[imagesource: Netflix]
When we shared the trailer for Don’t Look Up featuring a laundry list of Hollywood heavyweights we hoped it would be one of the better comedy/satires out there.
Those hopes have been dashed and it looks like even the biggest names around couldn’t save this one.
The Netflix film – featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill, Timothée Chalamet, and Ariana Grande among others – has been given a number of rather dismal reviews already.
And not just because it is about a comet on a collision course with Earth.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, here’s a quick trailer recap:
The Guardian, giving Don’t Look Up a sad two stars out of five, has called the film an “A-list apocalyptic mess”, adding that it is “desperately unfunny”.
I guess an ensemble cast was not enough to get past Adam McKay’s “bombastic, shake-you-by-the-shoulders direction”.
CinemaBlend also gave it two stars, calling it a disaster movie if ever we saw one:
McKay has recruited a constellation filled with Hollywood stars, but handed them a script containing precious few original insights, and even fewer laughs.
The Telegraph was kind enough to give the apocalyptic film three stars but wishes that the comet would actually just “get a wiggle on”:
Watching Don’t Look Up flaunt then squander the starriest cast of the year is an inevitably deflating experience – all the more so because this sledgehammer satire on planetary apocalypse comes on so strong.
It packs all its best ideas, funniest scenes and most inspired moments of acting purely into the first 45 minutes, and then lets the rest – another 95, I’m afraid – drain slowly down the plughole.
DiCaprio’s brilliant heavy breathing aside, at least Chalamet wholly committed to his role of appearing briefly to snog Lawrence.
Streep apparently did a good enough job of staying regularly stumped, even though it must have taken work, and Blanchett was decent enough to make “her scenes tingle with promise”.
Meanwhile, Mark Rylance’s character was just a “Saturday Night Live skit on Elon Musk that in fact would only boost his crypto portfolio”.
Don’t Look Up will be on Netflix from December 24 – just in time to not give it a second glance, perhaps.
[sources:guardian&cinemablend&telegraph]
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