A scene from SPEED TRAIN. Courtesy of Level 33 Entertainment
It’s been just over 30 years since Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves found themselves trapped in a bus that couldn’t go slower than 55 without going BOOM! in the original SPEED. Since then, there have been a ton of movies based on comparable perils in every sort of public transportation vehicle, with the possible exception of pedicabs and rickshaws (no one could cover EVERY action movie from Asia). The title of SPEED TRAIN tells you most of what to expect.
In a high-tech near future, featuring rapid rail transit and brain implants that can enhance all sorts of learning and functions, we meet a bunch of people in a mostly talky first half hour. One car on this train’s maiden voyage (Do trains have voyages? If not, insert your own alternative noun.) contains shackled violent prisoners being shipped to the death chamber. The rest are occupied by the usual assortment of random civilians, with focus on a pair of cheerleading coaches and their two captains heading for a big competition.
Unbeknownst to all is that Loklin (Louis Mandylor) designed much of that tech, but got shafted on the many millions he should have received. He’s set up a high-priced pay-to-play game, in which rich jerks can remotely control the body of a designated prisoner, who is let loose to fight or kill anyone in their path. He’s also taken command of the train, speeding it up to Doomsday velocity as it crosses the country.
The degree of harm the thugs and their masters do is surprisingly limited by unexpected fighting skills among the regular passengers – especially the cheer coach who is ex-military (Scout Taylor-Compton) and an Interpol agent with family problems. The players aren’t all that interesting, but the action is first-rate. Plenty of hand-to-hand mayhem and bloodshed. Louis Mandylor is a hard sell as a Lex Luthor-level genius, but he does well showing the deranged evil side of his character.
A side note you may also find interesting. I grew curious after seeing Louis in a lot of films lately. He’s a year younger than his brother, Costas. Both have around 170 screen credits, and 17 or 18 awards and nominations for their work. Costas has more total screen time, since one of his credits was for 88 episodes of the fine TV series “Picket Fences.” Louis’ resume includes more off-screen activity, with 13 gigs as director and 16 as a producer. Their family gatherings must a hoot of (I hope) friendly competition.
The performances are competent. Production values are laudable, with appealing sets and graphics keeping the confined setting from feeling claustrophobic. The script falls short on developing personalities for empathy, and has a few plot holes, but delivers on brisk pace and well-staged action once that phase begins. For mindless escapism, it’s a reasonable time investment.
SPEED TRAIN opens in select theaters and streaming on demand on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025.
A scene from British sci-fi comedy TIME TRAVEL IS DANGEROUS. Courtesy of Level 33 Entertainment
TIME TRAVEL IS DANGEROUS is a droll British sci-fi comedy is low budget, low key and low delivery, under-serving a high concept. Writer/director Chris Reading started with an amusing twist on the time-travel milieu. Two rather dim-witted women (Ruth Syratt and Megan Stevenson) who own a dowdy resale shop stumble across a small vehicle that was dumped in an alley by its disenchanted inventors, who never quite mastered its time-hopping capabilities. The ladies use it to snatch clothes and minor objects from earlier eras to upgrade the inventory of their failing business, filling the humble rented space to the rafters with relics of affordable consumer value. No heists. No cash grabs. Just stuff that wouldn’t be missed much by its owners.
The haul includes videotapes of a public-access version of Mr. Wizard starring two guys (Johnny Vegas and Kiell Smith-Bynoe) who happen to have been the machine’s inventors. They are now part of a club of eccentric wannabe inventors with what could have been a charming cast of oddballs. The right cast was in place, but without the right writing to let them shine.
Although the bones were there for a delightful romp, the script failed to deliver the goods. Some of the best-known actors – Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Jane Horrocks – were underutilized. What we end up with could have been called BILLIE AND TEDDIE’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, if the temporal sojourners weren’t named Ruth and Megan. Their visits to earlier times, ranging from the age of dinosaurs to recent decades, are among the film’s best moments. But they were too small a percentage of the running time. One long sequence in a sort of time-warp limbo was intriguing – as if an ALICE IN WONDERLAND style of encounter had been written and directed by Terry Gilliam.
