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You’d think a movie in which Adam Driver fights a bunch of dinosaurs couldn’t possibly be boring, but that’s exactly what “65” is.

This is a movie that would have benefitted from being a whole lot stupider. The big-budget sci-fi flick—which reportedly cost $91 million to make and was featured in a Super Bowl ad—should have embraced its inherent B-movie roots. Instead, it tries to juggle a wild survival story with a poignant family drama, but both elements feel so rushed and underdeveloped that neither ends up registering. There’s nothing to these characters, and the action sequences quickly grow repetitive and wearisome. There’s a jump scare, insistent notes from an overbearing score, some running and screaming, the gnashing of teeth, and maybe an injury before a narrow escape. Over and over and over again.

But the film from the writing-directing team of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods , whose credits include co-writing “ A Quiet Place ” with John Krasinski , offers an intriguingly contradictory premise. It takes place 65 million years ago, but suggests that futuristic civilizations existed back then on planets throughout the universe. On one of them, Driver stars as a space pilot named Mills. He’s about to embark on a two-year exploratory mission in order to afford medical treatment for his ailing daughter ( Chloe Coleman from “ My Spy ,” who’s featured in the film’s prelude and sporadic video snippets).

On the way to his destination, the ship Mills is flying enters an unexpected asteroid field, gets torn to shreds, and crashes. All of the passengers in cryogenic sleep are killed—except one, who just happens to be a girl around the same age as his daughter. Her name is Koa, and she’s played by Ariana Greenblatt . And the planet, which has swampy terrain reminiscent of Dagobah, just happens to be—wait for it—Earth.

“65” requires Mills and Koa to schlep from the wreckage to a mountaintop so they can commandeer the escape pod that’s perched there and fly out before dinosaurs can stomp and chomp on them. The creatures can be startling at times, but at other times they look so cheesy and fake, they’re like the animatronics you’d see at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. And yet! It almost would have been better—or at least more entertaining—if “65” had leaned harder into that silliness if it had played with the basic ridiculousness of mixing complex technology with the Cretaceous period. They rarely use Mills’ advanced gadgets in any inspired ways within this prehistoric setting. The few attempts at humor fall flat—they mainly consist of Koa making fun of Mills for being uptight—and moments of peril wrap up too tidily for us to luxuriate in their anxiety. 

Worst of all, Driver doesn’t get to ham it up nearly enough here. He’s an actor of great intensity, which can be both thrilling and amusing if he’s amping it up in a knowing way. Imagine him screaming “More!!!” as he’s blasting Luke Skywalker in “ Star Wars: The Last Jedi ,” or punching a wall during an argument in “ Marriage Story .” But the man he plays in “65” is blandly heroic and just seems generally annoyed. Greenblatt, meanwhile, does the best she can with a character we know absolutely nothing about. Koa speaks a language that’s not English, so most of her exchanges with Mills consist of mimicking the basic words he says to her, including “family.” There’s no real bond between them, but neither is there any sort of prickly tension since they’re stuck with each other. “The Last of Us,” this is not.

Beck and Woods offer some clever camerawork here and there, but also some erratic editing choices. And they borrow quite a bit from the “ Jurassic Park ” franchise: a giant footprint in the mud or a dinosaur’s yellow eye leering menacingly through a window. But maybe that’s inevitable at this point. Their film only gets truly enjoyably nutty toward the end, with its climactic combination of a sneaky quicksand patch, a ravenous Tyrannosaurus rex, a well-timed geyser eruption, and a catastrophic asteroid shower. But by then, it’s too late for us—and the planet.

Now in theaters. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Rated PG-13 for intense sci-fi action and peril, and brief bloody images.

Adam Driver as Mills

Ariana Greenblatt as Koa

Chloe Coleman as Nevine

Nika King as Alya

• Bryan Woods

Cinematographer

• Salvatore Totino
• Chris Bacon

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’65’ review: adam driver fights dinosaurs in an underwhelming sci-fi actioner.

An astronaut from another planet and a little girl find themselves battling dinos on Earth 65 million years ago in this film from the writers of 'A Quiet Place.'

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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In any case, said mission goes awry because of a nasty asteroid storm that causes the ship to crash on Earth, the only other survivor being Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), a little girl who doesn’t understand English and is understandably shaken up by the experience. Especially since not long after the crash, the pair find themselves in a strange world populated by an array of dinosaurs who all seem to be very hungry and very, very cranky.

The filmmakers, who previously collaborated with John Krasinski on the screenplay for the first A Quiet Place film, clearly love dinosaurs and nasty alien creatures in general. The same could be said of Sam Raimi , one of the producers. That childlike enthusiasm permeates every frame of 65 , which plays like something you might have seen at a drive-in decades ago on a double-bill with The Valley of Gwangi or When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth .

But the gimmick wears thin quickly. Most of the running time consists of scenes in which the two characters run into one or more screaming dinos before they manage to shoot or blast them into oblivion. Rinse and repeat. When Driver’s character almost perishes by falling into quicksand, it practically feels like a palate cleanser. The special effects are fine, but aren’t likely to cause Steven Spielberg to lose any sleep.

Nor is the dialogue particularly scintillating, since it mainly consists of Mills speaking a few words and Koa repeating them quizzically. (She does, however, immediately grasp his meaning when he shouts, “Run!”). Nonetheless, the relationship between the two does generate some warmth, with Koa serving as a substitute daughter who rouses Mills’ protective paternal instincts. Before the story concludes, the feisty little girl holds her own, saving his bacon more than once. Unfortunately, the pair’s dynamic also calls to mind the current HBO series The Last of Us , and doesn’t benefit from the comparison.

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‘65’ Review: What on Earth?

Millions of years ago, a guy from another planet landed on this one. Like most survivors, he had a moody little girl with him.

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By A.O. Scott

To paraphrase an old Monty Python sketch , nobody suspects the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction.

