Such a frustrating disappointment

Sorry, this movie sucks

People are voting emotionally.

Awesome Movie

I got to see this in a double bill with "Destination Moon" which at least had the benefit of gorgeous color and a Woody Woodpecker cartoon to make it rise above its dullness. All this has is a bunch of people running around in silly caps trying to get to the moon and suspecting somebody of being a saboteur. It is a silly compilation of a TV series that never made it on the air that looks as cheap on my TV screen as many of the early TV series that had amateurish photography, plain sets and uninteresting characters. In fact, it made "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look like an epic in comparison. Of the cast, the only name I recognized was Hayden Rourke ("I Dream of Jeanie" which was ironically about astronauts), and the rest of the cast is basically forgettable. There's not much action considering the supposed shell of a plotline, and at just over an hour, it ends up being a huge waste of time.

This film is about espionage! No wait, this film is about space travel! No, back to espionage! No, now it is about survival! Um, maybe it is a bout romance? Yes, this film that was featured on the show Mystery Science Theater was all over the place and it was only like a 62 minute movie! An early film about space travel featuring space stations, super secret bad guy organizations and two astronauts who dislike each other and then learn to fall in love with each other. Yes, the film is like part Bond film, part space adventure and part romantic comedy. It kind of makes a very strange mix up of a movie, but at the same time it is impressive that they managed to merge all three genres in such a short film.The story has an evil organization to start out with. Their plan is to find a scientist that will be sent to this space station and replace him with a look alike that can sabotage said station and take it down! Sounds right out of a Bond film doesn't it? Well, it predates every James Bond film so the people who made this one did not copy from the films, anyways. Well, a mission is going to be launched where a couple of astronauts are to fly around the moon and someone else is supposed to photo for some type of surveying mission as they want to place a base on the moon. The evil organization has its man and gets him into the mission; meanwhile, the pilot and copilot of this mission have grudges against each other, but chances are they secretly love each other as one is a female everyone calls Bright Eyes. They are on the station and you get to see lame effects before they end up stranded on the moon and this movie really moves by quick.This was a first season episode of MST3K and I generally find that the first season episodes are the weakest, but this one is okay. Once they get past the not one, but two Commander Cody shorts that precede this film. I was so getting tired of those things by the end of that season as so many of the first episodes featured them. The portion of the film that centered on the actual movie were pretty good as it was one of the fastest moving first season episodes ever! I think it had something to do with the nature of the film, it changed up so much that it felt fresh the entire time with very few repeated jokes.So, not a great film, but at least it moved at a very quick pace. Still cannot ignore the fact that after the one dude dies that the secret organization that seemed so important to the plot literally vanishes without a trace; however, that may be due to the fact that this was going to be a television series so perhaps they would have made their return. Then again, the thing almost seemed like a romantic comedy during the last portion so who knows what the direction they were going to go in if this thing had progressed further. I will say it did have a good plot for an adult film. Add another woman on the ship and perhaps some moon women and it would have been a wild time! I mean they were literally flying the ship from beds!

"Project Moonbase" doesn't attempt to act like a big-budget film, nor does it take its subject very seriously. In fact, I'm not sure what was going through the filmmakers' minds when they made this movie, but the end result is pretty bland, and it's to dull to be very funny.The film opens in the far-future year of 1970 as the "Enemies of Freedom" (guess who?) are plotting to place a spy aboard a U.S. space station. Ross Ford and Donna Martell play astronauts who are traveling to the moon, along with the "Enemy of Freedom" agent, who we know is a bad guy because he slouches and smokes cigarettes. The director inserts some very amusing sequences of space flight (with heavy sweating, facial contortions, and screaming) before final touchdown on the lunar surface. The "Enemy of Freedom" guy naturally does his spy thing and is caught and overcome, leaving Ford and Martell to fall in cosmic love. The happy couple is addressed by "Madame President" of the U.S., before a long-distance space wedding is conducted via viewscreen.About the best thing in this movie is perky Donna Martell, who deserves much better material. Otherwise, it's pretty standard, with rudimentary special effects and a pedestrian spy/love story thrown in for good measure. Hayden Rorke is about the only recognizable person in the cast, and he gives an excruciatingly overbearing performance as a military general. The idea of a female president is novel for the early 1950s, but it's way too little, too late, to save this turkey of a film. One question I do have—during space flight, why does Ford grimace, howl and yowl at the top of his lungs and sweat profusely, while Martell just looks lovely—with no sweat?

What you would think of this film depends entirely upon your own sense of humor. As pointed out ad nauseum by other reviewers, this was the subject of a skewering by "Mystery Science Theater 3000", and there is no reason why you can't watch and enjoy it just as much supplying your own wisecracks in place of those of the MST3K's writers. A true campfest, it clearly wasn't intended to be taken entirely seriously even when it was first released in 1953. It is certainly as amusing as anything you are likely to see on "David Letterman." It is also interesting for what it reveals about 1950's conceptions of the future and the science and technology of space travel (this four years before ANY satellite had ever been launched) in comparison with what we now take for granted at this late date of 2008, as well as the way in which science fiction was expected to be portrayed at that time (when technical theorizing and "gee-whiz" gadgetry were about mandatory in the genre -- just check out the cordless telephones!), even apart from the more obvious social commentary it provides.Thus, while judging it as a serious effort might rate two stars or so, for more lighthearted viewers you can probably bump that up to as high as a six, if not even higher if this kind of thing is just what you are in the mood for. In that regard, I have to wonder how many people under 40 would really appreciate it.