The first major letdown of 2023 is, without a doubt, the Adam Driver-led (Marriage Story, Paterson) 65. The trailer was amazing. There is much-deserved credit to those video editors for making a movie that felt bland and could have been so much more. I really wanted to like a movie. Even as the poor critic reviews started coming in (34% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), I remained hopeful. Sadly, that hope was dashed throughout a poorly-directed movie that tried too hard to build mystique and tension before failing to deliver.
I’m not a huge Driver fan, though he is slowly growing on me. Nevertheless, I thought he was fantastic in The Last Duel. Starring an astronaut (presumably from an unknown planet) who encounters a meteor shower while on a three-discovery mission that forces him to crash his spaceship into dinosaur-infested prehistoric Earth, leaving him and a single survivor, felt like a recipe for success. Even if Driver’s performance proved less than stellar, I felt confident that there were plenty of other elements in place to overcome any acting deficiencies. Sadly, Driver’s performance was the only thing that made the unimaginative, dull 65 bearable.
Bryan Woods and Scott Beck made a name for themselves as screenwriters of A Quiet Place, the succinct, tense post-apocalyptic thriller that wowed critics and audiences alike in 2018. Co-writing and co-directing 65, the pair delivered an unimaginative story with an insubstantial screenplay and dialogue that was bereft of character. Not helping matters was the lack of chemistry between Driver Koa (Ariana Greenblatt – Barbie, Awake), his nine-year-old co-star, whose purpose seemed to be nothing more than to remind him of his daughter and instill in him the motivation to climb a mountain over eight miles away, to get to a, hopefully, functional pod that can get them off the planet. I’m wondering why Woods and Beck thought it would be beneficial for her not to speak English. However, I could only imagine how much worse the dialogue might have been, with what I envision as cringeworthy at best.
I certainly do not mind films that have a slow build. The tone that 65 initially set was fabulous. After the first dinosaur attacked Mills, I felt hooked. Outside of that initial encounter, I never felt like Mills or Koa were in danger. Woods and Beck also fell into the all-too-familiar pitfalls that one might expect, with a formidable marksman achieving herculean tasks to protect the one he’s caregiving.
Aside from its weak story, the film was bogged down by run-of-the-mill CGI and a score that failed to connect scenes and served only as a musical backdrop. At the same time, Mills and Koa either marched silently over unexplored terrain or pondered quietly what to do next each time they needed to overcome a new obstacle.
Skip 65 and watch one of the movies (or any in its franchise) below.
Plot 7/10
Character Development 7/10
Character Chemistry 5/10
Acting 7/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 7/10
Cinematography 8/10
Sound 6/10
Hook and Reel 6/10
Universal Relevance 6/10
67%
D
Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie
- Logan
- Oblivion
- Jurassic Park
- A Quiet Place
- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes