been the likely director of the staged moon walk, because of the techniques he used in the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which opened just a year earlier.
A movie about how this film was secretly created would embolden the few remaining conspiracy theorists, unless that movie is Moonwalkers. This comedic crime thriller, written by Dean Craig and directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, stars Ron Pearlman as Kidman, a short-tempered, CIA trained, PTSD-suffering Vietnam veteran who is entrusted with a briefcase full of cash to fly to London, find Mr. Kubrick and convince him to quickly make a film of the moon landing in the few days remaining before Apollo 11 is scheduled to land on the moon. What could possibly go wrong? Just about everything.
Kidman schedules a meeting with Kubrick’s agent in London, but instead of meeting the agent he meets Jonny (played by Rupert Grint of Harry Potter fame), a highly indebted manager of an awful young rock band, who is willing to do just about anything to get his hands on that briefcase. The situation gets worse from there as Kidman suffers from flashbacks of the war, Jonny gets mixed up with some dangerous gangsters and time is running out to get the film finished.
If you enjoy dry humor, a few late-1960’s drug induced psychedelic tangents, and lots of bloody gun fire, then you will enjoy this interesting look at how the making of this historic film could have gone down. While not as refined as other movies in this genre, such as Get Shorty and Pulp Fiction, it does a great job of integrating historic events into a very enjoyable story line. Did the United States successfully land on the moon? Does this reveal the backstory that the conspiracy theorists have been waiting for? You will just have to watch Moonwalkers to find out.