Budget limitations are obvious, and perhaps should be used to cut this production more slack. Time-travel shows are inherently fraught with logical issues, even when played for laughs. This one avoided some of the usual traps, but became more annoying than engaging as events unfolded. Too much petty quibbling among, and bad decisions by, the principals for entertainment value.
TIME TRAVEL IS DANGEROUS opens in select theaters and on-demand on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller in THE GORGE. Courtesy of Apple TV+
Two elite sharpshooters-turned-assassins are hired separately for a secret mission to guard either side of a gorge that contains a mysterious threat in remote, secret location. On one side of the gorge is ex-Marine Levi (Miles Teller), hired by the U.S. Army, and on the other is Lithuanian assassin Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy), hired by the Russians, in a secret agreement between the West and the East that has persisted since the early years of the Cold War. This unlikely agreement was made to contain a threat so deadly that both sides want it confined to this remote gorge, and this decades-long arrangement is so secret, even the U.S. Presidents were unaware of it. Each year, countries in the West and nations in the East send a new guard to man the tower on their side of the gorge. Those solitary guards patrol the heavily-weaponized edge of the gorge on their side, to make sure whatever is down there, stays down there. The guard on each side will be alone in their towers for a year, with only brief monthly radio contact with their employers. They are forbidden to have contact with each other.
In director Scott Derrickson’s dark sci-fi action thriller, we meet Drasa first, initially as she successfully kills a political target thought untouchable and then back in Lithuania, to visit her ex-KGB father Erikas (William Houston). Drasa and her father are very close, but her father now is dying of cancer. Facing the prospect of a long, painful illness, he tells her he will end his life on a certain date, Valentine’s Day, if he’s still alive. His death will sever Drasa’s one emotional support in the world, so she is understandably distraught.
We first meet Levi when he is summoned to report to Fort Bragg, where he meets with Bartholomew (Sigourney Weaver), who offers him this lonely year-long assignment, after determining he has no close ties that will notice he is missing.
Levi is put on a plane and drugged, so he has no idea where he is or how long he was in the air. A helicopter drops him at a remote, snowy mountain location near a border, with a map to travel the few kilometers to cross it. He has no idea where he is and little about the mission. Over the border, he meets up with the man he is replacing, J.D. (Sope Dirisu), a chatty British fellow who is very happy to have some human contact again. Levi has a manual that briefs him on the job, and gets a quick tour from J.D. before he goes off to his pick-up point.
That Levi and his counterpart across the gorge aren’t supposed to communicate made sense in the Cold War, but it makes less sense now. Anyway, it doesn’t last, with a rule-breaker Drasa using a big drawing pad to write messages to Levi. When he writes back to remind her of the rule, she replies that it’s her birthday and she’s going to do what she wants. The location of the gorge is cloaked so how are they going to know.
Thus starts their cross-gorge chats and budding relationship that follows. But it doesn’t take long before the mysterious threat contained so long in the gorge raises its ugly, gnarly head, and tries to climb out of the gorge. Lots of ugly, gnarly heads, actually.
The gorge turns out the be filled with strange looking zombie-like creatures, dubbed Hollow Men, who look like they merged with dead trees, a nice visual effect. The Hollow Men tag for them is a reference to a T.S. Elliot poem, and there are similar classical poetry references sprinkled throughout, which is a refreshing, unexpected touch in what is basically a sci-fi action adventure, with a romance thrown in.
Scott Derrickson does a nice job with the direction, keeping everything moving a good clip and keeping us focused on the characters instead of the script’s flaws. The direction and acting do a lot to compensate for the script’s logic flaws, although the film’s basic premise is intriguing.
Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy are very good together, with a natural chemistry as their characters bouncing quips off each other in a playful who-is-the-better shot one-upmanship competition. There is plenty of romantic chemistry too, so that when the confrontation with the things in the gorge heats up, as you know it will, they are ready to work as a team.
Another strength is the music, provided by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and nice moody, dark, atmospheric cinematography by Dan Laustsen. The sets and exterior shots, in Norway, all look great and the mystery in the gorge is original enough to be intriguing and full of possibilities.
