I should be grateful that Tommy Lee Jones' gruff demeanor did not allow him to become one of our major 1980's action heroes. On the other hand, he was the opposite of the testosterone-fueled mechanics of Schwarzenegger and Stallone and closer to the brains of a Bruce Willis-type as in "Die Hard." "Black Moon Rising" is technically more a Michael Mann wannabe thriller like "Thief" except it is too silly and harebrained to be that. Still, Jones gives this semi-taciturn antihero a chance to be somewhat heroic and it is jolly good fun to see him try.
Tommy Lee Jones is Quint, a thief on the verge of retirement who's hired by the FBI to steal a computer disk containing vital information. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong as Quint faces some corporate minions led by Lee Ving - it is a performance that just screams EVIL with those arched eyebrows and you just know that this guy relishes violence for violence's sake. For some inexplicable reason that maybe co-writer John Carpenter is aware of, Quint is on the run from these guys and places the disk in the rear end of a supersonic car known as the Black Moon that runs at incredible speeds (a car that Buckaroo Banzai might have had a field day with)! This leads to Linda Hamilton as a master car thief working for a stolen car syndicate bigwig played with steely calmness by Robert Vaughn. The syndicate is of interest because it is inside one of two largely unoccupied skyscrapers. How will Quint get the disk when surveillance cameras are at every corner of the buildings? Will Hamilton's character who doesn't trust Vaughn assist Quint? Have you seen any movies before?
"Black Moon Rising" is an often thrilling muscle car movie with a fiery engine and a sheen to it - it is almost noirish in its deep shadows, and in some of its unsettling rooms and empty underground garages (Hamilton's home could use a little more lighting so she doesn't trip over anything). Although there were lost opportunities to explore some of the characters beyond cursory motivations, "Black Moon Rising" never stops for long before some high-grade action scene occurs. Quint gets into bloody bare knuckle fights, chases Hamilton who steals the Black Moon car, investigates the skyscraper's geography, climbs a suspended rope between the buildings. and always flashes his wide grin when he needs to. It is an unusual action entertainment that is nowhere near the level of 1981's "Thief" but I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy it.
