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Science fiction author David Brin says there is just one reason for time travel: “Make it didn’t happen.” The idea of correcting, no, preventing one mistake is an irresistible fantasy. And whether it's about protecting the future mother of the only hero who can lead a rebellion against Skynet or making sure your own parents fall in love so that you and your siblings will be born, the movies have given us some of our favorite stories of rescue operations by traveling through time. “The Adam Project” is a popcorn pleasure from the director and the star of last year’s “ Free Guy .”

It begins with a banger, indeed one of the banger-iest songs of all time, Spencer Davis Group’s 1966 “Gimme Some Lovin’.” It is not there to tell us where we are in time or anything about rocket ship pilot Adam Reed ( Ryan Reynolds ). No matter, it’s just there to bring a jolt of energy as we join the story mid-chase. We know Reynolds can play other characters, but here he is what he does most and best, a snarky action hero. “What are you doing, Captain?” the instantly recognizable voice of Catherine Keener asks over speaker. “I think it’s pretty obvious I’m stealing this jet.” We are told that it is 2050 and time travel exists but we don’t know it yet. And we can see that Adam is in trouble. Both he and the ship have been hit. “I’m sorry to interrupt what I’m sure is going to be a really scary threat,” he says as he jams her tracking system and evades capture by escaping through a wormhole that takes him back to 2022.

Meanwhile, in the present, Adam Reed, age 12 ( Walker Scobell ), is getting suspended for the third time for fighting with a bully. He and his mother ( Jennifer Garner as Ellie) are still mourning for Adam’s father, who was killed in a car accident more than a year before, and he is angry about that, about being small for his age, about pretty much everything and so he is very big with the snarky comebacks, even when he knows it means a beating.

Big Adam arrives at Young Adam’s house (his old house), injured, with a damaged ship. Reynolds and Scobell are a terrific match, with the same rhythms, both in observation and in snark. They also have the same scar under their chins and the same watch, their dad’s watch. It does not take long for Young Adam to figure out he is talking to his future self. It takes a little longer for Big Adam to realize that his younger self deserves some compassion. While he tells Young Adam that it is all of the trauma he experiences that will give him the strength and cynicism he relies on as an adult, he learns that maybe a little less trauma will be beneficial to them both.

It also does not take long for the bad guys to arrive, along with two key figures I will not spoil. “The Adam Project” deftly balances the action with the comedy inherent in conflict between the two Adams. Both versions of Adam are exceptionally good at getting on the nerves of everyone around them, and it's fun to see how they are at the same time irritated by and appreciative of each other’s smart-aleck comebacks. Big Adam does not want to be reminded about how unhappy and angry he was as a 12-year-old. Young Adam is as thrilled at the prospect of growing up to look like Ryan Reynolds as he is to learn that there is such a thing as time travel and ride in a real space ship. He does not understand how unhappy and angry his future self is, but we do.

The characters make references to “The Terminator” and “ Back to the Future ” but the film also draws from the underrated “ Frequency ” and from stories going back to the myth of Orpheus. And fans of “13 Going on 30” will appreciate seeing Garner and Mark Ruffalo as a devoted couple. (Ruffalo unfortunately does not have any scenes with co-star Zoe Saldaña, who played his wife in the indie gem “ Infinitely Polar Bear .”)

The film more than delivers on the promise of its premise with better-than-expected production design from Claude Paré for the futuristic gizmos and special effects by Scanline VFX for the way they are deployed. The action and fight scenes are very well staged, especially one with a tender reunion in the midst of the mayhem. Big Adam’s warming to his younger version gives the story some heart in the midst of the mayhem as well. There is genuine tenderness in his realization that anger does not prevent sadness and that second chances are possible. The action and fantasy are fun, but this is what families will want to talk about after they watch it together.

On Netflix tomorrow.

Nell Minow is the Contributing Editor at RogerEbert.com.

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The Adam Project (2022)

Rated PG-13 for violence/action, language and suggestive references.

106 minutes

Ryan Reynolds as Big Adam

Walker Scobell as Young Adam

Zoe Saldana

Mark Ruffalo as Louis Reed

Jennifer Garner as Ellie

Catherine Keener as Sorien

Jonathan Tropper
T.S. Nowlin
Jennifer Flackett

Cinematographer

Tobias A. Schliessler
Dean Zimmerman
Rob Simonsen

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‘The Adam Project’ Review: Back Talk to the Future

Ryan Reynolds plays a time traveling wise cracker in Shawn Levy’s science fiction adventure.

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By Natalia Winkelman

Early in “The Adam Project,” a pipsqueak asthmatic named Adam (Walker Scobell) and his golden retriever gallivant through the woods among shimmering falling debris. The cause of the wreckage, Adam learns, is a time jet that was crash landed by his older self (Ryan Reynolds) traveling from the future. This is pure ’80s sci-fi pastiche for the ages. Add a few flying saucer chases, cook up a quickie solution to the grandfather paradox and this movie might have fallen at the intersection of “E.T.” and “Back to the Future.”

