'Life' is glumly earnest
'Life' stars Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal as members of a crew of astronauts and scientists who get picked off by a space creature.
'Life' stars Ryan Reynolds.
Alex Bailey/Columbia Pictures-Sony/AP
鈥淟ife鈥� is pretty lifeless. Set inside the orbiting International Space Station, this 鈥淎lien鈥� knockoff, haphazardly directed by Daniel Espinosa, features a motley crew of astronauts and scientists, played by, among others, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, who get picked off one by one by the resident gross-out space creature 鈥� a single-cell organism culled from a Mars soil sample that inexorably morphs into something resembling an icky manta ray.
Given the fact that 鈥淟ife鈥� was co-written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who co-wrote the wacked-out 鈥淶ombieland鈥� and 鈥淒eadpool,鈥� the film鈥檚 glum earnestness is doubly disappointing. Not much is even made of the fact that the creature is nicknamed Calvin. Any movie that showcases a villain named Calvin is in trouble. Grade:聽C- (Rated R for language throughout, some sci-fi violence, and terror.)聽