Certainly the poor dinosaurs didn’t, though for their more obsessive present-day human fans the fact that this movie is called “65” — as in million years ago — might count as a spoiler. When Mills the space pilot crash-lands on a muddy, reptile-infested Earth after his vessel is hit by an asteroid, you might have an inkling of the larger disaster in store.

I don’t mean the movie; that would be unkind. “65,” directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (two writers of the first “Quiet Place” film), is not interesting enough to be truly terrible or terrible enough to be halfway interesting. As Mills, Adam Driver does a lot of breathing and grunting as he runs a gantlet of familiar dangers. In addition to the T. rexes and other saurian menaces, he faces quicksand, large bugs, falling rocks, malfunctioning equipment and the withering judgment of a 9-year-old girl.

But let’s back up a second. Who are these people, and how did they get to our planet before (if I may quote the opening titles) “the advent of mankind”? The answer is that they belonged to an ancient extraterrestrial civilization, one sufficiently advanced to have invented not only space travel, but the usual array of futuristic sci-fi technology.

Their health care system was pretty bad, though. Mills’s adolescent daughter, Nevine (Chloe Coleman), suffers from a persistent, apparently life-threatening cough, and the only way he can afford her treatment is by taking on a high-paying “long-range exploratory mission.” He’s already grief-stricken when the asteroid hits, cleaving his spaceship in two and killing all of his cryogenically frozen passengers except one, a girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt).

The folks on their home planet, realistically enough, speak more than one language, so Koa and Mills — whose native idiom is English — can’t communicate very well. Also, he’s a grumpy, unhappy man and she’s a moody girl, so we’re on familiar survival-story terrain. “65” is a little like “ The Last of Us ,” but with dinosaurs instead of mushrooms and no obvious sociological theme that would sustain a think piece.

Which would be to its credit, if it managed to be a simple, effective action movie. Or science-fiction movie. Or scary movie. Or something. Like Mills’s emotional back story, the special effects seem to have been pulled out of a box of secondhand ideas. Nor is the execution all that impressive. There’s little in the way of awe, suspense or surprise. Just a quickly hatched plan to get off this God-forsaken planet and leave it to its fate.

65 Rated PG-13. Dinosaur blood and prehistoric curses. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters.

A.O. Scott is a co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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‘65’ Review: Adam Driver Battles Dinosaurs and Other Stone-Age Story Ideas in Derivative Thriller

'A Quiet Place' writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods direct a prehistoric adventure that feels like it's 65 million movies in the making.

By Todd Gilchrist

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Identifying the distant remains of the rest of their ship using a handful of relics from his technologically advanced culture, Mills and Koa make a difficult trek across terrain filled with quicksand, steam-filled geysers, life-threatening flora and a variety of dinosaur species. But even as they overcome each new hazard, a much bigger one appears: the asteroid that felled their ship is on a collision course with Earth. They soon find themselves in a race against the clock to get to the ship’s escape pod before either dying in a planet-leveling fireball or being eaten by a carnivorous reptile.

But those quiet moments also give the audience to wonder: so a humanlike species from another planet, armed with the technology for interstellar travel (not to mention laser guns and 3D GPS) came to Earth 65 million years ago, long before humankind existed — and the point is “just” that they’re trying to get back home? Seems like a long way to travel to go nowhere particularly meaningful.

That said, Beck and Woods make dinosaurs frightening for the first time in decades, thanks to some classic misdirection and staging that involves a lot of shadows to make the audience say “nope” when the characters decide to plumb further into them. If their filmmaking isn’t particularly inventive, the duo approach it with the same kind of sturdy proficiency they use when borrowing scenes or genre boilerplate to tell their stories. “A Quiet Place” worked because it gently tweaked a lot of familiar formulas and then director John Krasinski executed the whole thing with a workmanlike attention to detail; “65” doesn’t have the same core emotionality holding it together (this family is fractured, not fighting to stay together), but behind the cameras Beck and Woods merely service their ideas rather than strengthening them from the page.

At just 93 minutes, ”65” feels pleasantly diverting in competition with a glut of sequels that include “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “Creed III,” “Scream VI” and “John Wick Chapter 4” — not that anything in it is all that original. Then again, perhaps the reason it still falls short is because the idea of a standalone story seems too good to be true in an era of cinematic universes, especially given the fact that buried in its premise, before the title card even, is the idea there’s more than just our own to explore.

In which case, the best thing for “65” would be that no more installments follow, but if it proves a hit, audiences couldn’t possibly be that lucky. Who were Mills’ other passengers? Why was he transporting them? In what way do his “people” relate, genetically, or otherwise, to ordinary humans? These are all questions that you can see Sony salivating at the prospect of answering in a sequel or spinoff, but they all feel more intriguing without some sort of canonical answer. In which case, “65” is a film whose past feels like it was 65 million movies in the making, and its future depends on a several hundred millions in box office revenue. They best way to enjoy it is to let go of all that and be present.

Reviewed at Thalberg Screening Room, Los Angeles, March 9, 2023. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 93 MIN.

• Production: A Sony release of Columbia Pictures presentation of a Bron Creative, Raimi Prods., Beck Woods production. Producers: Sam Raimi, Deborah Liebling, Zainab Azizi, Scott Beck, Bryan Woods. Executive producers: Maryann Brandon, Doug Merrifield, Jason Cloth, Aaron L. Gilbert.
• Crew: Directors, writers: Scott Beck & Bryan Woods. Camera: Salvatore Totino. Editors: Josh Schaeffer, Jane Tones. Music: Chris Bacon
• With: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman.

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It was the worst of times, it was the end of times. For the characters anyway. Not as bad I had heard, 65 is improved by the performances and also the constant pummelling that pre-historic Earth doles out to poor old Mills.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 21, 2024

...a pared-down premise that’s employed to mostly compelling (and periodically spellbinding) effect...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 30, 2023

Watches so much like an adaptation of a classic pulp dime novel...