Instead, “The Adam Project,” directed by Shawn Levy, might as well be called “The Ryan Reynolds Project.” Last summer, Levy and Reynolds teamed up under a different Hollywood juggernaut to deliver the clamorous video game flick “Free Guy.” This new movie ( on Netflix ) is a comparable package — noisy and formulaic, but still occasionally enjoyable. Reynolds recycles his trademark twerpy charisma, using quips to punctuate battle scenes that are spiced up with special effects. Mileage for the actor’s wise guy persona will vary — I’ve personally had my fill for several lifetimes, with or without time travel — and it’s hard here to separate the movie from the leading man.

This is because Reynolds imbues Adam with such excitable, exhibitionistic energy he might as well be waving jazz hands. Levy and the screenwriters, Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, have crafted in “The Adam Project” a vehicle that enables Reynolds to multiply his shtick by two. By allying Adam with himself, not only can Reynolds poke fun at his adversaries — “your outfits are incredible,” he gushes at one point to a squad of henchman — he can actually mock his own insufferableness. “You have a very punchable face,” he tells Adam the preteen early in their peregrinations. Scobell, for his part, mirrors Reynolds’s mien with precision, making the duo feel less like Marty McFly and Doc Brown than twin sidekicks who stumbled into the spotlight.

Their adventure begins when the adult Adam, visiting 2022 from 2050, explains to his kid accomplice that time travel has ruined mankind, and impeding its invention is their only hope. Complicating the mission is Adam’s dad, Louis (Mark Ruffalo), a physicist who models traversable wormholes, and Louis’s ruthless business associate, Maya (Catherine Keener). How tampering with the past will upset the future — including Adam’s marriage to fellow insurgent Laura (Zoe Saldaña) — is a mystery that the movie declines to dwell on.

Blissfully under two hours, “The Adam Project” is no modern classic. But it does benefit from an affecting finale that pays special attention to Adam’s strained relationship with his father. Reynolds may play the smart aleck, but beneath Adam’s zingers he is compensating for a profound pain, and Louis is critical in activating his son’s tender side. It’s an unexpectedly sweet note to end on. Or perhaps it’s just that after a double dose of wise cracking, some authentic feeling is a welcome respite.

The Adam Project Rated PG-13. A little battle, a lot of prattle. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

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The adam project, common sense media reviewers.

Stylized violence, language in emotional time-travel tale.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Our time on earth is short. It's easier to be angr

People make personal sacrifices, including risking

Main characters are mostly White except the lead c

Frequent sci-fi action violence, plus bullying. Ki

Kissing, in one case passionately and presumably l

"S--t," partial "motherf----r," "ass," "a--hole,"

Car brands, beer signs at bar.

Adults drink wine, liquor, and beer.

Positive Messages

Our time on earth is short. It's easier to be angry than sad, but sometimes you can forget there's a difference. Family provides a child's place in the world and sense of identity. Kids don't need a parent to be perfect; they just need a parent to be there for them. Sometimes scientific discoveries can be used for negative purposes. It pays to be a nerd.

Positive Role Models

People make personal sacrifices, including risking their own lives, for the larger good of humanity. Parents and kids learn they can support each other through difficult periods rather than retreating into their own emotions. Adults and kids both cover their true emotions with sarcasm and feigned indifference. A father shares his love and pride for his grown son.

Diverse Representations

Main characters are mostly White except the lead character's wife, who is Black. Main characters are "nerds" and scientists, and a running theme is how being a nerd can pay off.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Frequent sci-fi action violence, plus bullying. Kids tease and punch an asthmatic kid who's smaller than them. A character has a bleeding gunshot wound. A father died in a car accident. A sympathetic character is killed. Multiple deadly fights with futuristic soldiers, some fistfights and battles between humans. Futuristic weapons kill humans and robots by shooting, stabbing, disintegrating, electrocuting, beating. A tween attacks robots with a video game-like drone system. Car chases result in cars shot at, flipped over, and exploded. A man jokes about wanting to drown an annoying kid. A character has a stash of weapons in her floor.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Kissing, in one case passionately and presumably leading to sex. Jokes about "penis," getting "laid," and a jacket that makes a man "look like a condom with buttons."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"S--t," partial "motherf----r," "ass," "a--hole," "damn," "goddamn it," "bitch," "hell," "crap," "moron," "jeez," "jerk," "balls," "turd-burper," "loser," "pee," "frickin'," "suck." "God" and "Christ" used as exclamations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Adam Project is a time-traveling mystery starring Jennifer Garner , Ryan Reynolds , and Zoe Saldana that has lots of action and humor, as well as emotional family drama that includes deaths of loved ones. A son has never properly forgiven his father for dying young and takes it out on his mother, who's also grieving. When an older version of himself shows up, he's drawn into an adventure that gives him the chance to go back in time and repair those relationships. But that adventure is quite dangerous, and while it allows the child to escape bullying kids who tease and punch him, it also puts his life in jeopardy repeatedly. Multiple deadly fights with futuristic soldiers involve weapons used to kill by shooting, stabbing (one bloody wound is treated), disintegrating, electrocuting, and beating. A tween attacks soldiers with a video game-like drone system. Car chases result in vehicles being shot at, flipped over, and exploded. A man jokes about wanting to drown an annoying kid. There's also a lot of language ("s--t," partial "motherf----r," "ass," "a--hole," "goddammit," "bitch," and more). Expect to see kissing, sexual innuendo, and drinking, too. Underlying the action are positive messages about the importance of family, the value of communicating genuine emotions, and the benefits of "being a nerd." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (16)
Kids say (46)

Based on 16 parent reviews

Potentially great movie to watch with kids Fails due to crude actor!

