Plymouth (1991)

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The acting in this movie is really good.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Sometimes you come by a movie, that try to show how the world would look in the future. This story of "the first moon base" is moving in a gentle and realistic tempo. Its not an action movie, but tries to be a vision of how thing may be in the future. The style (cloth, hair, big head set, keyboards etc.) in the movie is typical 1990 - so it has this old time kind of look, but a part from that its a really enjoyable movie. So if you would like to see a (fairly) realistic vision of the future, you will enjoy this. As the title shows, this could be the story of an ordinary American mining city - just on the moon - with the twists in the plots that comes with it.

I thought that this was a well written movie, better than most made for TV sci-fi. I thought that it made living on the moon look very believable. I wish it would get released to DVD before something happens to my VHS copy.

Plymouth aired today (July 1, 2001) in the UK. Thought the premise sounded pretty dopey, but it wasn't too bad after all. All the way through it, I was thinking "Picket Fences in Space" and that's kind of what it turned into, but it was in no way offensive. I guess it was a pilot for a TV series, but if they ever made one, it never aired in UK. Dale Midkiff is suitably square-jawed as the hero, Gil. Great to see some sci-fi that doesn't have bumpy-headed aliens!

I saw this movie when it premiered because it looked like a change of pace from the usual TV-Movie. It turns out I was right. It is nothing amazing, but it is an inventive, diverting step u from the usual made for TV sci-fi garbage. Dale Midkiff is a winning hero, Joseph Gordon Levitt alludes to the range he would eventually show on 3rd Rock and in 10 Things I Hate About You. The whole package is nicely cheesy and boasts decent special effects. I wish this would get released to video or DVD so I could see it again. I overtaped my copy back in '98. Fun Movie 9/10