Watch Black Moon Rising For Free

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

If Linda Hamilton and Tommy Lee had an emotional outburst in a forest, would it make a noise? Tommy Lee and his wooden acting is wonderful. I feel the same way about Clint Eastwood. Heck, those two could switch acting roles and nobody would know the difference.Linda Hamilton is another story. Usually a woman needs acting skills or some kind of sex appeal to make it in Hollywood. Hamilton proves the exception. Whether happy, sad, angry, or upset, she sticks with the tight lipped grimace of a hemorrhoid sufferer.Tommy Lee was 40, and had already perfected his acting style of using either a conversational and controlled voice or a slightly louder controlled voice. If he ever plays a robot, they won't have to coach him very much.The plot is pretty non-existent, even for a Tommy Lee movie. The best thief in the world is running away with his loot and comes upon the best car in the world. At the same time, he meets the best auto thief in the world. Tommy, in his wisdom as the best thief in the world, believes that the best place to stash his loot is in a car that is constantly being worked on by a team of engineers. Luckily, the best thief in the world is able to do this because the best car in the world is being hauled around in a crappy little trailer with a tarp. Tommy Lee even gets caught doing it, but they just let him go because, hey, he was just looking.They did throw in some very old actors: Jaeckel, Vaughn, Wynn, Cassavettes. Tommy Lee at 40 was the youngest by far. Hamilton was only 30, and must have had a Daddy complex.I love Tommy Lee when he is directed the same way you direct Eastwood and Lee van Cleef. Have them deliver fewer lines than anybody else, but have them dominate with their controlled, emotionless delivery. That didn't happen here. They didn't capitalize on Tommy Lee's one dimensionality to good advantage.I believe the director was trying to emphasize Tommy Lee's acting chops by having him appear in scenes with Bubba Smith. Bubba is a nice guy in real life, but he rarely contributes more to a scene than what could be provided by, say, a wall or coffee maker. Bubba appears almost exclusively in movies in which something heavy has to be picked up.Overall, the best scenes are those that involve Tommy Lee and none of the other principal actors. In those scenes, Tommy Lee looks like the future Tommy Lee.The movie loses points with the love scene, although it does keep your interest for much the same reason as why people slow down at auto accidents with burned corpses and severed heads. Ya just gotta look, even though you know the images will haunt you.See this movie if you want to see Tommy Lee have a good scene now and then.See this movie if you think an action movie should be full of pudgy old men.See this movie if you think women shouldn't be so emotional.See this movie if you think big-time industrial bad guys should only pack one gun for three guys. My crazy Uncle Ned would pick up a hammer now and then and bang himself in the head over and over. When asked why, he said because it felt so good when he stopped.Uncle Ned watches this movie.