Not appropriate for children., what's the story.

Left home alone one evening while his widowed mother ( Jennifer Garner ) goes out on a date, Young Adam (Walker Scobell) discovers a wounded man on his property at the start of THE ADAM PROJECT. The man ( Ryan Reynolds ) turns out to be an older version of himself, and he eventually explains that he has traveled back in time to discover how his wife ( Zoe Saldana ) was killed, and maybe save her. Time travel is possible thanks to technology initially created by Adam's dad ( Mark Ruffalo ) but put to nefarious use by his business partner, Maya Sorian ( Catherine Keener ). Big Adam has been followed back in time by Sorian and her robot-like soldiers, putting his life -- and that of his younger self -- in jeopardy.

Is It Any Good?

The real surprise in this fun, layered, time-traveling action mystery is the tenderness with which family relationships and sentiments are handled. The Adam Project gives its characters the opportunity to go back in time to right misdirected relationships and fix missed chances to fully express their feelings for each other. While the concept of time travel is nothing new (Young Adam's blue puffy vest could be a direct nod to Back to the Future's Marty McFly), the way it's handled here as a device for a more intimate character study is compelling. An especially moving scene is when Big Adam encounters his mom in a bar and helps her understand her son's feelings, as well as her own.

The action scenes and visual effects are of course well done (though the de-aging of Keener is a little creepy), and they're set to classic rock and choreographed with character-revealing dialogues. A memorable example is when Young Adam repeats Big Adam's condescending tough-guy advice back to him when the latter is in a vulnerable position. The actors here are cast to type: Reynolds as a wise-cracking reluctant hero, Garner as a mom, Saldana as a brave action hero, and Ruffalo as a scruffy sage. The discovery is Walker Scobell as Young Adam. He manages to match Reynolds' sarcasm, smarts, and knowing looks, rather than the other way around, acting that was necessary to make their oneness as versions of the same character believable. While the setting doesn't play a huge role, the lush forest right outside Adam's house is magical and vaguely reminiscent of scenes from E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial .

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the two versions of Adam in The Adam Project . How are they alike and different? What do they learn from each other? What would you say to a younger version of yourself, given the chance?

What is the world of 2050 like, judging by the descriptions given by characters who have traveled back to 2022? What do you envision the future to look like?

How does this film weave action, drama, fantasy, and comedy together? What genre would you call the movie, if you had to pick just one?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : March 11, 2022
Cast : Ryan Reynolds , Walker Scobell , Mark Ruffalo
Director : Shawn Levy
Studio : Netflix
Genre : Fantasy
Topics : STEM , Magic and Fantasy , Adventures
Run time : 106 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : violence/action, language and suggestive references
Award : Common Sense Selection
Last updated : February 17, 2023

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Ryan reynolds in netflix’s ‘the adam project’: film review.

The star reteams with ‘Free Guy’ director Shawn Levy, playing a time traveler who returns to fix the world while reconnecting with his preteen self and late father.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Ryan Reynolds as Big Adam and Walker Scobell as Young Adam in The Adam Project.

In Shawn Levy ’s Free Guy , Ryan Reynolds starred as a non-player videogame character who breaks free of his programming to score himself a life and make a difference to a joyless world. Reuniting with the director on The Adam Project , another high-concept, highly derivative clutch of ideas from mostly better movies, Reynolds again tries to escape his programming by juggling his usual glib shtick with off-brand sincerity. That’s as hard to buy as the film’s awkward mashup of time-travel mayhem with sudsy melodrama about a fractured family’s path to healing.

As Netflix has shown repeatedly with the non-prestige end of its original film output — for instance, Red Notice , also featuring Reynolds on smirking autopilot — subscribers will eat up these star-driven concoctions no matter how recycled the plotting, making the movies more or less review-proof. That no doubt will prove to be the case again with this orphaned Paramount project, originally conceived as a Tom Cruise vehicle.

Full credits

Distributor: Netflix Production companies: Skydance, Maximum Effort, 21 Laps Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Walker Scobell, Catherine Keener, Zoe Saldaña, Alex Mallari Jr., Braxton Bjerken, Kasra Wong Director: Shawn Levy Screenwriters: Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin Producers: David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds Executive producers: Mary McClagen, Josh McClagen, Dan Levine, Dan Cohen, George Dewey, Patrick Gooing, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin Director of photography: Tobias Schliessler Production designer: Claude Paré Costume designer: Jenny Eagan Music: Rob Simonsen Editors: Dean Zimmerman, Jonathan Corn Visual effects supervisor: Alessandro Ongaro Casting: Carmen Cuba

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The Adam Project Review

A slick, futuristic family romp that captures the spirit of ‘80s sci-fi..

The Adam Project debuts on Netflix on March 11, 2022.

