Co-writer/director Duncan Jones’ debut feature Moon is a modest but nonetheless exciting bit of (derivative) speculative fiction.
Moon (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:157
Fresh:140
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: R [See Full Rating] for language.
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Jun 12, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $4,785,434
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
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Reviews for Moon
Director Duncan Jones also taps into the visual style of Silent Running, which was directed by special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull. Taking his cue from Trumbull, Jones creates a vivid but far from perfect futuristic world.
Psychedelic sci-fi? Glam rock goes off-world? No: wordy and overwrought like a radio play in space.
Essentially a one-man, two character piece, "Moon" could be an old "Twilight Zone" episode nurtured into a feature.
A sad but clever science-fiction exercise about a man working alone on the Moon, with nothing but a talking computer and tape-recorded calls back to Earth to keep him sane.
A throwback to the relatively thoughtful, adult-oriented science-fiction films that briefly were in vogue in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Moon is closer to what die-hards expect when they hear the term 'sci-fi,' and its existence reminds us that serious movies within this genre are not dead -- they're just hiding.
[Duncan Jones] sets out to reclaim the humanity in a genre that's been overtaken by special effects and the opportunity to spin-off toys and videogames. He succeeds.
This excellent little science fiction film is a welcome throwback to an earlier era, when filmmakers used the canvas afforded by outer space and/or the future to explore ideas about the human condition.
This is a defiantly British film. It’s one we can be proud of – in moderation.
What is better than a film starring Sam Rockwell? How about a film starring two Sam Rockwells! That do it for you? Because it did it for me.
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...
A heartfelt, if self-consciously derivative drama of human loneliness.
An exquisite gem of a science-fiction picture... pitched squarely at the patient, intelligent adults in the audience who want to have a good think.
Astutely imagined as a futuristic thriller with formidable impact--a dark and well thought out moonscape in what we may hope is pure fantasy.
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?
A compelling low-budget sci-fi drama about a lonely astronaut on the moon who faces one conundrum after another as he tries to cope with the changes in his life and destiny.
There's a marvelous sense of isolation in the picture's cold, aloof setting and classical, still frames.
Latest News for Moon
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...
July 20, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with Duncan Jones
Duncan Jones has done the impossible -- tell a smart, engaging and entertaining sci-fi story on a modest budget. In Britain. As his debut feature film. No wonder everyone's... More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 83% 83% | The Princess and the Frog | 12/11 |
| 83% 83% | A Single Man | 12/11 |
| 64% 64% | The Lovely Bones | 12/11 |
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| | Avatar | 12/18 |
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