Moon is a movie everyone should see

It only makes divine sense that I review the movie Moon on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. Forty years ago today, at exactly this time (9:32 AM EDT), the Saturn 5 rocket carrying the Apollo 11 crew took off. I'm a space junkie - love everything about our space program - and I can't wait to get back to the moon.

So Moon... it's an awesome movie. It is seeing only limited release and is only playing in a small theater ("last theater on the left") at Baxter here in L'ville. Kelsey went with me to see it. I knew it was a bit of a mystery but had read no spoilers. I had only seen the trailer. She went into the movie completely cold.

It's not an alien movie and it's not a summer blockbuster yellin'-explodin'-cgi popcorn machine. The movie takes place in the near future and is about a guy who comprises of a one-man crew at a mining station harvesting Helium-3. When the movie utilizes music it is creepy. The base is worn, yet sterile - desolate yet oddly comfy. Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, the lone human on the mostly-automated station. Kevin Spacey lends his voice acting as Gerty, the AI robot on the base. And that's pretty much it. Rockwell is an acting dynamo in this film. I really only am familiar with one role he played, Zaphod Beeblebrox in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (although IMDB lists him in several movies I've seen), and no one should attempt to gauge his acting prowess from that over-the-top character.

I *really* can't go into the movie without giving too much away. Suffice to say, if you go, you will not be disappointed. It's better (and waaaaay smarter) than any summer movie I've seen this season. It keeps you guessing. It keeps you on your toes. You spend so much time waiting for "something" to happen and it doesn't. But the story takes you for a ride and leads you, eventually, to where you think it is going to go. Yet it isn't predictable.

It is rated R, but only because of some mild cursing and a little bloodshed and, I guess, a shot of Rockwell's butt. So go see it. Just go. It's an awesome movie and the "1" of the "1-2" punch duo of movies that I'm anxiously waiting to see this summer (The Hurt Locker being the "2").