There are some movies that stick with you from the moment you first see them. The Last Starfighter is one of mine. Growing up in the ‘80s, I knew the importance of an arcade high score and The Last Starfighter was the ultimate in sci-fi wish fulfillment. Many of us kids of that time dreamed of becoming a Starfighter. We watched Flight of the Navigator and E.T. in the hopes that we would one day get to experience an epic sci-fi adventure of our very own.

The Adam Project is this generation’s The Last Starfighter.

Ryan Reynolds stars as Adam Reed, a futuristic fighter pilot who’s stolen a time jet in order to leap back in time and save the woman he loves. It’s a neat, simple concept that’s made into something greater when he’s shot down mid-time-jump and ends up several years off course… and only his younger self (Walker Scobell) can help him get back on track.

The Adam Project is like a leap into the past – a film that revels in the sci-fi nerdiness of the ‘80s while packing epic adventure and heartfelt life lessons into a fun, time traveling yarn.

What’s the best '80s sci-fi family film?

Of course, young Adam is suitably freaked out upon meeting his older self – at least at first. Thankfully, it’s not long before the two Adams are trading verbal blows, with Ryan Reynolds in top form, spitting out quips like they’re going out of fashion. But it’s not just more of the same from Reynolds.

Instead, there’s a subtle weariness to future Adam that hides decades of daddy issues, and while Reynolds plays his usual sarcastic shtick for laughs, he balances that out with a pensive, more restrained performance that draws out the real story – it’s all about their dad, played by the ever-charismatic Mark Ruffalo. The Adam Project is as much about reconciling Adam’s own past as it is about saving the future, a neat touch that elevates this beyond a simple time-travel yarn and gives the film a lot more depth.

Walker Scobell is an absolute revelation, too. The young newcomer really digs into what makes young Adam tick, piloting his favorite video game like an ace while getting the crap kicked out of him at school. Best of all, the chemistry between young and future Adam is just about perfect.

Their back and forth is truly inspired, giving the film a humorous edge as future Adam rediscovers what a dork he used to be. Scobell holds his own opposite Reynolds, too, matching his trademark acerbic wit pound for pound. He's the perfect young Adam to Reynolds' future Adam, and he’s definitely one to watch.

Best Sci-Fi Movies On Netflix

That clash of personalities extends to The Adam Project’s design choices, too, as director Shawn Levy walks an interesting line between ultra-futuristic and comfortably retro. It’s perhaps to be expected from a filmmaker who has brought us both Stranger Things and Free Guy , but the marrying of two different styles works incredibly well.

Future Adam’s plight has a lot in common with Minority Report as he desperately tries to alter his own destiny, aided by his ultra-futuristic, DNA-locked tech from a sleek and shiny future. But for young Adam, it’s more of an ‘80s romp.

The mysterious spacecraft crash in the woods behind his home has distinct Flight of the Navigator vibes, with Adam keeping his time-traveling secret from his mother like Elliott from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Tugging at our nostalgia strings is the aim of the game here, and it works so well. Thankfully, it’s a lot more than that, with a stylish take on futuristic time travel that works incredibly well.

The Adam Project is also packed full of impressive action sequences. The fight scenes are furiously simple yet beautifully effective… and while future Adam may not admit that his energy stick weapon is a lightsaber, it really kind of is. And even though young Adam is no fighter, he too gets his time to shine with an impressively manoeuvred drone takedown that compliments future Adam’s fisticuffs.

You can feel a certain chemistry between Reynolds and his director, too, with Levy getting the absolute greatest out of his leading man. In fact, Reynolds is in the best form we’ve seen in a long while. A triumphant, sweeping score from Rob Simonsen completes the retro-futuristic feel, punctuating this feel-good adventure with epic crescendos and highlighting the mounting lit-by-flashlight tension with classic ‘80s synth vibes.

On the surface, The Adam Project is another attempt to hook us with nostalgia. The action-packed sci-fi adventure is straight out of our childhoods, and it will definitely resonate with viewers of a certain age. Thankfully, it’s a lot deeper than that. The Adam Project also tells a story about reconciling our past and really coming to terms with the life we’ve lived and the choices we’ve made.

Netflix Spotlight: March 2022

Click through for a spotlight on some of the most notable March 2022 Netflix releases.

The Adam Project is an absolute delight for those of us who lived through the ‘80s… or for those who wish they had. Its retro-futuristic stylings are kept in check by a laser-sharp script and some truly wonderful exchanges between Reynolds and his younger self, Scobell. Throw in a handful of epic action scenes and an almost-lightsaber and The Adam Project gives us a sci-fi epic that will really take you back.

The Adam Project is a thoughtful, witty mash-up of all the movies from my childhood. It’s Back to the Future meets The Last Starfighter with a slew of wonderful performances from a cast that clearly loves the concept as much as I do. Ryan Reynolds is on top form as Adam, while Walker Scobell matches him punch for punch with a great debut performance. The Adam Project is a love letter to the family sci-fi flicks of the ‘70s and ‘80s, packed full of Amblin-like charm.

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The Adam Project Reviews

“The Adam Project” latches onto viewers and takes them on an exhilarating joyride.