Unfortunately, the script is kind of under-cooked, and something about the film feels like it was originally intended as a series but was hastily re-fashioned into a movie instead. It has more than a few puzzling missteps, like why would they need top assassins to patrol this heavily-weaponized gorge edge? What Levi and Drasa discover about the gorge is an intriguing yet the film doesn’t fully exploit its potential. There are other puzzlers. Levi and Drasa are well-matched as sharpshooters and skilled assassins yet it is always Drasa who loses things or leaves them behind, to create plot problems, or who stumbles into things and needs to be rescued, a sign of lazy writing. The action sequences are exciting and the effects are good but what gets them into those situations isn’t always the most original plot device.
However, the on-screen magic between Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy, plus Scott Derrickson’s perfectly-paced direction, keeping things focused on action and the central characters more than on those flaws, in a nice bit of cinematic sleigh of hand.
Overall, THE GORGE is an entertaining, fast-paced sci-action flick with an appealing couple at the center and plenty of action, plus enough of an original idea that it could have had a big screen release. As it is, you will have to go to your small screen to enjoy Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy trading quips and battling these woody zombies. For popcorn fun, you could do much worse.
(L-R) Jane Curtin as Joyce, Harriet Harris as Sandy, Ben Kingsley as Milton and Jade Quon as Jules, in JULES. Courtesy of Bleecker Street
A reclusive older man (Ben Kingsley), who has built his small-town daily routine around complaints about pedestrian safety at the town council meetings, has his routine upended when a flying saucer lands in his backyard, in director Marc Turtletaub’s dramedy JULES. Although sci fi is part of the premise, the real focus and strength of this whimsical, warm comedy JULES is an exploration of friendship in late life and aging generally, and the fine acting ensemble of Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris and Jane Curtin.
Milton (Kingsley) is more upset that the flying saucer took out his flower garden than he is surprised to find a spaceship in his backyard. With get-off-my-grass outrage, he calls the authorities to report the spaceship but gets the real world response you would expect: disbelief. They think the old guy is losing it. The thing is that is a kind of true, as Milton has been having memory problems, doing things like leaving his keys in the fridge, troubles he is hoping to conceal from his concerned daughter Denise (Zoë Winters).
Shortly after the flying saucer trashed the flowers, Milton is shocked to find an ailing alien (Jade Quon, made up like the usual Area 51 denizen) slumped on his patio. Moved by the alien’s pitiful, pleading gaze, Milton brings him/her/it inside, wrapping the creature in a blanket and setting the visitor on the couch. Milton offers his strange guest a plate with a selection of finger foods like cheese and crackers but the only things the visitor eats are the apple slices.
The creature doesn’t speak but seems very gentle, intuitive and cooperative – and a really good listener. Soon, Milton has a new routine, caring for the creature and then sitting on the couch, watching TV and chatting. He names the visitor Jules.
When Milton becomes even more reclusive than usual and starts buying lots of apples, it sparks the interest of two other seniors, also regular speakers at the city council meetings, Sandy (a wonderful Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtin). Sandy decides to pay Milton a call, and is taken aback at seeing Jules. But she relaxes when Milton assures her the space visitor is harmless, even friendly. Not long after, Joyce, consumed by curiosity, also turns up at Milton’s door. Soon the threesome are inseparable – make that four.
Harriet Sansom Harris might not be a familiar name but you’ll likely recognize her face, and this role gives this talented actor a chance to shine. Director Marc Turtletaub (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, THE FAREWELL), gives Harris a plum part, as her character is the key to drawing out the reserved Milton, as the three humans form friendships and bond with the mute but attentive and intuitive alien played by Jade Quon. Quon does a fine job in the part despite the challenge of playing a character with a mostly frozen face who is unable to speak.
Along with a message of the value of being a good listener and being open to someone from somewhere else, this well-meaning dramedy explores issues of social isolation and friendship in late life with humor and heart. It is just set within a sci-fi-fantasy tale about an off-world stranger who knows how to listen.
One reason Milton doesn’t talk about the alien in the room is that he is covering his memory problems, particularly around his caring daughter. He worries about being forced out of his nice home into a retirement community or assisted living. Rather than risk calling attention to his memory problems, Milton just stops talking about the flying saucer that ruined his garden and starts spending more time with the wounded alien that crawled out of it and curled up on his patio. When Sandy and Joyce join him, helping Jules becomes everyone’s project, as they share their feelings and inner thoughts.
