Moon 44 (1990)

An unconventional corporate agent is given the task of shaping a group of violent criminals and technical wizards into a helicopter defense force assigned to protect a mining station on a remote moon.

Director:

Roland Emmerich

Writers:

Dean Heyde (screenplay), Oliver Eberle (screenplay)

Stars:

Michael Paré, Lisa Eichhorn, Dean Devlin

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Paré	...	Felix Stone
Lisa Eichhorn	...	Terry Morgan
Dean Devlin	...	Tyler
Brian Thompson	...	Jake O'Neal
Malcolm McDowell	...	Major Lee
Stephen Geoffreys	...	Cookie
Leon Rippy	...	Master Sergeant Sykes
Jochen Nickel	...	Scooter Bailey
Mehmet Yilmaz	...	Marc (as Mechmed Yilmaz)
John March	...	Moose Haggerty
Drew Lucas	...	Riffle
David Williamson	...	Lt. Gallagher
Calvin Burke	...	Capt. Stojanowic
Andy Howarth	...	Guard Checkpoint
William Begatie	...	Pilot Taxi-Crane (as William Begatte)

Storyline

In 2038, Earth's mineral resources are drained, there are space fights for the last deposits on other planets and satellites. This is the situation when one of the bigger mining corporations has lost many mineral moons except one and many of their fully automatic mining robots are disappearing on their flight home. Since nobody else wants the job, they send prisoners as a last resort to defend the mining station. Among them, internal affairs agent Felix Stone, assigned to clear the whereabouts of the expensive robots. In an atmosphere of corruption, fear and hatred, Stone gets between the fronts of rivaling groups and locates the person committing sabotage.

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Plot Keywords:

planet | moon | robot | corruption | undercover agent | 

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Taglines:

CBS/Fox Video presents... A galactic adventure from the excitement zone! (Australian CBS/Fox Video trailer)

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Genres:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was Malcolm McDowell's second movie that had futuristic style attack helicopters and playing the villain role. The first movie was Blue Thunder (1983) which he also played as a villain.

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Goofs

It is interesting that the defense force on Moon 44 chose helicopters as their primary vehicle. Most planetary moons have very little atmosphere - an environment in which helicopters (which rely upon air/gases for their lift) would be completely useless. In a possible defense of the filmmakers, Moon 44's atmosphere is portrayed as dense and mist-like, possibly similar to that of Saturn's large moon, Titan, which could theoretically support aerodynamic flight.

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Quotes

Master Sergeant Sykes: You trying to be funny?
Tyler: No sir. If I say no, does that mean I'm not funny?
Master Sergeant Sykes: [shouts] No! You're not funny, I'm funny!

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Connections

Featured in Bad Movie Beatdown: Moon 44 (2011)

User Reviews

Give it a miss...

I'm suprised about the amount of positivity expressed towards this movie as it is quite poor. As a long standing SF fan I was looking forward to it, despite it's low budget and the fact that the director's subsequent movies have been less than satisfactory.

The good points: The special effects are reasonable (although not great) and the set designs are excellent (quite reminiscent of Alien.)

The bad points: Cliche after cliche hits you until you can't take it seriously. The handsome tough guy cop who smokes a cigarette out of the corner of his mouth. You'll hate this character unless you like one dimensional humourless carboard cut out stereotypes.

The muscle bound convicts who bully everyone else. IS this a prison for body builders or something?

The geeky computer wiz kids and their quirky humour. How we laughed.

The obvious 'good guy saves the day' ending.

Malcolm Mcdowell. Why does he take movies like this? Such a fine actor is wasted here.

The plot holes are too numerous to mention here but there are lots and lots - probably about 44.

There really isn't anything to like about this film apart from the average visuals.

I advise you to give this one a miss and pick up a very similar but far superiour movie called 'Outland' starring Sean Connery and directed by Peter Hyams.

Details

Country:

West Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 February 1990 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

Moon 44

Filming Locations:

Ennis House - 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

DEM7,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Centropolis Film Productions, Overseas FilmGroup

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1