In London, 1969, things seem complicated in front of the CIA agent and director of the rock band. This person is trying to find a way to juggle the landing on the moon because he has not actually succeeded in locating the legendary Stanley Kubrick.
Director Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, who devised the story, is dazzled by period style and puerile jokes, but nothing lands as especially funny, merely tired.
The whole thing has a retro swinging 60s vibe that I enjoyed. The actors all commit to both the lunacy on screen and its premise, and the result is a good natured and entertaining film.
Playing a psychedelic Swinging Sixties riff on the notion that Stanley Kubrick faked the Apollo moon landings for NASA, Moonwalkers concocts a goofy slapstick scenario out of the famous conspiracy theory.
Rupert Grint earns a few chuckles throughout, as do a handful of the supporting players, but ultimately Moonwalkers feels a whole lot like a funny idea that never got fleshed out beyond its second act.
Bardou-Jacquet cut his teeth on adverts and music videos, and it shows; he gets an A for visuals and "groovy" set design, but a D for plotting, dialogue and the ability to milk a scene for a joke.
Tarantino on acid subversive sixties stoner satire. But a combo ballsy big screen intersection of politics, publicity and propaganda that couldn't be more provocatively in the here and now concerning truth in movies and the media - if there ever was any.
Along with a lot of laughs, Moonwalkers offers a lovingly critical take on pop culture, touching on themes of patriotism and film industry pomp, without getting cynical.
It's all good English fun, full of drugs, brutality, and general late-'60s decadence. It's also weirdly slack for such an insane ride, as if director Antoine Bardou-Jacquet was afraid he might get in the way of Dean Craig's splendid story.
