Conspiracy theories are fun. Short of the JFK assassination, I suppose few conspiracy theories have gotten the same level of insane conjecture as the idea that the United States never landed on the moon. One of the more amusing theories out there is that the American government, impressed with the level of detail in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, brought famed director Stanley Kubrick in to record a bogus video to disseminate to the masses as proof of our "accomplishment". MOONWALKERS, an independent black comedy from 2015, decided to take this concept and have fun with it. The movie is set during Apollo 11's approach to the moon. The American government wants to cover all its bases and have a Plan B in the event that something goes wrong. The CIA sends one of its agents, Kidman (Ron Perlman), to England with the plan of hiring Kubrick for the top-secret project but, thanks to unfortunate circumstances, he's mistakenly introduced to the manager of a failing rock band, Jonny (Rupert Grint). Seeing Kidman's suitcase full of cash, Jonny lies and promises to deliver Kubrick (in the form of his perpetually-stoned friend Leon, played by Robert Sheehan). By the time Kidman becomes wise to Jonny's lies, the money is gone and time is running out. Now Kidman and Jonny must work together to create believable moon landing footage while under the watchful eye of the CIA and the vengeful crosshairs of a disgruntled English mob boss. Prepare for drugs, hippies, and gratuitous violence.Unfortunately, the biggest sham sold to the audience isn't that the moon landing was fake but that MOONWALKERS is a comedy. I've watched it again only just recently and I can't bring a single moment to mind where I honestly laughed. Maybe a chuckle here or there, but never a laugh and rarely a smile. It's just not that funny. Most attempts at humor in MOONWALKERS goes for the low-hanging fruit. The easy laughs. Leon's too nervous to pretend he's Kubrick. What's that? He's hyperventilating into a paper bag? No, he's huffing glue. Jonny freaks out that he's getting high before their big moment and tries to rejuvenate him by literally shoveling cocaine up his nose. Then we have the easy "fish out of water" gags where the stern, no-nonsense Kidman is forced into a situation where he's surrounded by free-spirited hippies. It's mostly an excuse for loads of nudity and people acting dopey while Kidman glares at them sternly. The director Jonny scores for the moon project is a German diva named Renatus whose latest accomplishment is slow-motion footage of a fat man jumping on a trampoline. It took him three years to complete. See? Laughs galore. There's nothing really clever in the attempts at humor in this movie. It all feels like cheap stereotypes we've seen hundreds of times before. The "black" in this black comedy are the occasional bouts of graphic violence that pop up randomly to spoil the cheerful vibes of this hippie crew of fools.You see Kidman suffers from pretty severe PTSD. The very first scene of the movie is a flashback dream of Kidman in the jungles of Vietnam. He suffers from hallucinations of his mutilated friends and enemies from the war. He's haunted by the fact that he's an incredibly effective killing machine. So where trouble rears its ugly head, Kidman is there to bash its face in with a shovel (or his fist or whatever he's got handy). This brutal violence feels incredibly out of place in what otherwise is a relatively harmless, light-hearted hippie comedy and it's a little jarring every time it comes to pass. It feels like MOONWALKERS doesn't know what it wants to be. The tones clash. For an example of this sort of black action/comedy done better, go watch American ULTRA. This one seems to take the safe route through the comedy while ramping up the violence with the occasional exploding head. If I were to call out a single scene that might've bored me less than the rest of the movie, it'd be the obligatory acid sequence. You can't have a hippie movie without someone mistakenly dosed with LSD and that someone in this case is Kidman. It's always interesting to see how the director visualizes an acid trip and, despite everything MOONWALKERS does that falls short, I actually liked this sequence. So if you've got low expectations and some time to kill, throw on MOONWALKERS to watch Rupert Grint stumble in his post-Harry Potter career and Ron Perlman collect a paycheck,