The acting is very good and the ensemble scenes with Kingsley, Harris and Curtin are often hilarious, and definitely highlights. The bits between Kingsley’s Milton and Jade Quon’s mute space visitor are touching.
With a brisk 87 minute running time, the story is certainly creative but the movie is best when it is about relationships. Eventually, the outer space visitor Jules feels well enough to start repairs on the spaceship but the sci-fi story becomes increasingly wonky and improbable as it unfolds, particularly after feds looking for the spaceship show up. There is a weird bit of ick factor in the solution to fixing the ship, especially for pet owners. In contrast, the funny, warm and believable interpersonal interactions between the characters, and the way it touches on issues of social isolation and worries of aging is always strong, authentic and touching.
JULES is at its best when focused on interpersonal interactions, with the two women, the mute alien and with his daughter. Where the film falls short is in the sci-fi tale part, which doesn’t make entire sense and has a bit of business that pet owners are likely to find off-putting.
JULES opens Friday, August 11, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and in other theaters nationally.
1091 Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to Caroline Cory’s documentary A Tear in the Sky. Written, directed, and produced by Caroline Cory, A Tear in the Sky features William Shatner, Michio Kaku, Travis Taylor, Caroline Cory, Kevin Day, Gary Voorhis, and Kevin Knuth. The film will be available to rent and own worldwide on digital HD internet, cable, and satellite platforms through 1091 Pictures on May 3, 2022.
This award-winning documentary A Tear in the Sky takes you on an unprecedented journey into the UFO / UAP phenomenon. A team of military personnel, scientists and special guest William Shatner will attempt to re-capture, in real time, the US Navy “TicTac” UFOs and other space anomalies, using state-of-the-art, military-grade equipment and technology. What they find instead are thought-provoking clues into the true nature of the UFO phenomenon and the very fabric of our spacetime reality.
The UFO / UAP subject has been around for decades, however lacking credibility and acceptance from society in general and certainly the establishment. It wasn’t until 2017, when the New York Times came out with an article featuring three leaked videos from the US Navy taken by military servicemen, that defied explanation, that the conversation began to shift.
The Navy and the Pentagon eventually confirmed the veracity of these sightings and Senator Reid and Senator Rubio prompted Congress to investigate these events and publish an official report on their findings, the “UAP Report”, which turned out to be inconclusive.
The filmmakers felt it was time to take it upon themselves to investigate the subject from a new scientific perspective by teaming up with scientists and experts in an attempt to capture these anomalous objects themselves and offer the public some real answers.
The film features William Shatner and Prof. Michio Kaku Ph.D, world-renowned physicist and best selling author who offer fascinating insight on the phenomenon and Kevin Knuth, Ph.D., Associate Chair in Physics and Matthew Szydagis, Ph.D. Associate Professor at the University of Albany who carry out the investigation.
The film has already won multiple awards and official selections for “Best Documentary” including The Malibu Film Festival, The LA Film Awards, The New York Film Awards and The New Media Film Festival.
“I am very proud and excited to be the first filmmaker to film a large-scale, real-life scientific expedition of UFOs and space anomalies, using military-grade, state-of-the-art equipment and academic methodologies to study the data and the phenomenon,” said Caroline Cory. “Working with William Shatner was phenomenal, and the hundreds of hours of data that we have collected during the filming, which will be released publicly along a university research paper for peer-review, has now made history beyond any government or organizations investigating the subject. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of our hard work. This is all so very exciting!”
“A Tear in the Sky was hands down the most unique filming experience of my life. The challenges of working unscripted with the most renowned UAP scientists in the world, top secret military-grade scientific equipment, and William Shatner made every day a new unpredictable adventure! I am excited for everyone to see what we found!” said Lenny Vitulli, Director of Photography. “We’re excited to be joining forces with Caroline Cory on her new documentary A Tear in the Sky. The film is the first of its kind and will show the public what’s really happening in our skies with UFOs,” said Jim Martin, head of paranormal acquisitions for 1091 Pictures.