Full Review | Dec 25, 2023

65 may not be as refined or ravishing as the other survival thrillers or sci-fi adventures, but if you’re tired of mush and masculinity, this may be a slightly different experience.

Full Review | Nov 27, 2023

Silly but too serious, kinda exciting and pretty familiar.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 28, 2023

Wasted potential with an excellent lead, dinosaur mayhem & nice sci-fi gadgets.

Full Review | Aug 16, 2023

The limited cast of two major players and a script that allows for little flexibility leaves the production as just being bland.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 9, 2023

65 is as unimaginative and predictable as anticipated, only even less entertaining and far more bland. Adam Driver and Ariana Greenblatt try their best. A dinosaur flick this uninteresting should be considered a cinephilic crime.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Jul 21, 2023

A no-frills, no-thrills dud.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 6, 2023

65 should only be recommended after one has run out of films to watch, which might not be for many years.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jun 5, 2023

A passable sci-fi survival adventure pushes a thin premise to a mercifully short end.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 2, 2023

Driver is always very good no matter what role he takes on, whether it is a spaceship pilot battling dinosaurs or Darth Vader's grandson battling the force and the inner conflict that wages war inside him.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 1, 2023

The whole desperate dad thing gets wearisome as if the movie were conscientiously telling lonely 9-year-olds how much their absent work-junkie fathers actually love them. Which it is. Driver’s big salary-earning business trip isn’t happening “to you."

Full Review | May 29, 2023

It’s maybe too slim and uninspired for its own good, but it’s quick enough to where you aren’t all that bothered by the time spent with it.

Full Review | May 27, 2023

Driver makes it all stick. It’s his first lead role in the action hero genre, and he adds depth and nuance to a thinly written role. We don’t know much about Mills, but the actor keeps us plugged in due to his ability to elevate material.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Apr 27, 2023

Confusingly bland and riddled with plot holes, 65 doesn’t give its talented lead much to work with.

Full Review | Apr 21, 2023

Dreary, under-developed wannabe sci-fi action adventure that strives for suspense but plays like the kind of grade B-creature feature that used to be drive-in theater fare.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Apr 19, 2023

With excellent, double-strength VFX and whole-hearted embrace of B-movie aesthetics, 65 is terrific entertainment with outstanding action cinematography giving the film a visual polish that sits several grades above what we typically see in Marvel films.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 16, 2023

Nothing really sinks its teeth in deep enough to draw blood, metaphorically speaking, of course.

Full Review | Apr 12, 2023

The premise doesn't hold up to close scrutiny and the narrative can be jarringly slow-paced.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 31, 2023

65 Review: How Is Adam Driver Vs. Dinosaurs This Dull?

It leans more toward “disappointing” than “awful,” but at least “awful” would have made it more interesting..

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ 65 is a film with an excellent high-concept premise and a great deal of on-paper potential. Adam Driver has thoroughly proven himself in the last decade to be one of the better talents of his generation, the filmmakers were the screenwriters of the thrilling and successful A Quiet Place , and the idea of having a humanoid alien who crash lands on Earth 65 million years in the past has a lot of exciting promise. Driver vs. Dinosaurs – how bad could it be? As it turns out, the answer to that question isn’t “it’s really bad” so much as it is “it’s surprisingly boring.”

Release Date:  March 10, 2023 Directed By:  Scott Beck and Bryan Woods Written By:  Scott Beck and Bryan Woods Starring:  Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Nika King, and Chloe Coleman Rating:  PG-13, for intense sci-fi action and peril, and brief bloody images Runtime:  93 minutes

After a clunky, on-screen text-filled opening that sets up the general plot, 65 is never able to move out of neutral and do much with its conceit. Instead of featuring Adam Driver dramatically and creatively fighting for survival and escape while using extraterrestrial technology to fight off our world’s carnivorous, monstrous lizards, the movie settles for developing overused plot devices and character dynamics to unfurl a familiar story with nothing identifiably original to offer audiences.

In 65 , Driver plays Mills, a spaceship pilot from the planet Somaris who agrees to take a two-year long trip across the stars so that he can make enough money to afford treatment for his terminally ill daughter (Chloe Coleman). On the journey back home, the ship Mills is flying encounters a flurry of asteroids that cause it to crash land on an uncharted world. Because the movie can’t find a way to properly communicate the information to movie-goers, a title card delivers the necessary exposition: “65 Million Years Ago, A Visitor Crash Landed On Earth.”

Just as you get excited starting to wonder how the movie is going to narratively function with Mills being all alone on a planet filled with flesh-eating monsters that see him as an exotic meal, the film opts to not even try. It turns out that the protagonist isn’t actually alone, and that there instead is one passenger on the ship whose cryo-pod managed to survive the crash. Mills rescues and wakes up Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), a nine-year-old girl who doesn’t speak the same language as the hero. A la recent shows like The Mandalorian or The Last Of Us or recent movies including James Mangold ’s Logan , George Clooney’s Midnight Sky , and Clint Eastwood’s Cry Macho , Miles if forced to become a surrogate parent for the helpless child and do everything he can to shepherd them to safety.

65 is devoid of any exciting, original, or compelling plot points; it’s all by the numbers action.

A high-tech guidance system tells Mills and Koa that a functioning shuttle is on the top of a nearby mountain and can be used to escape the planet – and while there is nothing inherently wrong with the simplicity of that narrative, the problem is that the movie offers nothing to spice things up and make the story compelling beyond the basics of the circumstance. There are moments where they are attacked by dinosaurs and they temporarily get stuck in places, but they are the plot equivalent of speedbumps because there is no effort made to develop more advanced stakes.

You’d think that at the very least alien technology would be able to spice things up a bit, but the movie is unable to strike a balance between implementing cool, futuristic tools and making sure that Mills and Koa always seem desperate and in danger. The most clever usage of anything is using metal marble-like explosives to try and excavate a cave in which the characters are stuck… and even the results of that are underwhelming and undramatic.

Getting excited about dynamic, different dinosaur action in 65 would be a mistake.

