Reviewing “Project Hail Mary” is a little tricky, because this is one of the rare occasions where I’ve actually read the source material before seeing the film. The good news is that this isn’t one of those situations where the book is a lot better than the movie; in fact, I think the movie might be a lot better. But it does make me wonder if my mind is filling in gaps that the film has skipped over.

Anyway…

“Project Hail Mary” is a ton of fun, and I anticipate it will rate among the best movies of 2026 by next December. Based on the novel by Andy Weir–who also wrote the source material for 2015’s “The Martian,”–“Project Hail Mary” tells the story of another lonely astronaut, this time on a last-ditch mission to save the planet from our dying sun.

Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, “Hail Mary” toggles its story between two main threads. In the primary thread, a junior high science teacher named Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up alone on a spaceship in a neighboring solar system. He has no idea why he is there, but luckily his memories start to come back in a series of flashbacks which constitute the other narrative thread.

Eventually, Grace puts enough pieces together to realize he’s on a mission to investigate a “nearby” star named Tau Ceti. Along with a number of other stars in our galaxy, our sun is slowly being drained by a mysterious life form called Astrophage, but for some reason Tau Ceti is immune to the drainage. So Grace has been sent on an 11-year voyage to hopefully solve the mystery in time to save our sun–and our planet–from the effects of the Astrophage.

Grace was originally part of a three-man team, but two of them died before they could emerge from their space-comas. Luckily, Earth isn’t the only planet that has sent someone to Tau Ceti in search of a solution. Rocky (voiced by James Ortiz) is a kind of good natured rock-spider who also happens to be the sole survivor of a doomed crew. So once he and Grace figure out how to communicate, they determine to team up and save their worlds in what turns out to be a fantastic sci-fi buddy comedy.

Weir’s novel wasn’t shy about injecting his story with some needed humor, but Lord and Miller lean into the jokes even more, pairing an enthusiastic and energetic pace with some well-chosen needle drops to show you how much fun it can be when you combine savvy elements with a smart story.

The novel was also extremely procedure-heavy, almost to a fault, but Lord and Miller’s film manages to communicate the gist of what is happening without stripping the story of its tension and logic. Like “The Martian,” “Hail Mary” boils down to a sequence of problems that get solved by science and reasoning. My only question is whether I’m only saying this because my brain already remembers the material that connected some of those dots from the book.

In preparation for the press screening, I watched Ryan Gosling’s last outing as a lonely astronaut, when he portrayed Neil Armstrong in 2018’s “First Man.” That film leaned into Gosling’s more stoic delivery, the same kind of presence he emphasized in “Drive” and “Blade Runner 2049.” But for “Hail Mary,” he gets a chance to kick back a bit more, and emote a bit more joy and quirkiness. It’s a nice match for Rocky, but it also works well against Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller), the dry and serious woman in charge of the project we meet through Grace’s flashbacks on Earth.

Combined with some excellent and striking special effects–reportedly Rocky is a real-life puppet instead of a CGI creation–“Hail Mary” adds up to a positive and inspiring story that would be welcome even if we didn’t have anything on the news to drag us down. It’s a movie well worth seeing in the theater–in IMAX, if possible–and one worth re-visiting again down the road.

“Project Hail Mary” is rated PG-13 for some profanity and sequences of action violence.

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“The Fall Guy” is the early front-runner for “Most Meta Movie Experience of 2024.” There’s
something odd about watching a movie about stuntmen, knowing the stunts you are seeing are
being performed by stuntmen who are protecting actors who are playing stuntmen. Also, the
director is a former stuntman himself.

David Leitch’s love letter to his former profession is the latest in a long line of big screen
adaptations of classic to semi-classic 1980s TV shows, in this case Glen A. Larson’s series about
a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter. There’s no bounty hunting this time
around, and Leitch focuses in on a tumultuous film production that is missing its leading man.

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt play Colt Seavers and Jody Moreno, loose film versions of the
characters Lee Majors and Heather Thomas played on TV. Seavers is a veteran stuntman, the
go-to lookalike for Hollywood A-lister Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) for the past six years,
and deeply smitten by the up-and-coming camera operator Jody. But an on-set accident derails
the stuntman’s hopes and dreams, and a year later Seavers is parking cars as a valet rather than
rolling them for action movies.

The story kicks into gear when film producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) recruits
Seavers for a second chance at stardom, and possibly Jody. On paper, Seavers will be back in
action as the lead stuntman on Moreno’s first directorial feature, but secretly he’s given a far
more serious mission: find Ryder, who has fallen in with some shady characters and gone
missing.

The plan is simple: find Ryder, save Jody’s film, reconnect with the love of his life.

As you might imagine, things aren’t as simple as they seem, and the results give Leitch and co.
ample opportunity to showcase the talents of Hollywood’s Unknown Stuntmen. “The Fall Guy”
seems determined to set a record for action sequences, and manages to rival franchises like
“Mission: Impossible” (another TV adaptation from way back!) for the range of its mayhem.

But unlike its more serious peers, “The Fall Guy” puts a heavy emphasis on the comic side of its
action-comedy brand, enabled by Gosling, who seems to be playing a loose cross between his
Ken character from last year’s “Barbie” movie and Ben Stiller’s Derek Zoolander from 20 years
ago. The cast is one of the best things “Fall Guy” has going for it, as Gosling, Blunt,
Waddingham, and Taylor-Johnson all elevate what might have been forgettable roles.

Of course, the action stunt pieces are great too, and a lot of fun to watch. The weakest element
may be the story, which starts to drag a bit midway, and overall the film is about 10-15 minutes
too long. The winking attitude of the movie also misses some unintentional comedy, such as
the obvious product placement of a tech-heavy modern GMC pickup presented as the heir to
the TV show’s original indestructible beast.

Still, even if the story isn’t much more than a framework for the stunt pieces, it’s clear the
people making “Fall Guy” are having a lot of fun, and combined with the energetic cast, the vibe
will translate well to the people in the seats. And a little mayhem on screen may be just what
audiences need to distract them from the mayhem of 2024.

“The Fall Guy” is rated PG-13 for persistent action violence and some scattered profanity.

The post Stunt-heavy ‘Fall Guy’ is an exciting, comic tribute to behind-the-scenes heroes appeared first on Utah.Film.

Today’s the day for big news regarding science fiction movies in which

According to Alcon Entertainment, Ryan Gosling is in negotiations to star in the “Untitled Blade Runner Project” alongside Ford. The sequel to the 1982 cult favorite will be directed by Denis Villeneuve, and is set to start filming in summer of 2016.

The original “Blade Runner” was set in a dystopian 2019 Los Angeles, and Ford’s character, Rick Deckard, was a retired blade runner whose job was to track down beings known as “replicants” and destroy them. The film was based on the 1968 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick.

No release date for the sequel has been announced yet, so take a look see at this trailer for the original’s 30^th anniversary.

The post Ryan Gosling in negotiations to star in 'Blade Runner' sequel appeared first on Utah.Film.