Nora Arnezeder as Blake in director/co-writer Tim Fehlbaum’s sci-fi drama THE COLONY. Courtesy of Lionsgate and Rogers & Cowan PMK
According to almost every movie made on the subject, the future of our species and planet is pretty bleak. The question seems to be not whether we’re headed towards a dystopia but how we’ll get there, and what it will look like. Faith in humanity doesn’t put rumps in the seats, or cause streaming sites to flow. In that dour spirit, we have the sci-fi drama THE COLONY, the latest piece of pessimism for your consideration. I eschewed the term “entertainment,” since I prefer less gloom with my doom than this one offers.
A few years before the story of THE COLONY begins, the rich and privileged left Earth because of imminent disaster. Unfortunately, the new planet they found supports life but suppresses reproduction. Apparently, we’re such an annoying life form that we could only qualify for a short-term lease, not a multi-generational tenancy. Wise planet, based on how we’re treating this one – in the film and otherwise.
So they send a team back to Earth to see if it’s habitable for them now. The first mission vanishes; we open with the crash landing of the second, which includes the daughter, Blake (Nora Arnezeder), of the main brain behind the first. She’s the only one who survives, arriving in a gray, gray world that’s mostly flat and wet. There are handfuls of humans who’ve adapted but they’re living primitively and in fear of other groups who have less than peaceful agendas.
After all the players have appeared, including Iain Glen (Jorah in “Game of Thrones”), we’re treated to more dialog than any sci-fi fan could want, explaining all the whys and wherefores driving everyone’s actions. It all seems like more trouble than it was worth, even for a relatively low-budget opus. Minimal sets and costumes, no big marquee names, not much lighting and, apparently, inexpensive writers. If you’re in the right mood, its dim view (literally and figuratively) of our possible destiny may prove intriguing. Just don’t expect an adrenaline rush, since this one aims more for the mind than the gut.
COLONY opens 8/27 in theaters in some locations, on digital and VOD on Netflix and other services.
REMINISCENCE stars Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson and Thandiwe Newton in a twisty sci-fi mystery that is part BLADE RUNNER, part TOTAL RECALL – both films loosely based on novels by imaginative science fiction writer Phillip K. Dick – which then goes Hitchcock by way of Chinatown with a deep noir flavor. Set in a flooded future Miami, where the streets are navigated like the canals of Venice and no one goes out until dark due to the heat, this is classic noir set in a gritty post-war, post climate-disaster dystopia. Essentially an homage to Hollywood classics, of the 1940s particularly, and packed with film references, REMINISCENSE is film noir wrapped in a sci-fi setting.
Dark, noirish, stylish, with that classic narration, it is a story of love, obsession, haunting memories, deception, illusions, and truth – and memories extracted by futuristic technology. If all that sounds like an intriguing brew, REMINISCENSE will hook you and take you for its twisty ride.
The mystery/thriller is the directorial debut of director/writer/producer Lisa Joy, the show-runner and co-creator of “Westworld” along with husband Jonathan Nolan. Joy, who was inspired by a wish to explore the power of memory in her original screenplay, brought many of her “Westworld” collaborators with her to this project, including director of photography Paul Cameron and star Thandiwe Newton. Angela Sarafyan, another “Westworld” cast member, also has a smaller role in the film.
Although REMINISCENSE is a sci-fi tale set in a climate-disaster future, film noir mystery is the aspect that dominants. The film is filled to the brim with film references, which is part of its fun, but it also delivers an interesting update on the classic femme fatale character. The twisty plot does not always completely makes sense but the film scores better on atmosphere and character as it blends elements of mystery, romance, thriller, and noir, with meditations on memory, time and illusions. The film aims high and while it does not really hit the mark, it does deliver good, if imperfect, entertainment for those who enjoy classic noir and sci-fi.
This noirish detective tale takes place in a dystopian future Miami, post-civil war and post-climate disaster, where streets are flooded by rising sea levels and life is lived at night to avoid the intolerable heat. Sunsets have become dawns, sunrises signal day’s end, and staying out past that has to be done in the shade, and not too late.
