Wizard-8
It was around this period that the Hammer film studio started to try other film genres, probably because audiences were declining for their period horror movies. "Moon Zero Two" was radically different than anything Hammer had done before, and it would be nice to report it was a solid effort, but for the most part it's not. The main reason why it fails is the script. It has the one-two punch of not only taking forever to get going, but once it gets going it doesn't progress at an acceptable speed. The movie is dull and slow moving. It's not a total waste of time - the idea of making a western in a future space environment was a new idea at the time, and occasionally this radical update of an old genre shows something a little interesting. And the props, sets, and special effects are pretty good by 1969 standards. All the same, most viewers will probably fall asleep before the end. If you want to see a movie that's more or less a western out in space, you'd be much better off watching the Sean Connery movie "Outland". It's not a great movie, but it's a heck of a lot better than "Moon Zero Two".
Edgar Soberon Torchia
Better from what I have read about, this is as good as any other Hammer programmer. My complaint is that the rhythm is too slow for an adventure science-fiction comedy drama: it could have had a neat running time of 80 minutes, but the Hammer crew seemed to be enjoying so much their models and miniature lunar landscapes that a couple of panning shots seem endless, and editing only adds a bit of action during a fight in a bar. It is not more moronic than some space operas I can think of (including high profile ones, with a budget of millions, but in the end as dumb as this), and the relation to westerns can pass unnoticed by most viewers: a miner, a bar, guns...? It could also be a Chaplin comedy. Nice animation credits and an appropriate 1960s pop title song.
AaronCapenBanner
Roy Ward Baker directed this bizarre Hammer studios futuristic science fiction/western hybrid that stars James Olsen as Captain William Kemp, basically the gunfighter for hire, and Catherine Schell as Clementine Taplin, who has hired him to investigate the disappearance of her brother, a miner on the moon who was murdered by claim jumpers with a sinister agenda that only they can stop... Extremely silly and dated film has good actors performing with a straight face, which is quite an achievement in sequences involving dancing saloon cowgirls in the moon colony bar-room, for instance, complete with obligatory brawl. Astonishing animated title sequence and song are most incongruous!
verbusen
I rate this film a 3 (its average here) but as a 10 as a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode (it was in season 2 I think, the version I just watched), so I'm averaging it around a 6. I noticed a lot of British reviewers here who mostly love this flick. I suppose if I watched this movie in 1969 when I was 6 I would have thought it was cool. Problem is I didn't so it doesn't get any sentimental points from me. This flick is a big rip off of 2001 and UFO, and I suspect they intended to steal from both. It starts off with an extra long cartoon intro with some extra loud jazz bond type intro, it is funny to a point than really irritating, its sooo long. All the reviewers who love this flick seem to think its realistic, ummm I don't think so. I love the realistic part where they find the dead astronaut and its a skeleton, yeah that was soo realistic, did the space fly's get to his dead body? They could have used some sexy green moon women in this trash flick, because if they were trying to be realistic it was a waste of some good camp. The MST3K writers did a fantastic job skewering this flick and it was one of the better episodes I've seen, the time Joel uses the anti gravity to mimic a scene in the movie is dead on hilarious! See it as a MST3K episode and you'll be entertained. You have been warned.
AD