With 65 unable to deliver on the more sci-fi side of the story, one would hope it could hit the gas pedal with the dinosaur action, but it’s just another area where the film falls flat. It’s arguably unfair to compare the movie to the high standard that is Jurassic Park , but you’d think that it would take some lessons about what works in that classic and apply them. A big part of the fun in that franchise is seeing the diversity of species and identifying them from memorable fossils seen in natural history museums. Aside from one herbivore that the characters rescue from a tar pit and a few flying dinos that have no significant presence, there are basically just three kinds of dinosaurs: tiny carnivores, medium carnivores, and giant carnivores.

None of them have special qualities that make them stand out; they might as well just be alien lizards with sharp teeth and claws… which kind of defeats the whole point of the film. To the film’s credit, there is one attempt made at trying to add an extra layer of depth to Mills’ conflict with the dinosaurs, with 65 setting up a “rematch” in the third act with what may or may not be a T-Rex from the second act, but the effort is so minimal and ultimately blink-or-miss-it that I wouldn’t be surprised if a large percentage of audiences don’t pick up on it.

If 65 predated the Jurassic World trilogy and Hollywood’s present obsession with the Lone Wolf And Cub dynamic, it would perhaps be seen to have a lot more merit – but as is, it missed its sweet spot release period by a decade, and as such doesn’t have much to offer. It leans more toward “disappointing” than “awful,” but at least “awful” would have made it more interesting.

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

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Given they are the subject of the one-time biggest box-office hit in history ( Jurassic Park , naturally), it’s a wonder that Hollywood hasn’t embraced dinosaurs more. Bringing the wildest dreams of small children to life seems like an obvious win for blockbuster filmmakers looking for some paleontological pleasures at the picturehouse; special effects wizards like Ray Harryhausen and Phil Tippett once kept them alive in the cinematic imagination but these days, outside of the ongoing Jurassic series, big-screen dinosaurs are a rare beast.

Now, finally, comes this dino-disaster-movie from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who have — as with their script for A Quiet Place — sketched another simple but effective sci-fi premise: what if a spaceman from another world crash-landed on our planet, 65 million years ago, at the tail end of the Cretaceous Period? It’s a basic idea which reframes dinosaurs not as the terrible lizards of wonder that captivated young minds in science classes, but deadly, terrifyingly unknown aliens.

This is a very straightforward, efficient kind of blockbuster. Following some rather gloopy exposition back on his home planet which establishes him as a stock-in-trade Sad Dad, Adam Driver ’s Mills crash lands on Earth within ten minutes. There is so little flab here, it is almost skeletal: not counting the prehistoric beasties, there are only four speaking roles, and one of them doesn’t even speak English. That would be Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), Mills’ fellow survivor, quickly taking the role of surrogate daughter for his real one, who is suffering from an unspecified illness (we’ll call it ‘Character Motivation Syndrome’).

65 breaks no new ground. But it is a short, sharp, largely original studio movie.

In the spaceman-falling-to-a-planet-that-turns-out-to-be-ours setup, there are faint echoes of Planet Of The Apes , but Beck and Woods aren’t especially interested in making any kind of satirical commentary on our world, past or present. Instead the film lurches into a lean genre exercise, a survivalist thriller that occasionally draws from the filmmakers’ horror background. The sheer hostility of prehistoric nature means peril is always lurking, the experience always at some degree of stress.

It plays more or less as you might expect: there are problems that require solving; there is a journey requiring the characters to get from A to B; there is, unhelpfully, the odd Tyrannosaurus rex in between those two points. The dinosaurs are fun and frightening (even if — sorry, paleontologists! — none of them have feathers here), and while plot holes loom like falling asteroids, it is at the very least handsomely presented, blending epic landscape cinematography — including lush location shooting in Louisiana's Kisatchie National Forest — with solid, subtle CGI.

It’s also bound together by a typically compelling Adam Driver performance. As he did in three Star Wars films , Driver brings a thoughtfulness to his genre character even when the screenplay doesn’t, a humanistic approach that grounds the bombastic silliness around him. He shares an easy warmth with Greenblatt, too, despite their characters speaking different languages, her character having hailed from the "upper territories" of their home planet. They commit, admirably, to the project at hand.

65 breaks no new cinematic ground, upends no rules, challenges no clichés. But it is a short, sharp, largely original major studio movie, unbound to any franchise or intellectual property — at a time when such a concept is being threatened with extinction. Also, it has a T-Rex in it. Sometimes, that’s enough.

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• Cast & crew
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An astronaut crash lands on a mysterious planet only to discover he's not alone. An astronaut crash lands on a mysterious planet only to discover he's not alone. An astronaut crash lands on a mysterious planet only to discover he's not alone.

• Bryan Woods
• Adam Driver
• Ariana Greenblatt
• Chloe Coleman
• 929 User reviews
• 176 Critic reviews
• 40 Metascore
• 1 nomination

• Nevine's Mom

• (uncredited)
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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia The warning sound made by the ship's computer just after the crash was first used as the sound effect for the Martian walkers in The War of the Worlds (1953) .
• Goofs At exactly 21:48 Mills is walking through some pine trees and the tree on his left has a red spray paint marking on it. The trailer reveals that these marks were made by Mills. However the scene was scrapped. (He later uses this powder substance to draw a map in it.)

Mills : It's not because of you; it's for you!

• Crazy credits The TSG Entertainment logo dissolves into stars in space, leading directly into the opening shot of the movie, which is a long pan through celestial wonders of space, until the planet Somaris comes into view.
• Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: Part of Halle's World (2022)

User reviews 929

• Mar 15, 2023
• How long is 65? Powered by Alexa
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• March 10, 2023 (United States)
• United States
• Cuộc Chiến Thời Tiền Sử
• Bray, Ireland
• Bron Creative
• Columbia Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $45,000,000 (estimated)
• $32,062,904
• $12,328,361
• Mar 12, 2023
• $60,730,568

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 33 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos

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65 review: a simple, bare-bones sci-fi thriller

“65 is a simple but effective sci-fi thriller that, thankfully, doesn't overstay its welcome.”