In this harsh world, Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) has built a business helping clients escape the dreary present to relive memories of a better time, using advanced technology and special skills he learned for interrogation when he served in the military during the war. The machine lets them access their memories, which are projected on a 3-D stage, as Nick safely guides and monitors his dreaming, drugged clients as they float in water-filled tank. Besides his reminiscencing clients, Nick uses his interrogation skills to help the local Miami police in investigations as a private detective.
Nick’s memory services should be a lucrative business in this grim world but Nick has a soft spot for his old veteran buddies, especially the wounded ones, and tends not to charge them, much to the dismay of his business partner and fellow war buddy Watts (Thandiwe Newton). The cynical, hard-drinking Watts is damaged goods, haunted by a fatal mistake she made during the war, memories she drowns in the bottle.
Nick and Watts operate their memory business out of a run-down warehouse space, off a side street that is always slightly flooded. But their routine lives are disrupted and everything changes after a beautiful woman named Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) turns up, seeking help remembering where she left her keys. It seems an odd request for what is probably an expensive service but Nick is too dazzled by Mae’s beauty to question the mysterious woman. Despite Watt’s worries, and a touch of jealousy due to the secret torch she is carrying for her co-worker, Nick quickly falls for Mae, and when she disappears, he falls into obsessed depression. The obsession takes Nick into a seedy underworld of criminal kingpins and corrupt cops in his search of Mae.
Actually, REMINISCENCE does not dwell much on either the climate-impacted world we see all around us or details of the civil war it references. Instead goes straight for its mystery thriller tale of obsession, love, damaged souls and the power of memory.
Hugh Jackman, as the film’s central character, plays a jaded soul who has his life upended by a mysterious woman, a character that draws on Humphrey Bogart in CASABLANCA and James Stewart in VERTIGO, among other influences, although Jackman handles his role well and creates his own character. He and Ferguson generate romantic chemistry in their scenes together, but we sense something hidden in Mae, which keep us guessing about her through the film.
While Hugh Jackman has the central role as the hardened detective with a soft heart who becomes obsessed with her, the film offers a different twist on the femme fatale character, one who goes beyond the usual one-dimensional type, a more interesting character than we expect. Mae, played well by Rebecca Ferguson, starts out like most noir femme fatales – appealing, mysterious, haunting but with a dangerous undercurrent. Classically these characters turn out to be either good or bad, but mostly are seen through the lens of the male gaze and point of view of the film’s protagonist. But Ferguson’s Mae is more complicated, more her own person, a woman coping with tough circumstances and using the tools she has to survive.
This femme fatale role is one you could easily see Thandiwe Newton in, but instead Newton plays the supporting part of Nick’s damaged partner, haunted by her past mistakes and harboring a secret longing for Nick. The casting is less expected, but gives Newton a rare chance to flex other acting muscles. Other cast members also lend good support, with Cliff Curtis a standout as corrupt cop Boothe, effectively menacing Jackman’s Nick and Ferguson’s Mae, and lingering in our memory even when not on screen.
REMINISCENCE is visually stunning, a future Miami where rising sea levels have flooded the streets and rising temperatures have driven life to the nighttime. Director of photography Paul Cameron gives is haunting, even majestic, images of this dark, watery world – images that will stick in your memory. In “Westworld,” Cameron created a visual world that was a perfect reference to the Western genre, with a sci-fi touches, and does the same here for the noir genre. Interior scenes are stylish and noir-drenched, with slanting light, abundant shadows and ever-present ceiling fans.
One feels both classic Hollywood and the Nolan influence in this world. In REMINISCENCE’s Miami, most people live in a sodden world but the wealthy live in the few dry spots, real estate they grabbed early on, behind flood walls that keep out the water, adding an income-inequality edge to their tough lives. Some scenes take place in the off-shore, where houses on stilts are now islands and in a similarly flooded New Orleans. The images create an effective, complete alternate world.
You have got to love film noir to really give in to REMINISCENCE, and if the genre does not appeal, this film is likely not for you. Although this is a sci-fi tale set in a climate-disaster future – and the imagery of that world is impressive and memorable – REMINISCENCE is the film noir mystery at its heart. Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson deliver nice performances, as well as Thandiwe Newton and Cliff Curtis, in the film’s twisty thriller blend of mystery, obsession, and romance, with meditations on memory, time and illusions. The film aims high, and while it does not really hit that mark, it does deliver good entertainment for those up for its classic noir/sci-fi mash-up.
