Operation Avalanche

— Good idea, not so great execution. A couple of college film geeks who are recruited by the CIA in 1967 find out Apollo 11 can’t land on the moon. Rather than lose the space race to the Russians, they put forward a plan to shoot footage of a fake landing that can be transmitted back to earth from an orbiting Apollo 11 for the evening news to report. Thus is born the ”one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” hoax of the century. The film has a distinctly amateur feel to its camerawork and editing, although I'm not sure if the effect was intentional. It’s sort of like watching an SNL skit that's too long and never really hits the mark, partly because it insists on paying homage to “Blair Witch”. The devolution of the two main characters’ friendship is much more interesting than the fake moon landing itself. After the audience is privy to the crux of the story, there’s just not much else to the film--it's probably one I should have skipped.

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[2016. 94 min. Directed by Matt Johnson. Starring Matt Johnson, Owen Williams, and Josh Boles.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/operation-avalanche-2016