This is really a brilliant concept, but lacks the production quality since it is a small budget film. At least they got some decent actors where Ron Perlman and Rupert Grint led it with full responsibility. The story of a CIA agent Kidman, who was sent to London to make some fake video clips of moon landing from a renowned filmmaker when pentagon thought the NASA mission might fail. But he meets the wrong men and loses the money. Now he got no time, but to find a quick solution and accomplish his mission, where some fun filled adventures follows in the remaining narration.It is a French production, almost everything shot in England in the English language, but there is a bit of American flavour in it. Based on the speculation on the Apollo 11 mission, but it never took seriously on that topic, other than narrating humorously. Only the theme was new, but most of the jokes weren't. Overall, an average film, directed by some totally unknown guy, but as a B movie, it is acceptable. If you know what kind of film you're about see and anticipate according to that, then the time you spend for it won't end badly, except you're not going to give it a perfect score.5/10

Review: What a waste of time! The concept was completely ridiculous and Ron Perlman looked really out of place throughout the movie. Perlman plays a CIA Agent, Kidman, who has to pay Stanley Kubrick loads of money to fake humans landing on the moon, just in case the real event goes wrong. When he goes to Kubricks office, he bumps into Jonny, Rupert Grint, who is a broke manager of a rock band, and he explains the whole scenario to him, so Jonny uses his friend, Leon (Robert Sheehan), to pose as Kubrick, so they can get the money. After making a successful transaction, the debt collectors turn up at Jonny's house and they take the case of cash, which leaves Jonny in a bit of a pickle. On top of that, Kidman finds out that Jonny and Leon was lying, so they have to retrieve the money from the gangsters so they can make the film. Kidman uses his militant skills to get the money back but they still have the problem about making the film. Jonny then uses his contacts to make the film but they now have the mob on there tale and pressure from the agency, who needs the film before the event. Sounds interesting but it really wasn't! The comedy was silly more than funny and a lot of the characters became annoying after a while. The best thing in this film is Ron Perlman, who cracked me up when he was on acid but the movie really was a disaster right from the beginning. Rupert Grint was a bad choice for the lead and the vibrate, 60's theme, looked awful. Every character looked like they were high on drugs and the violence seemed way over the top. Anyway, the whole Moonwalkers experience was a waste of time and money and I'm not surprised that it didn't get a major release. Bad!Round-Up: After the popular Harry Potter franchise, Rupert Grint, 27, hasn't really had a successful career but his voice has been used in an episode of American Dad, Postman Pat and the Unbeatables, so he has a little to be thankful for. He had a cameo role in the Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman alongside Shia LaBeouf and he had a role in CBGB and Cross of Honour but that's about it. I did find him pretty annoying in this movie but that's mainly down to the awful concept and ridiculous script. Anyway, this is the first movie directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, who really did make a right mess of things. I also found it quite insulting that they were using the late, Stanley Kubricks name in such a silly way and I was surprised that his loved ones allowed it. If there is anyone out there that liked this movie, please tell me why because I was really disappointed.I recommend this movie to people who are into their comedies starring Rupert Grint, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Eric Lampaert, Kevin Bishop, Jay Benedict and James Cosmo. 2/10

Having no idea what this film was about, I decided to watch it on Netflix last night. I was absolutely blown away by how funny and original this movie is. It's probably one of the best comedies of the decade. Rupert Grint has only starred in so few movies after Harry Potter, but this movie proves he could be on top of the box office like Radcliffe and Watson. The plot is based on the moon landing conspiracies. Jonny is a unsuccessful band manager who is in deep trouble with a crime boss. When CIA Agent and Haunted Vietnam Fighter Kidman mistakes him for Stanley Kubrick's agent, he gets them to make a fake moon landing movie that would be shown live on TV. The money is stolen and Kidman teams up with Jonny and his drugged up pal Leon to make that fake moon landing film. The genius of Moonwalkers is it's atmosphere. The highly hostile and dangerous British Environment makes for some actual funny jokes and absolutely fun characters. The characters don't just develop, they grow. Kidman and Jonny are great to be around and have huge development leaps in characters. The other characters like Renatus, an art house film director are significant and hilarious. Leon is one of the best characters in the movie especially in the climax of the film when they are shooting the fake moon landing. This also happens to be a black comedy filled with heads exploding from sawed off shotguns, teeth being broken, many violent outbursts from Kidman and a violent climax that is nearly perfect. The movie is filled with surprises and laughs. Moonwalkers could become The Rocky Horror Picture Show of it's time if it was marketed better, had a wide release and had more critical praise. It's destined for a cult following.95/100 A