• Adam Driver's committed lead performance
• A lean 93-minute runtime
• Several intense, clever action sequences
• A messy, unpolished visual style
• An overly familiar story

The new movie 65 is a refreshingly unambitious sci-fi blockbuster.

Written and directed by A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the film is a straightforward, tight thriller that’s interested in little more than forcing its star, Adam Driver, to repeatedly fight a bunch of dinosaurs and other dangerous prehistoric creatures. The film employs no more visual effects than it absolutely needs, and it consistently makes strong use of its real-life environments and locations — most of which prove to be far more dangerous than they initially seem. In case its tight 93-minute runtime didn’t already make this clear: 65 doesn’t have any franchise aspirations, either.

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The film’s world-building is concise and efficiently delivered, and Beck and Woods’ screenplay doesn’t ever seem in danger of becoming obsessed with the kind of fictional minutiae or sci-fi gobbledygook that drag down so many other modern blockbusters. Its safeness and limited scope undoubtedly prevent 65 from rising to any truly great heights. However, there’s also something thrilling about the way 65 calls back to the days in which Hollywood’s sci-fi blockbusters could still be self-contained adventures that ask no more of their viewers than 90 minutes of their undivided attention.

As is alluded to by its title, 65 takes place around 65 million years ago and centers on Mills (Driver), a work-for-hire space pilot from a distant, technologically advanced planet. The film’s simple opening scene establishes Mills’ decision to take on a two-year transport mission in order to pay for the expensive medical treatments needed by his sick daughter, Nevine (Chloe Coleman). In its next scene, 65 catches up with Mills’ fateful mission as it’s upended by an asteroid field that damages Mills’ ship and sends him and his passengers crashing onto a nearby, uncharted terrestrial planet.

In the wake of the crash, Mills discovers that all but one of his cryogenically asleep passengers were killed by the destruction of his ship. Mills finds and wakes up the crash’s only other survivor, a young foreign girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), who unfortunately doesn’t speak the same language as Driver’s skilled pilot. Determined to make sure that Koa gets back home safely, Mills takes her on a multiday journey to his ship’s escape vessel, which landed over a dozen kilometers away from where he and Koa ended up.

Along the way, Beck and Woods reveal that Mills hasn’t crash-landed on just any terrestrial planet, but Earth itself. Mills is, therefore, forced throughout his and Koa’s journey to use his scientifically advanced weaponry to fight off a wide range of deadly prehistoric creatures. In what likely won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who has seen anything even remotely similar to 65 , Mills and Koa’s journey also results in the two characters gradually forming an intensely trusting, if unconventional, bond.

Despite what its dramatic opening title reveal would like you to believe, 65 is nowhere near as original as it thinks. Driver’s casting as Mills makes the film’s twist on a typical uncharted planet premise easy to accept, and 65 doesn’t have any more truly subversive tricks hidden up its sleeves. The film spends the bulk of its runtime following Mills and Koa as they encounter a series of dangerous creatures and obstacles over the course of their journey together. The film’s straightforward, obstacle-driven structure results in it feeling a bit repetitive in its second and third acts, which only makes the thinness of 65 ’s story feel that much more apparent at times.

There is, however, something uncomplicatedly thrilling about watching 65 ’s heroes come face-to-face with increasingly difficult challenges and still overcome them with their own brute force and intellect. There are moments throughout 65 in which Beck and Woods demonstrate the same knack for action storytelling that they did in A Quiet Place . That’s particularly true of one sequence in which Driver’s Mills is forced to fix his dislocated shoulder before a pack of dangerous, raptor-like dinosaurs get the chance to rip him and Koa apart.

Woods and Beck’s economical approach to 65 ’s story also allows the pair to make the most out of Mills’ various futuristic weapons. The duo often avoids relying on exposition by simply letting viewers watch Mills put his gadgets to use, as he does during one sequence in which he places a series of glowing markers around his and Koa’s camping spot. The character’s decision to place the markers where he does makes their purpose clear long before their yellow, pulsing lights turn red and Mills begins looking around in fear for any approaching creatures.

Beck and Woods’ visual style isn’t nearly as refined as their storytelling. There are numerous moments throughout 65 when the duo’s uneven mix of general coverage shots and dim lighting makes it difficult to maintain a clear sense of the film’s physical spaces. One underground showdown between Mills and an unidentified dinosaur is particularly confusing to watch due to both the overwhelming darkness throughout it and its lack of establishing wide shots. Beck and Woods bring much more control to some of 65 ’s other action sequences, but the duo’s visual style nonetheless comes across as disappointingly rough and messy during certain sections of the film.

Fortunately for it, 65 is luckier than most other Hollywood blockbusters because it’s led by Driver, a performer who is willing to bring the same level of commitment to films like 65 as he does to the more grounded dramas he typically stars in. Driver’s performance as Mills is so unsentimental and to the point that it ensures that the character’s rare moments of emotional vulnerability land with real force. In a way, the cut-and-dry nature of Driver’s performance is ultimately a reflection of 65 itself, a film that understands how even the most pared-down version of a story can still be compelling and entertaining if told with enough passion and focus.

65 is now playing in theaters.

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65 movie review: Adam Driver's sci-fi thriller both salutes and subverts the idea of heroism and hope

Writers and directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods present a story about survival, and design it with style with their new film 65.

Cast: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman

Directors: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods

Language: English

Why would someone title his film 65 ? The answer lies in the plot. A pilot called Mills ( Adam Driver ) is stranded on an unknown planet after a catastrophic collision and soon realizes he’s been marooned on Earth 65 million years ago. He now has nowhere to go, no means to escape, but he does have company to communicate with, Koa (a sure-footed Ariana Greenblatt).

