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Moonbase (1997)

The most dangerous criminals in the universe escape from the Off-World Penitentiary and stow away to the quiet Moonbase Waste Disposal Plant. Hidden beneath the lunar surface lies an arsenal of nuclear warheads- the inmates’ passport home to earth. Moonbase Commander John Russell launches a desperate fight to save his crew from a force capable of laying waste to an entire planet.

I watched this movie last night and already I am struggling to recollect very much about it. The story is about a group of criminals who escape from a space penal colony. They fly to the Moon in a space-age dustbin carrier; when there, they terrorise the dustbin men who work on the Moonbase.

It strikes me that rubbish low-budget sci-fi films often involve either desert planets or, like this movie, criminals escaping from penal colonies. Why this is I have no idea. But I can say with some certainty that such films are always diabolical. This one is really no exception. It begins reasonably well with a decent credit sequence and a half-way alright dance music soundtrack. It then degenerates into a boring sci-fi thriller. So little of consequence actually happens in this movie that I am literally struggling to write a helpful review, so if you’re reading this I apologise for not being able to enlighten you to the film’s subtleties and nuances. For the record, I recall a tedious bunch of baddies, a tedious bunch of goodies, some nuclear warheads and a hologram of a naked woman. Other than that, I’m struggling.

If you feel you could be interested in the activities of lunar dustbin men then I would not hesitate to recommend this film. I would also recommend it to those of you who wish to send their friends to sleep and steal their wallets.