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Parents' Guide to

Moonwalkers

By S. Jhoanna Robledo, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Graphic violence, lots of drugs in so-so black comedy.

Movie R 2016 107 minutes
Moonwalkers Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 17+

Based on 2 parent reviews

Springfield333
Springfield333 Adult
October 13, 2019
age 17+

This title has:

Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
Sam M.
Sam M. Parent of baby-year-old
April 18, 2016
age 17+

Could have been funnier and more impactful.

111 F words and 1 C--t. Lots of casual upper female nudity around an artists' mansion including 2 fully nude women covered in red paint rolling on a canvas tarp (breasts, rears, and pubic hair visible). Also psychedelic illustrations that show breats, butts and pubes. The films yitle is snorted like coke by an unseen entity. A junkie sniffs glue from a bag and immediately snorts coke off a car hood in close up. A film producer snorts coke in a couple of scenes. Several psychadelic drawings are seen with joints in mouth. A man accidentally takes LSD thinking its asprin and trips for an extended scene. The same man then takes a couple of bong hits afterwards. 2 comical shootouts with exagerated blood and gore. Both have a person who gets head blasted off with shotgun. The 1st is brief and quick, second is much goopier and close up (with a wrigling toungue). The later shooyout has more casualties and has blood stain the walls and floors in ample amounts. A bathroom breatdown has a man bashed into a sink till his teeth fall out (blows not seen, just bloody teeth) and a man on the floor beaten to a pulp until the attackers shirt is bloody (no blows shown). A man is hit with a shovel. A pile of swirly feces is seen on a record. Somewhere in this movie a more Britishy Big Lebowski-esque cult Black Comedy. Yet its characters and concept are dealt with in a very scattershot and uneven manner for the film to be memorable enough to be a cult classic. It has a novel plot concept with a coherent theme worth thinking about and the film goes for Guy Ritchie esque subtext with its madcap setup. However for a 90 minute film there are several scenes that should have been shorter and could have been replaced with different material to enhance the film. The CIA protagonists PTSD could have been used to greater effect, although he does have his moments. A number of the jokes run flat too. The movie also deoesnt seem to know what to do with half of its subplots which could have been clever if the filmmakers went all the way with them.
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Inspired by a long-running conspiracy theory, MOONWALKERS takes place just before the astronauts of Apollo 11 land on the moon -- and the United States is worried they might not make it. As a backup plan, the CIA sends Kidman (Ron Perlman), a Vietnam veteran and well-trained fighting machine, to London to hire legendary director Stanley Kubrick to secretly film a fake moon landing ... you know, just in case. But instead of Kubrick, Kidman ends up with struggling band manager Jonny (Rupert Grint) and Jonny's roommate Leon (Robert Sheehan), who looks enough like Kubrick to win them both the job. Now they just have to figure out a way to create footage of some fake astronauts, and it doesn't help that a very angry loan shark is looking for all of three of them.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (2 ):
Kids say: Not yet rated

Moonwalkers is silly enough and just possibly true enough to be entertaining, but there are caveats. First, the good: The setting, late-'60s London, makes for a joyful romp (kudos to set design). And Grint is amusing to watch in a movie that's not entrenched in wizardry (as beloved as the Harry Potter films are).

But here's the catch: Moonwalkers isn't that much fun. Tonally, it's all over the place, mixing dangerous violent mobsters with hi-jinks. Perlman's character is a former commando, and his motivations appear rooted in an enjoyment of various forms of brutality -- such as taking a shovel to a man's head or knocking a few teeth out of some unfortunate thug. Nobody in the film is very likable, and in the end, the promising premise of the making of a moon landing hoax is lost in the shuffle.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how Moonwalkers depicts 1969 London. Do you think the party scenes are exaggerated, or do you think that's what it was really like back then?

  • How are drinking and drug use portrayed? Are there any realistic consequences?

  • What role does violence play in this story? Does the comedic tone affect its impact? Why or why not?

  • Do you think there might be a shred of truth to this story? Why are conspiracy theories like the one behind this movie so persistent?

Movie Details

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