The Adam Project

Grade: B

Ryan Reynolds action comedies, such as Free Guy and especially the Deadpool films, have wildly entertaining screenplays with non-stop clever fast-paced rat-a-tat-tat dialogue. It can grow tiresome after a while and begin to feel like a shallow gimmick – as if the movie is showing off how witty it can be. Nobody speaks that well 100% of the time in real life. The writers of The Adam Project (a new Netflix Original movie) seem to understand this. It is chock-full of fun one-liners and banter, but is smart enough to know that it can’t be nothing but that. There is action, a strong soundtrack, and truly touching moments, particularly if you are a boy/man with a deceased father. This is a movie that breathes.

Ryan Reynolds is Adam – a time-traveling fighter pilot from the year 2050 who accidentally crash-lands in 2022. There, he finds his 12-year-old self, who graciously helps hide him in their separate garage. By that point, their father (Mark Ruffalo) has been dead for about a year. 2050 adult Adam has a brief conversation with his 2022 mother (Jennifer Garner) in a bar. It will surely remind viewers of Back to the Future, where Marty McFly goes back 30 years and meets his mother, who is now the same age.

Director Shawn Levy’s long resume includes Free Guy, This Is Where I Leave You, Date Night, Just Married, the Night at the Museum films, 8 episodes of Stranger Things, and two remakes starring Steve Martin (Cheaper By the Dozen, The Pink Panther). The Adam Project’s impressive cast also includes Catherine Keener as two different versions of herself, and Walter Scobell – who uncannily resembles Reynolds, makes his film debut as young Adam. The action will excite the younger viewers. There is a scene where a car powers through the woods, somehow managing to dodge all the trees, that brought back memories of Return of the Jedi. The Adam Project is an eclectic cornucopia of genres and influences that mostly works successfully. There is something for just about everyone here.

Grade: B