Rated Greg’s Top 5 Ryan Reynolds Movies

1. Just Friends
2. Adventureland
3. Mississippi Grind
4. Safe House
5. Deadpool  Life

It’s nice to see Ryan Reynolds finally starting to get good roles after a decade of wasting away on otherwise crappy movies.  He always reminded me of one of those NBA players that puts up good stats on bad teams for years until they find the right situation, like when Zach Randolph landed on the Memphis Grizzlies after dealing with the Blazers, Knicks, and Clippers clusterfucks.  Most would point to Deadpool as the role that turned things around for the former Van Wilder but his best work is actually in 2015’s gambling road trip dramedy Mississippi Grind (criminally unseen but is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, so lets change that).

Anyways, Reynolds stars in the space horror, Life, along with Jake Gyllenhaal (reigning WAR leader) and Rebecca Ferguson.  A movie about a group of astronauts being terrorized by a bloodthirsty alien in a confined space will obviously remind people of 1979’s Alien, but just because Life can’t come close to Ridley Scott’s masterpiece doesn’t mean it’s not worth seeing.  What the movie lacks in originality definitely makes up for in execution. Once the suspense starts after your standard 20 minutes or so of introduction it does not let up until the very last image.  2017 has been horror heavy so far (Split, Get Out) but this is the first film that is legitimately terrifying.

I do have one beef with it.  The title.  Life is the best they could come up with?!  I mean…..I get why it’s called Life, it’s about the discovery of life on Mars and all, but come on!  If you’re gonna take a premise beat for beat that’s been done before, you can at least come up with an imaginative title.  Let’s ignore the fact that there was already a prison movie called Life starring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence.  But it’s also a TV show, a cereal, and that piece of shit board game (I don’t appreciate the game’s derogatory sentiments towards accountants).  Titles I would have proposed are Calvin, Space Danger, Space Gyllenhaal, and Watch Out!.

Ok. Rant over. Contrary to a lot of reviews I’ve seen, Life is well worth the trip to the theater.  Grade: A-