Full Review | Oct 31, 2023

The Adam Project is not a perfect film, but it’s exactly the kind of film we need right now: a highly enjoyable adventure with the right dose of nostalgia and plenty of heart.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 1, 2023

What an INCREDIBLE, thrilling Adventure that took me back to early 80’s Sci-fi features that contains a charm that is irresistible. + The heart of it all will leave you an emotional wreck.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

The Adam Project will undoubtedly be a big hit for Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds, and Netflix. The film goes beyond its sci-fi time travel tropes and delivers some wonderful character-rich performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 4, 2023

The Adam Project was very entertaining ride for the whole family. Has great character roles from Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffulo and new comer Walker Scobell they all have great chemistry that even in times of this being very silly it never goes off the rails

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Dec 26, 2022

Free Guy director Shawn Levy reteams with star Ryan Reynolds for a half-hearted attempt to recapture the heyday of Amblin Entertainment, which results in one of the laziest sci-fi blockbusters in quite some time.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Dec 10, 2022

That’s probably all the audience should expect from a picture like this, one released direct-to-streaming for delivery of perfunctory content meant to bring eyes to the service, but not providing the level of quality one can often find at the cineplex.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 22, 2022

A glossy amalgamation of much better action-adventure fare.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 6, 2022

Above all else, it may be the only time you'll get to see a bullet wound be the means by which to make a fart joke in a movie...so at least it's got that going for it?

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 23, 2022

Never have I heard such hyperactive dialogue so painfully lacking in wit that I often struggled to even follow the basic plot.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Jul 26, 2022

It's pleasures are frontloaded so by the time it reaches its generically explosive plot hole riddled conclusion, interest has long since waned.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jun 14, 2022

A science fiction adventure with lots of humor. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | May 16, 2022

Well put together and functional, it feels as though we are in unexplored territory. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 13, 2022

The goal here is to make you feel good about the magic that movies can grab a hold of, even if only temporarily--and how simple father-son pathos can cue the waterworks when performed well.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | May 10, 2022

At most, the screen equivalent of a really good Big Mac, and as much as you might like McDonalds, theres a reason those restaurants dont get Michelin stars.

Full Review | Apr 25, 2022

When Levy tries to get serious and introspective, as little Adam forces Big Adam to confront the psychological pain of losing his father, the movie discovers a new kind of cinematic time travel by making the film slow to a crawl.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 17, 2022

I really enjoyed it.

Full Review | Apr 12, 2022

Whats really disappointing is that there was obviously a better movie somewhere in there, but dumb action sequences outmuscle the more successful parts of the story.

Full Review | Apr 5, 2022

Project isn’t brimming with originality, but it knows how to fit familiar parts together in an entertaining way.

Full Review | Apr 1, 2022

The delightful scenes between both older and younger Adam are the films crux, providing a pleasant viewing experience for families--Reynolds is a natural when comedy is involved, and viewing him yet again in a sci-fi role is a treat.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 31, 2022

‘The Adam Project’ Review: Ryan Reynolds Meets His 12-Year-Old Self in Shawn Levy’s Back-to-the-Future Action Confection

Their first collaboration after "Free Guy" is just a clever derivative trifle, but it shows why this star and director bring out the best in each other.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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Somewhere along the line, Ryan Reynolds became the most playful actor we have. That might sound like faint praise; some would call him silly or lightweight or even, in his aggro irreverance, a touch smarmy. But genuine fast-break insolence is a quality that’s missing from the lumbering cheek of most of our paint-by-numbers blockbusters. Reynolds has a knack for playing characters who are nonchalantly macho but with an amusing touch of cowardice, a contradiction he invests with a kind of innocence. He’s got a Nervous Nellie side that humanizes him, especially when it takes the form of a nerd’s verbal machine-gun fire. In his way, he’s a new screen type: the brainy goof in a pinup’s body.

Last summer, in the diabolically clever video-game head trip “Free Guy,” Reynolds finally got to be in a movie where the jittery digital-age fantasy elements skittered by every bit as quickly as his rapid-patter mind. The film was as jammed with media as Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” but more relaxed about its own insanity, and that seemed to liberate Reynolds; it was the most accomplished work he’d done since “Deadpool.” The director Shawn Levy , who made the “Night at the Museum” films, also hit a new peak — of life-is-a-screen-and-we-just-live-in-it imaginative verve. “Free Guy” was the rare sleeper hit of the pandemic era, and Reynolds and Levy emerged from it as a kind of team. These two click rhythmically and chemically. They bring something out in each other.

“ The Adam Project ” is their follow-up collaboration (both are executive producers of it), but it’s the Netflix version: a notch more anonymous, packed with fantasy and action as if it were being financed by the yard. At its best, though, you feel the exuberance of the Reynolds/Levy connection. The movie is a total trifle, but it’s often a diverting one — a wide-eyed sci-fi adventure with a screwball buoyancy.

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Reynolds, in a beard that makes him look like a smirky G.I. Joe, plays Adam Reed, a time-tripping renegade fighter pilot from the year 2050 who travels back to 2022, where he hooks up with his 12-year-old self: a small-for-his-age blond kid, played by the terrific Walker Scobell, who makes up for his stature — and for just about everything else — with the size of his brain and the sharpness of his mouth. He’s a sweet kid, yet so cuttingly observant that he can talk himself into getting punched by the school bully. Adam razzes his mother, Ellie ( Jennifer Garner ), and since they’re both still coping with the death of his father in a car accident a year-and-a-half before, she experiences the effrontery as an attack.

