Moonwalkers

Often a movie come along that urges anyone who sees it to root for its success. It’s a movie you want to like. Sometimes it’s an actor, a line of dialogue, a shot. Sometimes it’s an entire cast, a screenplay or the aesthetic feel of the film. Sometimes it’s enough to win you over. Whether it’s Rupert Grint, the occasional gut busting line or the visually innovative way in which director Antoine Bardou-Jacquet challenges the idea of verisimilitude in both life and movies, something about the 2015 action-comedy “Moonwalkers” encourages you to hold on and grit your teeth through every bit of forced hedonism found in the one liners, nudity and violence.

The comedy revolves around the idea that US mission to the moon Apollo 11 might not succeed, and in order to keep this potential failure from the world, the CIA has a solution: they’re going to redeploy special operative Kidman (Ron Perlman) with the task of finding Stanley Kubrik, director of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” to film a fake landing. Things go awry when band manager Johnny (Rupert Grint) pretends to be Kubrick’s manager, hoping to solve his personal money issues with the massive amounts of cash the CIA promised Kubrick. His decision ties his fate with that of the lethal agent Kidman, and the two must work together to pull off a production of their own moon landing.

Moonwalkers” starts out strong, pulling you into the movie with a violent and beautiful action sequence. The scene looks like an episode out of the Vietnam War, but its production design comes off a little false. The vegetation’s plastic appearance indicates a studio filmed scene, rather than one filmed on location, but this serves only to raise the biggest question in the film: what is real? As the scene unfolds it becomes clear that the little is real and the battle illustrates the PTSD induced dream of Special Forces and CIA veteran Kidman. This sort of artistic illustration remains constant in the movie, adding dimension to an otherwise typical action comedy plot.

One of the films biggest strengths is its actors, encumbered only by a mediocre screenplay. Actors such as Rupert Grint have proved their merit in major films, so the unconvincing portrayals of small moments boil down to writing.

The plot lends itself to natural situational comedy, but instead much of the dialogue is forced. Lines that should at least illicit a silent chuckle lack comedic timing and come off as stilted and unnecessary. One joke doesn’t flow to another without noticeable transition, but they instead stutter from the mouths of awkward actors.

Like many other elements in the movie, profanity is used gratuitously. This style shows itself frequently in action comedies, where f-bombs are dropped more than actual bombs, but the placement of the words seems forced. These instances of dialogue come off like an episode of South Park, but without the cut-out animated 10 year olds, it loses much of its charm. Filmmakers veering towards the side of more swearing than less should remember that film should aim to eliminate the superfluous.

The sex and drugs tend to approach excessive as well, while rock ‘n’ roll lazily comes into play only a few times. Most shots in the film feature some sort of drug, whether its weed, cocaine or acid, you won’t have to wait long to see one being inhaled, snorted or ingested again. For a comedy set in the 60’s, extreme drug use is fair game, but in the spirit of an SNL skit, “Moonwalkers” keeps the joke going a little too long. If you aren’t high while you watch, you’ll soon wish you had something to ease the onslaught of “funny” shroom and acid trips.

“Moonwalkers” continues there toe-ing the line (maybe even jumping it) with the unnecessary costuming, or rather lack thereof. Just as you won’t need to wait long to see drugs onscreen, topless girls seem to be a hallmark of the film. While it initially seemed to depict the wild and wanton sexual awakening in the 60’s, the intent of the nudity appears to be to add sex appeal rather than for story development.  The same goes for violence, as many time we see Perlman’s character blast off the head of a foe, spraying gore and brain matter everywhere. Sometimes this can be effective when used with self-awareness. It can highlight the movies own absurdity or show the atrocity that is violence. “Moonwalkers,” however, fails to make any real statement about the violence, and it’s graphic nature does little to augment the movie.

The movie picks up in the last half considerably. The moon landing scene is hilarious and watching the characters struggle to make the flag stick on the set was one of the most genuine laughs I’ve had in a while. If you need something to pass the time, and can ignore the more gratuitous aspects of the film, the urge to enjoy this nearly clever “what-if” movie may just overcome your sensibilities.

Starring:  Ron Perlman, Rupert Grint, Robert Sheehan, Eric Lampert, and Kerry Shale. Directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet. Screenplay by Dean Craig. Produced by George Bermann.