REMINISCENCE opens Friday, August 20, at the Chase Cinema and various other theaters.
(from left) Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre), Prisca (Vicky Krieps), Guy (Gael García Bernal) and Chrystal (Abbey Lee) in OLD, written for the screen and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
There is hardly anything scarier to Hollywood, or even to American culture generally, than growing old, and something that makes aging happen much more rapidly would be terrifying. So M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller OLD, where a group of people find themselves on a beach that compresses years of aging into hours, hits a cultural nerve, and has inherent potential for social commentary. Whether this director will use that potential, or even acknowledge it, is a big question going in to seeing this film.
A couple Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps) and their 6-year-old son Trent (Nolan River) and 11-year-old Maddox (Alexa Swinton) check in to posh tropical resort for a family vacation. The wife found a deal on resort, and the family is pleased with their find as soon as they arrive, as they immediately are welcomed by the attentive staff with cocktails specially designed for their tastes. While the parents enjoy their cocktails, the kids check out their own candy and beverage bar, where their 6-year-old son Trent meets a boy who lives at the resort with his uncle and a friendship quickly forms.
The family looks happy but it soon becomes clear the pair on the verge of a breakup. Further, the wife has been diagnosed with a slow-growing tumor, although she is the one who is leaving the marriage. The next morning, the resort manager (Gustaf Hammarsten) approaches the family to offer a special treat: a day at a secret private beach hidden in a nature reserve, an excursion only offered to a select few. They gladly accept but as they are loaded into the van, they find they are not the only ones on the outing. Joining them are another couple, a nurse (Ken Leung) and his psychologist wife (Nikki Amuka-Bird ) and the family of a doctor (Rufus Sewell), with his much younger trophy wife (Abbey Lee), their 6-year-old daughter Kara (Mikaya Fischer) and his mother Agnes (Kathleen Chalfant) who has brought along her little dog. The resort provides beach chairs and umbrella, and a very full picnic basket, but no help getting that to the beach. As the driver (director Shyamalan) leaves, he tells them he’ll be back at 5 p.m. to pick them up. All they have to do is follow the path through a slot canyon and down to the beach.
The beach is beautiful as promised but a few odd things turn up right away. For one thing, there is someone already there, an African American man (Aaron Pierre) who looks a bit dazed and turns out to be a hip hop star with the improbable name of Mid-sized Sedan (one of the film’s few touches of humor). Soon become much weirder, and the vacationers quickly figure out the something is aging them (some more quickly than others). They also discover their phones don’t work and when they try to leave, something renders them unconscious. They appear to be trapped.
OLD, which is based on a graphic novel, has a fast-running ticking clock crossed with the familiar device of a group of people stuck together, which gives it a thriller set-up with a sci-fi/horror premise. That the threat is time and age, gives the story an extra twist, opening the door to a host of intriguing possibilities. As you expect, the people on the beach have a number of issues and getting them to work together to solve their mutual problem is a challenge in itself.
Sadly but maybe not surprisingly, Shyamalan largely passes on the social commentary potential and just goes for interpersonal conflict and ticking-clock terror. The film starts out well but then problems develop.
Here’s the problem: the sci-fi premise of M Night Shyamalan’s OLD requires an enormous suspension of disbelief upfront, and I’m fine with that. But then internal inconsistencies keep popping up that you have to keep overlooking. Then there is the surprising passivity of the people trapped in this situation. They quickly become consumed by internal concerns, like the parents’ panic over their children growing up. The few attempts at escape fail but there seems to be little organized effort and more personal introspection. The children seem to age faster than the adults, who hardly show a wrinkle, and there seems to be something about the food. While they hardly show external age, hidden medical conditions advance.
