STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful
Jakob Prochazka (Adam Sandler) has risen from humble beginnings as a scientist, to become the Chezch Republic's most revered astronaut, half way into the middle of a manned mission in outer space. However, this has come at the expense of his marriage to Lenka (Carey Mulligan) on Earth. Isolated in space with no one for company, he runs into Hanus (voiced by Paul Dano), an other-wordly creature who has a personal knowledge of his life, and his ultimate destiny.
Following on from crime caper Uncut Gems a few years ago, former comic supremo Adam Sandler continues his serious actor path with this space bound sci-fi drama, from director Johan Renck and writer Jaroslav Kalfar. With elements of Interstellar and 2001: A Space Odyssey, meshed in with its own unique zaniness, it's a curious, far fetched piece, that will leave you rather bewildered with what it's aiming for. And will probably exhaust your patience while you try to figure it out.
If Sandler wants to branch out into more serious roles, then it's a fine ambition to want to pursue, but it's strange that a once so comedic actor wants to play things so straight, without so much as the odd wisecrack, or funny line, resulting in a film with even less warmth and substance than it already has. It doesn't help that the central character is so undeveloped as he is, with the absurdity of him talking to a giant spider added on. It's the perfect set-up for one of Sandler's old school comedies, leaving its offering as a serious film even more off kilter.
It's unclear what it was aiming for in the off-set, but the lasting impression is one of sheer pretentiousness, not from the mind of a Spaceman, but more of a Spaced-Out Man. **
Jakob Prochazka (Adam Sandler) has risen from humble beginnings as a scientist, to become the Chezch Republic's most revered astronaut, half way into the middle of a manned mission in outer space. However, this has come at the expense of his marriage to Lenka (Carey Mulligan) on Earth. Isolated in space with no one for company, he runs into Hanus (voiced by Paul Dano), an other-wordly creature who has a personal knowledge of his life, and his ultimate destiny.
Following on from crime caper Uncut Gems a few years ago, former comic supremo Adam Sandler continues his serious actor path with this space bound sci-fi drama, from director Johan Renck and writer Jaroslav Kalfar. With elements of Interstellar and 2001: A Space Odyssey, meshed in with its own unique zaniness, it's a curious, far fetched piece, that will leave you rather bewildered with what it's aiming for. And will probably exhaust your patience while you try to figure it out.
If Sandler wants to branch out into more serious roles, then it's a fine ambition to want to pursue, but it's strange that a once so comedic actor wants to play things so straight, without so much as the odd wisecrack, or funny line, resulting in a film with even less warmth and substance than it already has. It doesn't help that the central character is so undeveloped as he is, with the absurdity of him talking to a giant spider added on. It's the perfect set-up for one of Sandler's old school comedies, leaving its offering as a serious film even more off kilter.
It's unclear what it was aiming for in the off-set, but the lasting impression is one of sheer pretentiousness, not from the mind of a Spaceman, but more of a Spaced-Out Man. **