The Adam Project (2022)

[Eric Loves Rey]

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[baumer]

 Any movie Ryan Reynolds is in is going to be at least entertaining. There's no other actor like him. He puts a spin on his role and most people know that a lot of the characters he plays contain a lot of Ryan Reynolds personality. The really really good films that he's in are elevated because of his presence. The Adam Project is absolutely one of those films. It's entertaining, poignant, hits so many terrific notes and the MacGuffin of the film is the time travel stuff. What this movie is really about is the relationships that we have with our parents, being good to one another and an illustration of maybe the miscommunication and misunderstanding that kids and parents have toward one another. And of course it tells us that we might think we have all the time in the world but the future is closer than we think.

Ryan Reynolds plays 50-year-old Adam and Walker Scobell plays 12-year-old Adam. Together they have unbelievably amazing chemistry together. Scobell has zero credits to his name before this movie so that would make it his film debut. You would never know this is his first performance. He's just as good as Ryan Reynolds in this and that's saying something.

Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner play parents of young Adam and it's great seeing them on screen together again after they did 13 going on 30 almost 20 years ago.

The plot, the MacGuffin is that big Adam comes back to 2022 accidentally as he was trying to get to 2018. We don't know why he was trying to get to 2018 but it obviously involves time travel and trying to right a wrong that was done in the past. Once big Adam meets his younger self which is about 2 minutes into the movie, the script delights us with all kinds of interesting observations about parenthood, childhood, grief, depression and understanding that it's never too late to become who you always wanted to become.

I love the relationship that big Adam had with his younger self and I also love the relationship that small Adam had with his mother played by Jennifer garner. Mark Ruffalo doesn't show up until about an hour in the movie and along the way we also get to meet Zoe Saldana and Catherine keener.

The atom project is the second collaboration between Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds. The first one was my favorite movie of last year, that was Free Guy. Although we are only three months into the new year, this might end up being my favorite movie of 2022. I absolutely adored everything about this film.

And look for a few subtle nods to superhero movies, which only makes sense seeing as Ryan reynolds, Mark ruffalo, Jennifer Garner and Zoe Saldana all played prominent roles in different superhero movies over the last decade or so. And then look for some not so subtle nods 2 back to the future, the Terminator and of course a lot of talk about Star wars and lightsabers.

Super hero landing!

Edited March 14, 2022 by baumer

[filmlover]

Likable even if it breaks zero new ground for the time travel genre, although not nearly as enjoyable as the previous Ryan Reynolds/Shawn Levy collaboration (last year's Free Guy). While he runs a serious risk of becoming typecast beyond repair these days, Reynolds reminds us every now and then that he has more range than expected, and he does a solid job here in a part that asks more of him than to drop wisecracks. He also has strong chemistry with young Walker Scobell, who really makes us believe that he could be a 12-year-old version of Reynolds. On the other hand, the movie recruits the talents of Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Zoe Saldana, and Catherine Keener only to give them underdeveloped roles that they can't do a whole lot with (Keener in particular is saddled with a generic antagonist role and finds herself the victim of arguably the ugliest CGI de-aging job since Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy). It's not the best or most challenging movie of this sort you could find (although in terms of streaming-friendly time travel vehicles for big stars, this one works better than The Tomorrow War), but it works just fine as an easy-to-watch Netflix title on a weekend night in. B-