Writers and directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods present a story about survival, and design it with style. Because this is the same duo that wrote A Quiet Place, 65 brims with silences and shocks. There are moments of deep quietness before an overwhelming surprise makes an appearance. But they have far more complex and compelling ideas in mind. Since the makers flirt with the idea of making a science-fiction, there are shots of dinosaurs and other creatures.

Cinematographer Salvatore Totino shoots the film meticulously with his lenses and at places, 65 bursts with imagination. There are minimal dialogues because it’s more important for Mills and Koa to escape than to sit and chatter. They do, in spurts. At one moment, tired and exhausted of finding means to escape, Mills says ‘I’m just tired,’ and Koa repeats those words. The moment may be amusing since she has the tendency to repeat verbatim what he says; but what if she’s tired too? What if she too wishes to escape from this unknown territory?

And that’s precisely why Beck and Woods’ writing works even when the film relies more on camerawork and visual effects. Adam Driver, for all his machismo, is a man of vulnerability. The character not only salutes but also subverts the idea of heroism. Here’s a hero that has the balls to be thrown into the deepest end but also who can feel panic and fear. And that’s precisely what Mills does.

65 may not be as refined or ravishing as the other survival thrillers or sci-fi adventures, but if you’re tired of mush and masculinity, this may be a slightly different experience.

65 is now playing in cinemas

Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)

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65 Movie Review : An underwhelming survival saga that tries hard to be Jurassic Park

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Why adam driver's 65 is important (even though it failed).

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Despite being produced by Sam Raimi and starring Adam Driver, 65 is a divisive sci-fi thriller, and even though it tends to overpromise while under-delivering, it's too important to fail. Driver plays Commander Mills, the unfortunate pilot of a multi-year exploratory mission who finds himself stranded on Earth 65 million years ago after his ship collides with an errant asteroid field.

Together with Koa, the only other survivor from the crash, he must navigate an inhospitable terrain and the ever-present threat of dinosaurs to reach the only remaining functional escape pod and try to get home. While this premise is thrilling, 65 has earned mixed reviews. Despite this, however, the movie as a whole represents a significant marker for Hollywood.

65 borrows different elements from sci-fi and dinosaur movies, most notably Alien and Jurassic Park with its blend of action, horror, heart, and even a little bit of humor. Unfortunately, reviews haven't been very kind, and 65's Rotten Tomatoes score is a career-worst for Driver whose filmography has always been diverse and prestigious. Finding its footing between the release of blockbusters like Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania , John Wick 4 , and Scream VI was never going to be easy, particularly as a mid-budget film. Nevertheless, there are reasons why films like 65 are vital to the future of movies that don't quite follow the Hollywood formula in recent years.

RELATED: One Detail Proves 65 Is Continuing Jurassic World's Best Dinosaur Fix

65 Stands On Its Own Without Being Part Of A Huge Franchise

Looking at marquee releases in recent years it seems like new installments to established IPs are the only movies getting attention, but 65 stands on its own merit. Seeing five preceding films leading up to it isn't necessary to appreciate 65 because it exists as a standalone film, something that seems to be in short supply in modern cinema. Even as legacy franchises like Top Gun try to avoid cynical sequel trends , there's a tendency for studios to only greenlight sure things, and they often won't take a chance on a risky movie that ambitiously tries to do too many things at once.

65 attempts a balancing act between multiple genres by blending a survival horror story with action-adventure and a subplot about grief, loss, and familial bonding. There's a lot going on, and even if it doesn't quite follow through on fully developing its characters or its world-building, it tries to do something a little different. While it definitely takes cues from Alien with the economical use of its movie monsters and the lived-in aesthetic of its set and prop design, 65 doesn't just copy Ridley Scott's game-changing masterpiece beat for beat. And even though it features dinosaurs, 65 breaks Jurassic Park dinosaur movie trends by making them scarier and less family-friendly – all exciting developments that deserve recognition.

65 Can Determine The Future Of Mid-Budget Movies At The Box Office

Tent-pole franchises involve budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars and expect a huge return on investment, leaving very little room for mid-budget movies that range from 40-70 million dollars to make and generally don't see large profits. Even if 65 is just moderately successful and people are curious about it, it makes a case for mid-budget contributions to cinema because audiences are getting MCU and Star Wars fatigue. If the success of Cocaine Bear and M3GAN at the start of 2023 has taught studios anything, it's that audiences will still show up for a mid-budget movie if its story is interesting and original.

Taking risks and applying different concepts won't make every mid-budget movie a winner, but at the same time, Hollywood can't rely on established IPs forever when audiences hunger for something new. Last year, box office bombs like Babylon raised concerns about Hollywood's future in a major way, and compared to the lean 90 minutes of the gritty 65 , Babylon seems like a bloated bomb of excess at nearly 3 hours, so the mid-budget movie is still finding its footing as studios learn what audiences want to see. The fact that 65 got made is still a win for movies of its ilk, and it may find future success on streaming. However, if the movie can find a theatrical audience, it could usher in a new era of original mid-budget productions.

RELATED: When Will 65 Release On Streaming?

65 Doesn't Need To Be Another Star Wars

Original sci-fi that stands on its own is hard to come by, particularly with so much Star Wars out there. Whether it's considered good or bad, 65 can be a perfectly entertaining one-and-done film. Despite the fact that Mills and Koa are from a human-like species on a planet that looks like it would be at home in the same system as Naboo, its world-building doesn't necessarily need to be explored any further because it's intriguing without relying on exposition. Looking at the state of Star Wars movies , 65 doesn't need to exist as part of an interconnected universe with spin-offs and sequels that dilute its material.

Adam Driver is no stranger to that galaxy far, far away after starring in the Disney sequel trilogy, and in his first sci-fi foray since leaving Kylo Ren behind, he imbues Mills with the same nuance that he did when embodying a big franchise villain. Not only is 65 an important movie because it's antithetical to what Hollywood is producing, it's important for Driver's career because it distances him from Star Wars , and also highlights his range as an actor. When an Oscar-nominated performer like Driver takes a chance on something like 65 because he wants the challenge rather than because he needs the money, it must be worth something.