Adam, in cynical movie terms, needs a buddy who can be a father figure. And what buddy could be more ideal for him than his own self, 30 years later? Reynolds’ Adam, who drops into a woods lit with ’70s Spielbergian blue light and skulks around bleeding from a bullet wound, talks as much smack as 12-year-old Adam does. He’s just what the kid need and deserves. But there are, in addition, a whole lotta back-to-the-future logistical backflips going on. The premise of “The Adam Project” is that time travel exists, and that adult Adam has traveled back to the wrong year — he really wanted to land in 2018, so that he could stop Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener), his diabolical flight commander, from returning to that same year and causing all kinds of dastardly things to happen, starting with the death of Adam’s wife, Laura (Zoe Saldaña).

“The Adam Project” is the kind of time-travel movie that spins your head until it turns your head to mush. It’s the sort of film in which Catherine Keener, facing off against her de-aged self, warns of “the potential for catastrophic changes to the time stream,” and all you can think is: I liked time better before it became the time stream. These films bend over backwards to chase the tail of their own “logic” (if you go back in time and meet your younger self, how will that mess with the cosmos? And if, in fact, you change anything , how will that mess with the cosmos?), but the questions are inevitably more incisive than the answers. Because the simple eternal truth is that the more you think about time travel the way this movie asks you to, the less sense it makes.

But “The Adam Project” isn’t heavy-duty sci-fi. It’s a glossy bauble of a caper that uses time travel as a frame for action that’s staged as effusively as the demolition in a Road Runner cartoon. For a few scenes, the movie is “Top Gun” in the northwest. Then it’s a “Star Wars” ninja video game with adult Adam using a double-sided industrial light saber to fend off an army of metal droids that he reduces, with each saber slash, to orange-pink psychedelic powder. And once the characters return to the pivotal year of 2018, it becomes an absent-daddy bonding movie (more Spielberg!) with Adam’s late physicist father, played as a scruffy volatile professor by Mark Ruffalo , alive and well, which he needs to be because he’s the scientist who invented time travel. To save the future, Adam wants to eliminate that miraculous ability from the earth. But if he does, how will he meet Saldaña’s perky Laura?

The action scenes are choreographed to classic rock — “Gimme Some Lovin’,” “Foreplay/Long Time” by Boston, Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times, Bad Times.” The real time travel in this movie is back to the days when even action could be a boisterous form of feel-good entertainment. “The Adam Project” is the definition of trivial, and on the small screen it overstays its welcome by about 15 minutes, but it’s a brashly likable piece of antic high-powered fluff. Here’s my own leap into the future: As a team, Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy are going to make much better movies than this one, but you can feel the tastiness of their combo even in a kinetic marshmallow like “The Adam Project.” They’re not trying to fake fun.

Reviewed online, March 8, 2022. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 106 MIN.

Production: A Netflix release of a Skydance Entertainment, Maximum Effort, 21 Laps production. Producers: David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds. Executive producers: Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, Dan Levine, Dan Cohen, George Dewey, Patrick Gooing, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin.
Crew: Director: Shawn Levy. Screenplay: Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin. Camera: Tobias Schliessler. Editors: Dean Zimmerman, Jonathan Corn. Music: Rob Simonsen.
With: Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Walker Scobell, Zoe Saldaña, Catherine Keener.

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The Adam Project review: Ryan Reynolds confronts his younger self in goofy time-loop adventure

A tale of two Adams, 30 years (and one tear in the space-time continuum) apart.

Leah Greenblatt is the critic at large at Entertainment Weekly , covering movies, music, books, and theater. She is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, and has been writing for EW since 2004.

Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy 's first pairing, 2021's Free Guy, turned out to be one of the best small surprises of a very weird year: a glossy sci-fi blockbuster with a tender little Ted Lasso heart. Their second, The Adam Project (on Netflix Friday) arrives a scant seven months later — thank pandemic math for that — in a somewhat messier state, though the through-lines aren't hard to find. Like Free Guy , Adam hangs a lot on Reynolds' rat-a-tat banter and a winky awareness of all the multiplex tropes it's tweaking, even as it drills down on the all-you-need-is-love message at its squishy center.

Unlike Guy , it's is also purposefully positioned as a family film, with a Spielbergian sense of wonder to cut through all the pew-pew noise. That's a lot of disparate pieces to bring together tonally, and some bits just don't fit. The movie-logic premise of it all, at least, is hard to argue with: Time travel exists, and Reynold's circa-2050 Adam Reed is somehow able to revisit his 12-year-old self (Walker Scobell) without immediately ripping a space-vortex wormhole in everything Stephen Hawking ever taught us (though Hawking does happen to be the name of his childhood dog).

Adult Adam's crash landing in 2022 is actually a miscalculation; he was aiming for 2018, into which his wife Laura ( Zoe Saldaña ), a fellow pilot, recently disappeared and has been presumed dead following a standard flight exercise. But he's also been injured in his escape by Maya Sorian ( Catherine Keener ), the mendacious CEO who seems to control all this technology, and by extension most of the apocalyptic world he lives in. So he needs Young Adam's healthy DNA to help him get behind the wheel again, though he could clearly do with less of the rest of him.

