Moon Zero Two (1969)

Movie-A-Day Challenge

Day 8

Hammer Films

Moon exploration was all the rage in 1969, given with the first men to land on the moon in July, it was only natural that low budget studios began to crank out such movies featuring what they believed the future held in this exciting advancement in our space programs. The makers Moon Zero Two, felt that the future (2021, to be exact) would be full of people colonizing the moon, evil billionaires would hold weird space parties full of cheesy music, weird outfits, weird hair and space drinks. As we know, this sadly isn't the case. But I'm sure plenty of parties are pretty similar.

Moon Zero Two is an odd sci-fi film. The tag line reads "The first moon 'western'" and.. well, I guess that's true. I wouldn't really know for sure if it's the first, although I will say that not a whole lot of it felt very western to me. The film follows the exploits of former astronaut-turned space salvager, Bill Kemp, who's hired by the previously mentioned evil billionaire, who unknowingly to Kemp, wants Bill to capture a nearby asteroid that can be used to launch a rocket to other planets, which he can then colonize.. for PROFIT. I sense a missed opportunity for a good profit meme.

There's also some stuff going on with a girl who crosses Bill's path who is on the hunt to find her brother who went missing when mining in a far off area of the moon, but this story isn't really that interesting, until she can no longer deny Kemp's dashing looks and his rugged yet charming personality, which leads to awkward flirtation that is never fully delivered on, but certainly hinted at (for a sequel?). Kemp's space cowboyness is undeniable, maybe some would say there would never have been a Han Solo or Malcom Reynolds had it not been for Bill Kemp. I'm not one of those people, but hell if I'd argue with you if you presented me a case for it. 

If I had to say some good things about the film, it's that for a low budget sci-fi movie from the 60s.. is the effects are pretty good. They won't blow your socks off, but comparing them to a lot of other movies coming out around that time, they did a good job with what they had to work with. When compared to the best of sci-fi, this is horrible dreck. But compared to other movies of it's ilk, it's actually not that bad. I wouldn't recommend ever sitting through it though unless you can catch the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, which was a really funny episode.