MORE: 65 Might Be A Risk For Adam Driver (But The Role Makes Sense)

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65 movie review: Adam Driver film lacks imagination, wonder

65 movie review: for creatures who lived 65 million years ago, dinosaurs occupy a huge and pretty regular space in our lives since the first jurassic park came out..

This film is so half-hearted about itself that it even stops its title at the very unimaginative ’65’. Not ‘Before the Advent of Mankind’ (as its starting sequence proclaims). Not ‘Planet Somaris’ (from which sets off this ET story). Not ’65 Million Years Ago’ (which is where the 65 comes from). And finally not even ‘Here the Dinosaurs Come Again’ (which is what it is actually about).

This lack of imagination extends to the rest of the film, which is written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (the pair who wrote A Quiet Place).

For creatures who lived 65 million years ago, dinosaurs occupy a huge and pretty regular space in our lives since the first Jurassic Park came out. A sequel even appeared and sank just last year.

So how to do the dinosaur differently? Beck and Woods inverse the story in the film’s one original idea. Around the Jurassic era, when humans were of course not around on the Earth, there were other civilisations in distant planets exploring space. Planet Somaris being among them, from where Mills (Driver) sets off piloting an exploration which is meant to last two years. More than an adventure, he is looking to earn enough money to save his young daughter (Coleman) from a mysterious illness.

Before you can settle into the comforting or perhaps discomfiting thought that money makes not just our world go around, Mills has taken off, run into an unexpected meteor shower and landed on Earth. And into the path of some perpetually angry dinosaurs.

Only one passenger, preserved in cryostasis condition, survives the crash apart from Mills, and that’s a nine-year-old girl called Kao (Greenblatt). While Mills’s part of Planet Somaris seems to have effortlessly glided into English with an impeccable American accent, Kao speaks a language he can’t comprehend.

But, never mind. Few interactions are required when the plot needs you mostly to escape one dinosaur after another, while armed with the latest gadgets that Earthlings of today would admire. Apart from those creatures, Mills and Kao must encounter whatever an inhospitable Earth can throw their way: from leeches to falling stones to quicksands to insects that enter throats and reside there.

That said, Driver climbs out of his cynical, cold-ish self to take it all very seriously. Even condescending to let Kao pin a flower to his hair, as she sure enough slips into the role of the daughter that Mills desperately misses. Greenblatt is more of a natural, showing her vulnerabilities, exasperations, fear and later sorrow.

Given that we are familiar with both our dear old Earth, and its well-told dinosaur stories, it’s the interaction between the two that could have set 65 apart. Not many films involve a man and a girl (the tall, lean Driver magnifies the difference) fighting the odds. However, 65 rushes into another danger just when the two come close to having a moment.

For how to retrieve this story from becoming the bore it is, the filmmakers need not have looked further than that master crafter of both dinosaurs and extraterrestrials, Steven Spielberg himself.

He would have advised the filmmakers to look through the eyes of a child, and trust that one feeling which is absolutely missing in this story: wonder.

65 movie director: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods 65 movie cast : Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman 65 movie rating : 2 stars

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’65’ movie review: Dinosaurs meet spaceships, mayhem meets meditation in this Adam Driver fantasy

Adam driver grounds this sci-fi epic into a moving tale of human survival, underlining the film's central theme of adapting to the environment, instead of always altering it..

• The writers of 'A Quiet Place' franchise helm yet another emotional, thrilling and stunning survival drama.
• The world-building, though of the familiar prehistoric Earth, is enriched by a dash of futuristic elements.
• Adam Driver's aching intensity makes '65' stand out from the umpteen 'Jurassic' films we've devoured over the years.

Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, who co-wrote the post-apocalyptic franchise A Quiet Place with John Krasinski, are back with another action fantasy. But 65, that they’ve helmed as both writers and directors, is actually pre-apocalypse. It’s set 65 million years ago, when a spaceship from another human-like civilization crash-landed on Earth right before the Big Bang. It’s like a tiny island of future in a sea of prehistoric past, without relying on the tired crutch of time travel.

Adam Driver plays Mills, a space explorer by profession who lives on a remote Earth-like planet with human-like inhabitants. He leaves for a two-year exploration, his longest yet, promising his nine-year-old terminally ill daughter that he’d return soon. However, a meteor shower forces his spaceship to crash-land on Earth, where he has to find his way back home. The only fellow survivor is another nine-year-old girl who doesn’t speak the same language. They bond over their common quest of homecoming — while battling dinosaurs no less.

It’s fascinating to see the familiar creatures from the Jurassic franchise in an entirely new world. These dinosaurs aren’t kept captive by humans. They’re no experiment bubble that spills into the civilization. It’s the prehistoric era, so Earth is their yard. They’re the apex predators here and their evolution is arguably at the highest at this point. It makes them even more powerful, scarier and undefeatable.

This setting also allows production designer Kevin Ishioka and cinematographer Salvatore Totino to run wild with their imagination. The colours that prehistoric Earth is bathed in range from the apocalyptic red (when the Big Bang hits) to the unfiltered scathing yellow (no pollution, you see) to pitch black (fire hasn’t been invented yet) that allows enough room for our own imagination. Totino uses a curious low angle to study the lone figure of Adam Driver, stealthily moving against tree branches that look menacingly stunning.

Ishioka recreates this prehistoric Earth with as much precision as he designs the futuristic objects Miles brings with his spaceship. The flask containing water, the flashlight on shoulder, the binoculars-like scanner, the digitized gun — compact touches like these make 65 soar as a cutting-edge sci-fi drama.

But co-writers Wood and Beck also bring home the point that these advanced tools are rendered powerless in a domain where humans must learn how to survive in tandem with their environment, instead of relentlessly intervening with their own inventions.