He's not the only one: Though Scobell is an appealing young actor, the script (credited to four writers) insists on making him the kind of precocious, relentlessly verbal tween that only exists on screen. And the bullies at school, accordingly, heed the call of his "punchable" face literally; even his infinitely patient mother ( Jennifer Garner ) finds him impossible. (Reynolds' Adam puts it more succinctly: "Don't you just want to hold him underwater till the bubbles stop?") That exasperation wanes as the movie goes on — his brattiness, of course, is just the defense mechanism of a lonely, undersized kid still grieving the recent death of his dad ( Mark Ruffalo ) — and emotional breakthroughs get their due.

The narrative moves beyond its bickering Adams when Saldaña and an amiable, rumpled Ruffalo come in, though you wish Levy trusted his story enough not to fill every spare moment with expensive needle drops and the kind of high-key banter that inevitably ends up sounding like borrowed Deadpool in the mouths of most actors who aren't Reynolds. There are other distractions, like the face de-aging effects no current film can seem to go without, and an oddly cast Keener, whose impassive villainy worked better in Get Out than it does here. The life lessons, too, are unabashedly Hallmark-y (Hug your mother! Especially if she looks like Garner). For all its earnest sentiment and questionable science, though, Adam barrels along on movie stars and charm, from futures past and back again. Grade: B -

The Adam Project Feels Like a Fake Movie

The Adam Project doesn’t feel like a real movie. It feels phony both from the outside — Ryan Reynolds traveling back in time to meet his 12-year-old self and do battle against futuristic soldiers could be something you’d see on a movie poster in a not-too-inventive showbiz satire — and from the inside, too. It’s an assemblage of ideas from other popular films that just hangs there with little cohesion. It’s like watching a movie that hasn’t been made yet.

And the strangest thing is that The Adam Project seems to know this. The great challenge with Reynolds has always been how to handle the fundamental insincerity of his presence. He has a way of making everything he says feel predetermined. That can actually lead to some interesting performances, and he’s at his best in roles that embrace this calculated quality: He made a great con artist/gambler in Mississippi Grind and a convincingly patronizing frat bro in Van Wilder . Last year’s Free Guy wasn’t exactly great, but he was kind of perfect as a NPC, a non-playable character, who attains sentience; that robotic aura of his made sense for someone who existed entirely inside a video game.

Shawn Levy, the director of Free Guy , is also the man behind The Adam Project , and the two films do share an almost psychotic, all-you-can-eat derivativeness. Reynolds plays Adam Reed, whom we first see piloting some kind of futuristic spaceship in the year 2050, while nursing a wound in his stomach, right before he makes a time jump to the year 2022. He lands in the woods outside the home that he lived in as a child with his widowed mother (Jennifer Garner). Twelve-year-old Adam (Walker Scobell) is scrawny and asthmatic, a wise-ass constantly picked on by bullies. But the boy quickly realizes that this wounded, buff, cynical soldier is his future adult self, and before we know it, the two of them are off on the next stage of Adam’s mysterious mission to undo the past.

It’s not actually that mysterious. The time-travel technology of the future was, we learn, invented by Adam’s late scientist father, Louis (Mark Ruffalo), in 2018, in a collaboration with wealthy businesswoman Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener). In 2050, Sorian has somehow used this technology to turn Earth into a hellhole. (We have to take the movie’s word for it — or rather Adam’s, when he notes that The Terminator would be “a good day” in the future. We don’t really see any such thing.) So the two Adams now have to jump back to 2018 and stop their father from turning time travel into a thing. I think. My brain shut off after a certain point.

It’s all quite silly, but at least the latter parts of the film allow us to spend some time with Ruffalo, who brings the kind of emotional openness and engagement that Reynolds refuses to. That is actually an interesting contrast between the two actors, and it could even be an interesting plot point in some future version of this movie that was put together with something resembling care. (Sadly, the great Keener is not as lucky as Ruffalo. She’s thoroughly wasted. In fact, she’s worse than wasted. In some later scenes that present us with an awkwardly de-aged version of her, Keener is actually turned, through the magic of modern motion picture visual-effects technology, into a bad actress.)

Regarding the movie’s premise: You probably have a lot of questions at this point. I assure you that The Adam Project does not answer any of them. It’s a film designed to thumb its nose at geeks who might wonder just what exactly this movie’s conception of time travel entails, but it also isn’t going to satisfy those of us who think films already spend too much time trying to make all their fake science work. This isn’t exactly Claire Denis’s High Life or Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris . Shawn Levy isn’t going to counter nerdy obsessives with fuck-you formalism.

