Combining the overused found-footage formula with the old conspiracy theory that the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing was faked, Matt Johnson's low-budget film is moderately amusing. Johnson stars along with Owen Williams (both characters have the actors' real names) as a pair of low-level CIA interns—recruited out of Ivy League universities—who are assigned to infiltrate NASA in 1967 in the guise of a civilian film crew. Matt and Owen's mission: discover the identity of a mole who is supposedly passing secrets to the Soviets. Their phone taps reveal that the chiefs of the space program have determined that there are irresolvable technical problems that will prevent landing men on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth by the end of the decade. So the head honchos come up with a plan to steal cinematic innovations that Stanley Kubrick has devised—with NASA's help—to make 2001: A Space Odyssey in order to shoot a phony moonwalk that can be beamed back to Earth from a spacecraft that will never actually reach the lunar surface. There is some humor in the low-tech efforts of these bumbling wannabe spies—as well as an imaginative sequence that integrates real footage of Kubrick into the action. But an attempt to add suspense to the otherwise comic tale by switching gears towards the close ultimately sends the film off the rails. Operation Avalanche might have worked as a short sketch, but at feature-length it overstays its welcome. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)
Operation Avalanche
Lionsgate, 94 min., R, DVD: $19.99 Volume 32, Issue 2
Operation Avalanche
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