The gifted Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps carry most of the dramatic load, creating a touching, layered portrait of a relationship evolving under pressure. Rufus Sewell is good as the arrogant doctor but both he and Abbey Lee as his looks-obsessed trophy wife have one-note characters. The children are played by several actors, including Thomasin McKenzie, who did impressive work in LEAVE NO TRACE and JOJO RABBIT, and Alex Wolff, who play the couple’s children in their teenage years. Embeth Davidtz and Emun Elliot are also good as grown versions of the characters. Ken Leung is a standout in the supporting role as a nurse who tries to bring others together, with strong backing by Nikki Amuka-Bird as his caring psychologist wife.
OLD has a good premise, something with a lot of potential for a thriller – even a thinking person’s thriller – and a very good cast. The film is based on the graphic novel “Sandcastles” and certainly graphic novels have been the basis of some excellent movies and television – think “Watchmen” for example. Unfortunately, OLD abandoned its more interesting potential early, to embrace nonsensical plot elements that are riddled with internal inconsistencies. It is that lack of consistency nags at the viewer, making one ask “but if that happened, why didn’t this happen” – over and over. The repeated suspension of disbelief is exhausting, and patience is quickly exhausted as well. Add in multiple false endings and a revealed conspiracy filled with so much false anti-medicine and anti-science messaging that it is the truly scary thing in this film, and you have a hot mess. Clearly, Shyamalan has never heard of either informed consent laws or medical ethics.
If you can ignore all the inconsistencies, and clearly from the audience reaction at the screening, there are plenty of people who can, then you may be entertained by OLD. But if you can’t stop noticing inconsistencies, wondering why this happens but that doesn’t, and why they do that but not this, or gag on the preposterous villainous reveal, you won’t enjoy this disappointing film because it makes less and less sense as it goes. Shyamalan’s clunker script seems to try to blend teen horror tropes and grown-up thriller ones but the emulsion proves a challenge to keep mixed, or suspended – much like your disbelief.
It’s disappointing because the premise had potential. Most disappointing, even disturbing, is the final reveal, a nauseating false message particularly unsettling in the middle of a pandemic.
OLD is not the worse film Shyamalan has ever made, and many will find it entertaining enough, as did about two-thirds of the audience at the screening. But those hoping the director will strike visionary gold again, like in THE SIXTH SENSE or UNBREAKABLE, will find more of a strike out. OLD opens wide Friday, July 23, at multiple theaters.
CHRIS PRATT stars in THE TOMORROW WAR. Courtesy of Amazon Studios
OK, folks. Strap yourselves in for another time-travel opus, with all the brain-warping snags that entails. Soldiers from 30 years in the future dramatically appear in 2022, warning of imminent extinction by a horde of alien invaders, requiring the initiation of a draft. Lots of cannon fodder from our now are needed in their then because Humanity is going down in flames. They’ve made this portal that only allows weekly trips between their present and ours for shuttling personnel. That’s supposed to minimize audience speculation about why they’re not using the technology in more sensible ways. Like going back to the initial encounter with enough weapons to prevent the whole disaster. Or fill in your own solutions. That’s what my brain keeps churning during moments of quiet dialog between the massive CGI clashes.
This may be my own nit to pick but time travel as a premise works best in comedy, when the logical quagmires don’t particularly matter. Let Bill and Ted, or Marty and Doc calendar-hop all they wish to give us some grins. But when we’re supposed to take this stuff seriously, it’s hard to suspend and maintain enough disbelief. Accepting a regular ol’ alien invasion or zombie apocalypse is easily doable. Just don’t complicate it with yet another mindless temporal leap into someone else’s fantasy.
As to the action that we’re salivating over, they truly deliver the goods while animating and battling the conquering hordes on an epic scale. The product displayed seems a mashup among STARSHIP TROOPERS, WORLD WAR Z, six SHARKNADOs and the TERMINATOR series. The aliens are huge, bug-like and hard to kill; they breed like crazy and swarm impressively; the measures used to resist them will trigger associations with the aforementioned and other genre films you’ve seen. That includes the trope of one family destined to play a much larger role in saving our species than logic would dictate. Oh. And a bit of messaging about how this all happened.
Watch it for the adrenaline. Turn off your brains, so any mental activity, intended or on autopilot, doesn’t interfere with the visceral. THE TOMORROW WAR releasing exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, July 2nd.