Black Moon Rising starts in Nevada in Las Vegas where professional thief for hire Sam Quint (Tommy Lee Jones) is on a job for the US Government, Quint has been hired to break into the Dollar Corporation headquarters & steal certain tax records on a tape that will implicate the company in tax evasion & other criminal activities. Quint breaks into the Dollar Corporation building but sets off the alarms, Quint manages to steal the tape & escape but head of security Marvin Ringer (Lee Ving) & his guards are hot on his tail. Needing to get back to Los Angeles to deliver the tape Quint stops off at a gas station & hides the tape inside a futuristic car capable of speeds in excess of 300mph called the Black Moon that is being driven to Los Angeles to show potential investors, however things become complicated when the Black moon is stolen by car thief Nina (Linda Hamilton) who works for mobster Ed Ryland (Robert Vaughn). On the run from his Government employers, Marvin & his men Quint must get the car & tape back the hard way...Directed by Harley Cokliss this supposed hi-tech action thriller was probably made because of screenwriter John Carpenter's new found success with films such as Halloween (1978) & The Fog (1980), Black Moon Rising was in fact Carpenter's first script that he ever sold but it remained unmade until he had several hits under his belt & although the finished film apparently has little resemblance to his original script (Qunit was going to be a Vietnam Vet for instance) he also takes an executive producer credit here as well. Although often billed as a hi-tech thriller & even named after the hi-tech car the Black Moon the script surprisingly ignores the super futuristic car for the majority & has it sit idly in Ryland's compound doing absolutely nothing until the final fifteen minutes. Between the start & end it's a fairly plodding thriller as Quint plans a daring raid on Ryland's tower's to steal the car back as well as the subplot about the race to get the stolen tape back & an expected blossoming romance between leading man Tommy Lee Jones & leading lady Linda Hamilton. At almost 100 minutes long the pace is decent enough & there are a few entertaining set-pieces but the lack of Black Moon super car action doesn't help, also the script is rather predictable with all the heroes & villains identified early on. There aren't any twist's or turns or major revelations the way the plot unfolds & for a thriller that is sort of lazy. The character's are alright, Quint is a likable enough hero although strangely he never gets to meet the main villain Ryland. A few poorly written subplots muddy things a bit, the associate that Ryland has killed, the car stealing racket goes nowhere, the two tower's & Ryland's plans are briefly mentioned but never developed neither are Quint's relationship to Marvin or Iron John & the death of the deaf guy is barely mentioned again after it happened.Maybe the popularity of the TV series Knight Rider (1982-1986) also helped get Black Moon Rising into production & made, the sleek looking black car isn't a million miles off Kitt in appearance although I don't get why it doesn't have any doors & any driver's & passenger's have to climb in through a hole in the roof! Also it has a turbo mode that makes flames shoot from the exhaust, would flames shooting from the exhaust really make any practical difference in terms of speed? Or maybe the makers just thought it looked cool. The Black Moon car is very 80's actually & quite angular & clumsy looking with a red 'go faster' stripe that runs right around it's body. There are a few decent action set-pieces including a car chase through Los Angeles, a scene in which Quint uses a rope to get from one high rise tower to another from the roof, various other car stunts & some good fights & brawl's. There's not much violence & the sex scene is quite tame.Probably shot on a fairly decent budget the production values are nice enough, the special effects are good as is the stunt work. The acting is alright too, apparently Jeff Bridges, Don Johnson, Tom Berenger & Richard Dean Anderson were all considered for the leading role that eventually went to Oscar winning actor Tommy Lee Jones who at the time was an unknown. Fresh from The Terminator (1984) Linda Hamilton puts in a good performance here actually.Black Moon Rising is an entertaining enough way to pass 100 odd minutes, it looks a little dated & the lack of action involving the Black Moon car is surprising but it has it moments without ever being brilliant.

This is a film with complex plot and action, and a great deal of tension. Tommy Lee Jones is a better action hero than most because he actually knows how to show a bit of emotion on his face, which is not a common attribute for some of his rivals on the screen. In fact, he seems human, which action heroes are not supposed to be, as they are mostly meant to be either comic book types or robotic. An action hero who thinks and feels? Hardly likely! Wouldn't thinking and feeling get in the way of the action? So that more or less defines the genre. Action movies come in different grades: (1) more than 100 people get killed, (2) more than 20 get killed, (3) only 2 or 3 get killed, which is really too boring. Also: (1) more than two helicopters, (2) more than one helicopter, (3) only one helicopter (hopelessly low budget). Or: (1) more than 20 cars explode, (2) more than 10 cars explode, (3) forget it. Robert Vaughn (he with the missing 'a' in Vaughan) is superb as the sinister chief villain, an arrogant, rich and powerful mastermind of a massive car theft ring. There are some really brain-teasing aspects to this story of how to crack an uncrackable building, and some good scenes of crossing from one tower to another to gain access. A new type of super-car features in the story, wholly unconvincing automotively, but nevertheless a good story item, especially when its after-burner seems to enable it to drive through the windows of one tower and fly across and crash through the window of the adjoining tower. Pretty advanced stuff for the 1980s! This film still works, all these years later, which shows just how good it was and is. Harley Cokeliss helmed this thruster.

Nice little film this though some may disagree! Of course, I'm a fan of this kind of low-budget action/sci-fi fare, and the fact that John Carpenter wrote the screenplay is a bonus. While it does come across as a TV movie, or a pilot for a series that never was, it keeps rolling along with enough action to please the most hardened of late-night, post-pub film fan. It's funny how many programmes featured suped up vehicles in the 80's, and while Black Moon should be linked most closely to Knightrider, I think it has a lot more in common with Streethawk. Tommy-Lee Jones is excellent in the lead role and it's nice to see him in a younger incarnation, getting involved in all the gritty events.All in all, a good, hidden gem of a film. Give it a try!