65 : Tuesday 14th March 2023.

I saw the M Rated '65' earlier this week, and this American Sci-Fi action thriller film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods in their third feature film pairing that has previously brought us 'Nightlight' in 2015 and 'Haunt' in 2019. The pair also penned the script for 2018's multi-award winning and nominated 'A Quiet Place'. With a budget of US$91M this film was released Stateside too last week, and has so far grossed US$24.5M, having garnered mixed or average Reviews along the way. The film was originally slated for release at the end of April last year, before being moved several times to its current release window. 

The film opens up on the planet Somaris, and there we find pilot Mills (Adam Driver), his wife Alya (Nika King) and their young daughter Nevine (Chloe Coleman) discussing a two year deep space expedition that Mills has been offered. While he is reluctant to be away from his family for such an extended period of time, he feels compelled to take the job in order to pay for Nevine's treatment for her much needed life threatening illness. We then fast forward to sometime in to that two year journey, and while Mills is sleeping his spacecraft hits an uncharted asteroid belt and ultimately crashes on an uncharted planet, with his ship split in two. He comes round, ventures outside and finds that the atmosphere is breathable, but also finds signs of 'alien' life.

However, his thirty-five passengers on board who were all in cryo-sleep have perished in the crash landing. After surveying his surrounds and deducing that all is lost, he contemplates suicide, until a beacon reveals that there is in fact one solitary survivor - a young nine year old girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt). Mills instantly decides to care for Koa and get her back home, but the pair have trouble communicating because they speak different languages. 

Mills soon discovers that the other half of the ship contains a functioning escape shuttle and sends several distress messages for rescue. Mills tells Koa that they're going to the mountain where the shuttle is located, which is about 12kms away. He lies though about her parents being alive to encourage her to go with him. As they steadily make their way across the terrain, they bond, while Mills protects Koa from attacking dinosaurs, having deduced that they are on Earth some 65 million years ago. 

The pair hunker down near a cave opening to rest up for the night protected by motion sensors dotted around them. Koa watches a number of video replays of Nevine, who died mid-way through Mills journey, before the pair fall asleep. Mills is woken by the motion sensors to find a giant T-Rex sniffing around the cave's entrance in the pouring rain. Mills shoots at the T-Rex injuring it, and then they retreat further inside the cave. A rockfall separates the pair, leading the two to fend for themselves before reuniting outside, with Koa going forward and Mills having to retrace his steps. Mills also discovers that an asteroid, whose debris caused his ship to crash, will strike Earth in about twelve hours, resulting in a catastrophic extinction event.

The two reach the ship, but Koa is angry and upset when she discovers that Mills lied to her about her parents still being alive. Mills opens up to Koa about losing Nevine and promises to protect her. In the escape pod they learn that rescue is on the way, and they are given the coordinates to aim for. The two board the escape shuttle, but the asteroid's debris which is now raining down all around them causes it to fall down the mountain, and land the wrong side up. Mills and Koa manage to fend off two large T-Rex, but the predator that they injured prior starts attacking them in the ship eventually righting it for take-off. Mills runs across the terrain to distract the T-Rex which follows him into a steaming geyser field, where the pair manage to kill it in a hot geyser blast. The two quickly return to the ship and blast off towards rescue as the asteroid collides with Earth, causing a catastrophic shockwave across the planet.

'65' can hardly be described as redefining the creature feature or the dinosaur movie in the way that 'Jurassic Park' and then 'Jurassic World' did. It's not great, but it's also not bad either despite a number of plot holes and lack of dialogue between the two protagonists, which leave Directors Woods and Beck with little option but to throw action set pieces at Mills and Koa - some of which land while others feel like they serve as fillers to move the story along. Adam Driver is convincing enough, but Ariana Greenblatt plays second fiddle here with next to no dialogue and to run around scared for her life, only to pull something out of the bag when you least expect it. And of course when the ending comes it is predictable and you always knew that they were gonna get the hell outta Dodge by the skin of their teeth. At a brisk running time of ninety-three minutes the film at least doesn't outstay its welcome.

'65' warrants two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-