While there are echoes of Kubrick's 2001 classic, Moon has enough that's original and surprising to make it worth recommending, and not only to diehard fans of sci-fi films.
Moon (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:158
Fresh:141
Rotten:17
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Boosted by Sam Rockwell's intense performance, Moon is a compelling work of science-fiction, and a promising debut from director Duncan Jones.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for language.
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:17-07-2009
Synopsis:
It is the near future. Astronaut Sam Bell is living on the far side of the moon, completing a three-year contract with Lunar Industries to mine Earth’s primary source of energy, Helium-3. It is a...
It is the near future. Astronaut Sam Bell is living on the far side of the moon, completing a three-year contract with Lunar Industries to mine Earth’s primary source of energy, Helium-3. It is a lonely job, made harder by a broken satellite that allows no live communications home. Taped messages are all Sam can send and receive.
Thankfully, his time on the moon is nearly over, and Sam will be reunited with his wife, Tess, and their three-year-old daughter, Eve, in only a few short weeks. Finally, he will leave the isolation of “Sarang,” the moon base that has been his home for so long, and he will finally have someone to talk to beyond “Gerty,” the base’s well-intentioned, but rather uncomplicated computer.
Suddenly, Sam’s health starts to deteriorate. Painful headaches, hallucinations and a lack of focus lead to an almost fatal accident on a routine drive on the moon in a lunar rover. While recuperating back at the base (with no memory of how he got there), Sam meets a younger, angrier version of himself, who claims to be there to fulfill the same three year contract Sam started all those years ago.
Confined with what appears to be a clone of his earlier self, and with a “support crew” on its way to help put the base back into productive order, Sam is fighting the clock to discover what’s going on and where he fits into company plans. --© Sony Pictures Classics
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey
Director: Duncan Jones
Director: Duncan Jones
Screenwriter: Mark Bowden, Nathaniel Parker
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Reviews for Moon
The filmmakers say they wanted to make a sci-fi story within their limited budget, so used ingredients that would satisfy both. Sadly, the screenplay is a bit low on other things as well, like meaningful content.
An interesting idea goes astray in this unusual sci-fi thriller in which Sam Rockwell's astronaut Sam becomes captive in the recesses of his own mind.
In an era when grey-shaded Hollywood drudge can cost hundreds of millions and deliver nothing, Moon stands out -- and it does so with dignity.
Making a smart genre film is a house of cards. Of Moon's praiseworthy elements, I am most impressed with this: for a movie so rich and complex, it is wonderfully simple.
There's a marvelous sense of isolation in the picture's cold, aloof setting and classical, still frames.
With the sci-fi genre descending to disappointing new CG-assisted lows this summer (yes, I'm talking to you, Michael Bay), Moon ... is a perfectly timed little space oddity.
It's basically non-violent, yet at moments I felt a deep %u2013 not horror, exactly, more like dismayed awe %u2013 at what we are discovering with Sam. My companions and I left the theatre feeling very satisfied, and I hope you will as well. Moon feels
With Ziggy Stardust for a father, Major Tom for an uncle and, presumably, the spiders from Mars for assorted in-laws, is it any wonder that Duncan Jones chose a science fiction project to mark his feature film debut?
Moon gleefully steals from other, superior sci-fi flicks but still manages to make a statement all its own.
A throwback to the relatively thoughtful, adult-oriented science-fiction films that briefly were in vogue in the late 1960s and 1970s.
A boost to the usually disappointed sci-fi genre; Jones is a director to watch.
This unique cinematic doozy is a refreshing alternative to the mindless summer blockbuster fare.
No Starchild. No ultimate trip. No jive-talking robots. Just good old-fashioned story-telling.
Moon has heart, brains and a sense of humor, not to mention some nifty model-based special effects ... and a blockbuster performance by Sam Rockwell...
Most contemporary sci-fi movies come on with all CGI-guns blazing, trying to blow the roof off the theater. Moon settles for trying to blow your mind instead.
Latest News for Moon
December 04, 2009:
Sundance 2010: RT's 10 Most Anticipated Movies
Five or six years ago, the Sundance Film Festival was more famous for showing dozens of worthy, politically correct movies that instantly disappeared than the odd breakout hits... More...
November 27, 2009:
Duncan Jones Reteams With Kevin Spacey
'Moon' director Duncan Jones and the movie's computer voice, Kevin Spacey, have reteamed for a couple of advertisements currently airing on British TV. The commercials, embedded... More...
October 08, 2009:
Duncan Jones talks Moon, Sam Rockwell, and Mute
Space. Once film's final frontier, over the years sci-fi has sometimes been the domain of cliche and inferior riffs on past glories. All the more surprising, then, to discover a... More...
September 15, 2009:
Concept Art for Moon Director Duncan Jones' Mute ![]()
Director Duncan Jones, whose Moon has gone down as one of the finest sci-fi films of the year, has posted concept art for his next film, a thriller entitled Mute. Like Blade... More...
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