Moon 44

Moon 44 is for sure not a masterpiece but solid and fun space action of the B-movie category: some mercenaries defending a mine somewhere lost in space. Easy to consume pulp science fiction well produced on a small budget. Moon 44 and The Noah's Ark Principle are in my opinion the more interesting and entertaining movies than Mr. Emmerich's last big productions Moonfall or Midway.

I'm suprised about the amount of positivity expressed towards this movie as it is quite poor. As a long standing SF fan I was looking forward to it, despite it's low budget and the fact that the director's subsequent movies have been less than satisfactory.

The good points: The special effects are reasonable (although not great) and the set designs are excellent (quite reminiscent of Alien.)

The bad points: Cliche after cliche hits you until you can't take it seriously. The handsome tough guy cop who smokes a cigarette out of the corner of his mouth. You'll hate this character unless you like one dimensional humourless carboard cut out stereotypes.

The muscle bound convicts who bully everyone else. IS this a prison for body builders or something?

The geeky computer wiz kids and their quirky humour. How we laughed.

The obvious 'good guy saves the day' ending.

Malcolm Mcdowell. Why does he take movies like this? Such a fine actor is wasted here.

The plot holes are too numerous to mention here but there are lots and lots - probably about 44.

There really isn't anything to like about this film apart from the average visuals.

I advise you to give this one a miss and pick up a very similar but far superiour movie called 'Outland' starring Sean Connery and directed by Peter Hyams.

Moon 44 is a bad start for director Roland Emmerich and nobody-actor turned producer Dean Devlin (who later team up with one another to make the blockbusters: Stargate, Independence Day and Godzilla).

The plot of this movie is really weak... It's 2036, and Earth's resources are gone. Mankind is now out in space mining moons somewhere for resources. However, it seems that even the big ol' universe doesn't have enough resources to sustain us greedy, and wasteful humans. The supercorps that run the mining operations have to literally battle each other for the goods.

To defend it's last territory, Moon 44, one company resorts to hire convicts to pilot helicopters (helicopters? on a moon?) yes, helicopters, to protect their mining robots from theft, even though the ships are stolen IN SPACE while their on transit to Earth. Makes a whole lotta sense doesn't it? Since no reputable pilot wants the suicide job of defending the base, the convicts are given the opportunity to do the job for a reduced sentence.

One convict is actually an undercover cop (Michael Paré) and his job is to infiltrate the mining complex and expose a traitor who is reprogramming the robot ships to never make it back to Earth. Because everyone involved is a potential suspect, it makes the cop's job more difficult.

The movie is filled to the brim, with bad acting, lame dialogue, dry characters, cheesy special effects (even for a 1990 film it looked more like something from 1980) and there is even some homoeroticism thrown in for good measure.

Avoid Moon 44 at all cost, and stick to Emmerich's blockbuster hits.

The film was interesting sci-fi fare. I felt for the characters in their pridicaments. Granted, it could have been much better, but it could have been worse to. I guess the biggest complaint that I have is that the DVD was released in the inferior format of full frame. I would like to have the opportunity to see the film in it's intended format so that I can get all the necessary information to determine if this is a better film than I think. Thus far all I have seen is the blur of the full frame destruction of the film. Come on Artisan, get with the program!

No, I'm not really a "fan" of Emmerich. That wouldn't be the right word. And yes, his films tend to strain credulity so much that it risks breaking. But let's admit it... he makes good popcorn flicks(with the exception of 10,000 B.C., that was awful). They tend to be enjoyable, exciting and just plain fun. And this really is no exception; while he gets larger budgets and more attention today, he could certainly deliver back then, as well. This does have a big name... I mean, Alexander Kruemmel, that's plenty of letters. Just kidding; I'm referring to McDowell, of course. The acting ranges, though this does manage to make Paré appear almost charming. I loved seeing Brian Thompson again(two appearances in Charmed, minor role in The Terminator, and he's played Klingons; what he may lack in range, he attempts to make up for in muscle, cool to see), even if they gave him unflattering facial hair. The FX are great. Dialog is pretty good, humorous and can be fairly sharp. The sets are reminiscent of Alien, and quite nice. This has guts. There is commentary on the world. The tension is reasonably effective. Arguably, there is not a ton of action(with that said, what there is usually is well-done)... then again, it's 92 minutes sans credits. There is plenty of strong language, disturbing content and a little moderate violence in this. I recommend this to anyone looking for a quick, easy to get into, cheap sci-fi B-movie. 5/10