Matt does what Neil Armstrong didn't... he makes a return trip to MOON!
The best isolation movie I've seen in a long, long while, and possibly the best movie of 2009 to deal with the human condition, comes to Blu-Ray DVD.
Moon, which I saw during it's limited U.K. run in the Summer and for the second time this morning with the newly released Blu-Ray transfer, is the best isolation movie I've seen in a long, long while, and possibly the best movie of 2009 to deal with the human condition. At least that I've seen so far. It's rival in that regard is Up but Moon is more consistent with the theme, more gut-wrenching at it's big pay-off moments. It's a certain future classic. The movie that all those who reacted favourably to Sunshine two years ago thought Danny Boyle's movie would end up being until it's third act crippled the greatness of the first two. No such foul up's here. 
A Criterion collection style cover design from Sony Pictures Classic. Great job! I didn't review Moon when I saw it during my July screening. I think I mentioned a few times in passing how much I enjoyed it, but Moon is a tough sci-fi drama to review because you can't really talk an awful lot about the main body of it for fear of spoilers. I've noticed that a lot of my blogging peers decided to take exactly the same position as I did out of respect to the fantastic film, and most that did review it, kind of tip-toed around a lot of the second and third act. So I'll review what I can but my apologies if I'm not talking enough about the film itself, but I assure you, it's for your own good. 
Sam Rockwell, always a guy to play it a little off colour, a little odd and not quite there with an audacious take on a character... gives his greatest performance to date. Sam Rockwell, in a part that was written specifically for him, plays Sam Bell, an astronaut living in isolation on the far side of the moon. He is two weeks shy of completing his three-year contact with the mining company Lunar Industries, who in this near future is the primary source of energy for Earth. His job is mundane and could almost be done by a machine (he doesn't actually do any mining) but his human instinct is important if something goes wrong or needs fixing, as he can be trusted to get it back up and running again. The live feed with base went a long time ago and only taped messages from his superiors or his loving wife, is all he has for communication. He is all alone out there, except for Gerty, his computer pal voiced by Kevin Spacey. He starts seeing things, hallucinations of figures and he becomes paranoid. He's only a few weeks short from getting out of there but we aren't sure if he's gonna make it. That's as much as I'll say about the plot itself. 
I expected Rockwell to be an unreliable narrator throughout Moon, but that's not quite how this movie rolls. Strikingly similar to when it dawned on us that no movies had been made specifically about the Sun before Danny Boyle's Sunshine, it's more than a little astonishing that we haven't really seen the Moon, a place where man has actually stepped foot, used as an important setting for space fiction. Especially when compared to the amount of intergalactic war stories, alien invasion flicks, or even tales of Mars exploration we have seen over the years. I'm pretty sure Kirk and Spock didn't visit the Moon. Star Trek, a saga birthed in the 60s at a time when men were looking at the Moon and Kennedy was telling the world it was possible to put a man up there, remarkably never ventured there. It's almost as if our personal connection to the Moon, a place that in atmospheric terms is in standing reach of us, has meant only biopics (Apollo 13) or true documentaries with NASA astronauts have been allowed, and no-one could bare make something that feels so romantically real to us, as a work of fiction. Or is it that most people find it a lonely, cold and grey place and it's too boring and since the late 60s, since the post-Kennedy years, it's just not relevant to us anymore. It's Mars, aliens or nothing for us now. Who needs the Moon? Been there... done that. 
Moon's drop-dead gorgeous production design and photography is spectacular on Blu-Ray. That is until the aptly titled Moon but even then, it's very much a human drama and the emotional weight we have to the Moon, plays a part in this. The film is minimalist in it's use of futuristic technology. Moon with the exceptions of a few things, feels like it could happen within a couple of years. Miniatures are used wherever possible, there's limited CGI. It feels part retro/part futuristic, which is exactly what the future is likely to be. It's uses real sets, real tangible vehicles and interiors. Something we haven't seen in this genre since the 70s. First time director Duncan Jones, with a background in commercial film-making was only given a $5 million budget, meaning not only wouldSam Rockwell (the film's only star) have to work for but everything was going to be scaled back. But in reading interviews and seeing his final product, I think Jones wanted it this way. He wanted to be tested to be resourceful. He wanted to be pushed to see what the most he could make out of the little things he had at his disposal. The athestic throwback quality to the kind of movie made in the 70s and 80s in this genre was exactly what he was aiming for. It's a throwback to a different movie making era. A time when space wasn't cluttered with warp speed and thousands of different species and alien races and languages. This is the era of Alien ("in space, no-one can hear you scream") or Silent Running (one man show). It takes a big chunk out of Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey in it's brightly white production design, slow-burning and methodically paced mood, it's ambitious virtuoso nature and the relationship between a lonely human and a computer companion. No-one can deny that Gerty is very much a cousin of Hal and Kevin Spacey is mischievously using that famous sinister voice This is the lonely side of space. The one that drove Donatas Banionis and later George Clooney absolutely insane. It's a film where space is used purely to heighten the claustrophobic, and helplessness of Sam Rockwell's psychological journey. It's stunning on Blu-Ray and has a nice set of extra's including two audio commentaries and some cool Q & A's from the Sundance Premiere and also a NASA screening!! It's out today and a must buy.