This humbling, humane messaging is underlined by the conscientious actor that Adam Driver is. He’s no Chris Pratt who overcomes dinosaurs with the help of his superhero-like agility. He’s just an evolved human who uses every possible weapon in the arsenal of a man up against a wall. He thrives on the foundational idea of “necessity is the mother of invention”. But above all, with the throbbing ache in his eyes, determined stance in his walk and that slight tremor in hands and quiver in lips, Driver grounds this sci-fi epic into a moving tale of human survival. He’s the true-blue Adam on this Earth, in every way.

Co-directors Wood and Beck allow his meditative performance the time and space through long, silent takes, tight close-up shots and an unhurried yet crisp screenplay. Owing to this slow-burn treatment, editors Josh Schaeffer and Jane Tones manage to slide in jump-scares that feel more earned than inserted. The action set pieces are strategically located, economically designed yet dramatically structured. They derive the thrill out of the Jurassic but also don’t bombard the viewers with uninterrupted action.

In that, 65 becomes a fine conduit of duality: there’s method and mayhem, past and future, seamlessly unified by a keen vision and a solid clutter-breaking central performance.

65 is playing in cinemas.

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Home » Reviews » Hollywood Movie Reviews

65 Movie Review: Someone Thought Adam Driver Fighting Dinosaurs Would Look Cool & Never Developed The Idea Beyond That

65 never bothers to start parallel stories, it is more invested in speeding up and telling a tale that is predictable.

Star Cast: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman, and Nika King.

Director: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.

What’s Good: Adam Driver driving his way through space and falling on Earth only to be as clueless as we are. The actor is too convinced.

What’s Bad: Well, the path that is too short and bumpy in all the wrong ways which affects his driving. Why do these dinosaurs look nothing like real dinosaurs, even with all the technology?

Loo Break: There are a few jump scares where nature might knock. You can take one before the climax starts unfolding because there are some good visuals there.

Watch or Not?: You won’t miss anything if you wait for this to land on your OTT ground.

Language: English (with subtitles).

Available On: Theatres Near You!

Runtime: 94 Minutes.

Mills (Adam Driver), a space driver, takes a 2-year job to export people in cryostasis to another planet. After bumping into an asteroid storm, his spaceship falls on Earth in 65 Million A.D. Populated by a variety of dinosaurs; he is stranded on a planet with a survivor Koa (Ariana Greenblatt).

65 Movie Review: Script Analysis

The world of cinema had a technical reset moment when Steven Spielberg showed us that even dinosaurs with a story given to them could be brought alive on the big screen. His Jurassic Park series, followed by Jurassic World movies, have set and become benchmark of dinosaur content across the globe. Somebody now decided to bring in Adam Driver and make him fight the giant Lizard only to  grill one in the end like it’s easy has made the Spielberg fan in us cringe.

Written by the duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, 65 is an idea that gives room for multiple possibilities and numerous storylines. It takes us 65 Million years back on Earth when two people from a very advanced planet fell from the sky, and are stranded between the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period. This could venture into the complexities of space and time and the landscape, or how the man has now no means but to develop something on this new planet, or how he forms a bond with this young partner as they are fighting to survive.

But 65 never bothers to start those parallel stories. It is more invested in speeding up to tell a tale that is predictable. It all makes you wait for a twist that might make this film unique. Unfortunately, it never does. Dinosaurs keep attacking, weird looking insects make all the attempts to bite, and the lead characters are running from point A to B, saving themselves with the most predictable trajectories. Whatever you see on the screen isn’t bad or unbearable, but nothing is like something you have never seen before. It is tried and tested formula, and to add more dismay, the makers don’t even use the characters to raise human conflicts in this wilderness.

There is a father of a dead teen daughter, a girl clueless that her parents died in the same crash that she survived; there is so much to explore when two people with tragic pasts come together. But the movie chooses to speed up so fast that it is least bothered about any catharsis. The short runtime kills it even more.

65 Movie Review: Star Performance

Adam Driver’s conviction in 65 is worth mentioning. The actor is convinced that he is out there to kick-start a franchise, so he acts well and becomes the best part of the movie. He is clueless, and so are we. You deserve better, Adam.

Ariana Greenblatt is a very natural performer because she doesn’t even have dialogues, but she makes us feel her pain of losing her parents even in this loosely written screenplay, and that is worth appreciating. The actor can do wonders if given a more lucrative and indulging character.

65 Movie Review: Direction, Music

The idea of hiding the giant monster and only revealing bits and pieces of it to surprise the audience by unraveling the majestic beast in the end only works if there is enough time involved in first setting up the beast and second at least giving him an entire sequence with full visibility with the protagonist. 65 does neither, and the majestic beast ends up being just another animal and not the mighty dinosaur who could end Adam’s life in a small size bite. Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods do no good to redeem their product that has dulled in the first 30 minutes.

Why do the dinosaurs look like they were designed for a fantasy show? Barring the giant beast, all the other dinosaurs never look real. Steven Spielberg made some in the last century and they made us dread them even when we knew they weren’t real. If technology can’t even ace half of his brilliance decades later, what exactly is the use of all that budget?

Christopher Nolan has done a brilliant job at explaining the world how space is a vacuum and sound cannot travel through it. Remember how Interstellar went all silent when the scene shifted outside the spaceship? 65, which is marketed as Sci-fi, forgets that very detail, and we hear the sound of a moving spaceship in a top-angle shot in the space. The audience is becoming more competent, you guys.

The music is average and even more than required in some places.

65 Movie Review: The Last Word

Adam Driver tries to make so much sense of a movie with enough to be a strong franchise but decides to rush with a predictable story without trying to branch out. Adam deserves better. We deserve better!

65 releases on 17 March, 2023.

Share with us your experience of watching 65.

For more recommendations, check out our Puss In Boots: The Last Wish Movie Review here.

Must Read: Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania Movie Review: Dead Iron Man Would’ve Snapped Again, This Time To Thanos’ Help, After Seeing This!

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