A Criterion collection style cover design from Sony Pictures Classic. Great job! I didn't review Moon when I saw it during my July screening. I think I mentioned a few times in passing how much I enjoyed it, but Moon is a tough sci-fi drama to review because you can't really talk an awful lot about the main body of it for fear of spoilers. I've noticed that a lot of my blogging peers decided to take exactly the same position as I did out of respect to the fantastic film, and most that did review it, kind of tip-toed around a lot of the second and third act. So I'll review what I can but my apologies if I'm not talking enough about the film itself, but I assure you, it's for your own good. Sam Rockwell, always a guy to play it a little off colour, a little odd and not quite there with an audacious take on a character... gives his greatest performance to date. Sam Rockwell, in a part that was written specifically for him, plays Sam Bell, an astronaut living in isolation on the far side of the moon. He is two weeks shy of completing his three-year contact with the mining company Lunar Industries, who in this near future is the primary source of energy for Earth. His job is mundane and could almost be done by a machine (he doesn't actually do any mining) but his human instinct is important if something goes wrong or needs fixing, as he can be trusted to get it back up and running again. The live feed with base went a long time ago and only taped messages from his superiors or his loving wife, is all he has for communication. He is all alone out there, except for Gerty, his computer pal voiced by Kevin Spacey. He starts seeing things, hallucinations of figures and he becomes paranoid. He's only a few weeks short from getting out of there but we aren't sure if he's gonna make it. That's as much as I'll say about the plot itself. I expected Rockwell to be an unreliable narrator throughout Moon, but that's not quite how this movie rolls. Strikingly similar to when it dawned on us that no movies had been made specifically about the Sun before Danny Boyle's Sunshine, it's more than a little astonishing that we haven't really seen the Moon, a place where man has actually stepped foot, used as an important setting for space fiction. Especially when compared to the amount of intergalactic war stories, alien invasion flicks, or even tales of Mars exploration we have seen over the years. I'm pretty sure Kirk and Spock didn't visit the Moon. Star Trek, a saga birthed in the 60s at a time when men were looking at the Moon and Kennedy was telling the world it was possible to put a man up there, remarkably never ventured there. It's almost as if our personal connection to the Moon, a place that in atmospheric terms is in standing reach of us, has meant only biopics (Apollo 13) or true documentaries with NASA astronauts have been allowed, and no-one could bare make something that feels so romantically real to us, as a work of fiction. Or is it that most people find it a lonely, cold and grey place and it's too boring and since the late 60s, since the post-Kennedy years, it's just not relevant to us anymore. It's Mars, aliens or nothing for us now. Who needs the Moon? Been there... done that. Moon's drop-dead gorgeous production design and photography is spectacular on Blu-Ray. That is until the aptly titled Moon but even then, it's very much a human drama and the emotional weight we have to the Moon, plays a part in this. The film is minimalist in it's use of futuristic technology. Moon with the exceptions of a few things, feels like it could happen within a couple of years. Miniatures are used wherever possible, there's limited CGI. It feels part retro/part futuristic, which is exactly what the future is likely to be. It's uses real sets, real tangible vehicles and interiors. Something we haven't seen in this genre since the 70s. First time director Duncan Jones, with a background in commercial film-making was only given a $5 million budget, meaning not only wouldSam Rockwell (the film's only star) have to work for but everything was going to be scaled back. But in reading interviews and seeing his final product, I think Jones wanted it this way. He wanted to be tested to be resourceful. He wanted to be pushed to see what the most he could make out of the little things he had at his disposal. The athestic throwback quality to the kind of movie made in the 70s and 80s in this genre was exactly what he was aiming for. It's a throwback to a different movie making era. A time when space wasn't cluttered with warp speed and thousands of different species and alien races and languages. This is the era of Alien ("in space, no-one can hear you scream") or Silent Running (one man show). It takes a big chunk out of Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey in it's brightly white production design, slow-burning and methodically paced mood, it's ambitious virtuoso nature and the relationship between a lonely human and a computer companion. No-one can deny that Gerty is very much a cousin of Hal and Kevin Spacey is mischievously using that famous sinister voice This is the lonely side of space. The one that drove Donatas Banionis and later George Clooney absolutely insane. It's a film where space is used purely to heighten the claustrophobic, and helplessness of Sam Rockwell's psychological journey. It's stunning on Blu-Ray and has a nice set of extra's including two audio commentaries and some cool Q & A's from the Sundance Premiere and also a NASA screening!! It's out today and a must buy.