No, Levy simply wants to entertain, which is certainly a noble goal. He has paced the film at such breakneck speed that he presumably hopes we’ll be having too much fun to wonder how any of this works. But it’s not just the dorky sci-fi stuff that goes out the window. The emotional logic is discarded as well. When the two Adams meet, the older Adam assures us that the younger Adam is annoying as hell. And yet, the exact opposite seems to be true; the kid seems like a pretty average kid, while grown-up Adam is the irritating smart-ass. Is this intentional? Who knows? Who cares? The movie has lots of ideas, but it doesn’t follow through on any of them. Over and over, it just moves onto the next disjointed plot point. Derivativeness in and of itself isn’t always a problem. Even corporate cynicism isn’t necessarily a problem. But when it’s all handled this shoddily, what comes through is crass, careless opportunism.

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User reviews

The Adam Project

After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self for a mission to save the future. After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self for a mission to save the future. After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self for a mission to save the future.

Jonathan Tropper
T.S. Nowlin
Jennifer Flackett
Ryan Reynolds
Walker Scobell
Mark Ruffalo
1.2K User reviews
221 Critic reviews
55 Metascore
1 win & 13 nominations

(as Zoe Saldaña)

Maya Sorian

Young Sorian Body Double

Paul the Bartender

8-year-old Adam

(uncredited)

University Student

Time Soldier
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

Trivia When Louis Reed ( Mark Ruffalo ) says that he 'gets' a student's T-shirt during a lecture, the shirt has a picture of Nicolas Cage , but the name John Travolta under it. This is a reference to the John Woo film Face/Off (1997) in which the two actors played each other's characters. Cage and Ruffalo also had collaborated on Woo's Windtalkers (2002) .
Goofs At 1:27:09 Louis mentions the gun fires rounds that contain a magnetic steel core; so, the weapon itself should have been pulled towards the reactor at the start of the breach, considering it pulls all things magnetic towards it. This would include its contents.

Big Adam : Laura, this is... me.

Young Adam : Hi.

Laura : Parallel contact, babe?

Big Adam : Well, you know, you've always said that you wished you'd met me earlier. Here I am.

Connections Featured in MsMojo: Top 10 Memorable Kisses in Netflix Original Movies (2022)
Soundtracks Gimme Some Lovin Written by Spencer Davis , Muff Winwood (as Mervyn Winwood), Steve Winwood (as Stephen Lawrence Winwood) Performed by The Spencer Davis Group Courtesy of Island Records Ltd./Capitol Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User reviews 1.2K

Mar 12, 2022
How long is The Adam Project? Powered by Alexa
March 11, 2022 (United States)
United States
Official Netflix
Our Name Is Adam
British Columbia, Canada
21 Laps Entertainment
Maximum Effort
Skydance Media
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$116,000,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 46 minutes
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Digital

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Why 'The Adam Project' is a different kind of Ryan Reynolds project

Glen Weldon

Adam (Ryan Reynolds) and Young Adam (Walker Scobell) spend The Adam Project needling each other in a timestack. Netflix hide caption

Adam (Ryan Reynolds) and Young Adam (Walker Scobell) spend The Adam Project needling each other in a timestack.

The Adam Project is a light, clever, consummately PG-13 time-travel yarn about Adam (Ryan Reynolds), a pilot from the future, who travels back in time to prevent [REDACTED] from [REDACTED]ing — only to overshoot and wind up further in the past than planned. He's forced, for reasons that do not stand up to even the breeziest moment of reflection, to enlist the aid of his 12-year-old self (a legitimately funny, bracingly unprecocious Walker Scobell), thereby risking precisely the kind of time paradox that time-travel films cannot exist without risking.

Understand: In terms of moviemaking, no genre is redefined, here; no game gets changed. But the Netflix film is a relatively streamlined affair that moves at a gratifyingly brisk clip, wasting little time on backstory (or forwardstory, or alternatetimelinestory, for that matter). It manages to feel intimate, as it never leaves its setting in present-day Rainier, Washington, where Young Adam and his mother (Jennifer Garner!) share one of those gorgeous glass-walled houses nestled deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest that instantly transforms The Adam Project into a two-screen experience because you'll find yourself envy-surfing Zillow listings on your phone while you watch. Its cast is low-key terrific (Catherine Keener as the villain! Zoe Saldana as Adam's (very) close ally! Mark Ruffalo as Adam's dad!), and Reynolds and Scobell have an easy, unforced chemistry.

The film's fine — pretty good, actually. It's a very deliberate, if at times too-dutiful, homage to movies like Back to the Future , E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and, especially, Flight of the Navigator . Recommended, if you and your kids are looking for something to pass a gray March weekend afternoon.

But that's not what I've called you all here to discuss.

Let's talk Ryan Reynolds, you and me. And why The Adam Project feels like a small but significant — and possibly even hopeful — departure for him.

The Van Wilder effect

Look: Ryan Reynolds is a star. He's handsome, charismatic, fit and funny.

That magnetic star quality was evident as far back as his ABC sitcom, Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place , which debuted in 1998 and ran for four uneven seasons. On that show, he first locked into a persona that solidified around him in the 2002 film Van Wilder : The Popular Guy.

Y'all remember The Popular Guy from school. He was most likely a jock, possibly even a quarterback, but not the meat-headed kind that'd push you and your fellow nerds into lockers. No, he was the other kind of jock, the kind that wasn't looking for a career in the NFL, but only trying to gain some leadership experience and expand his extracurriculars.

The poster for National Lampoon's Van Wilder.

He carried himself with a confidence that he always worried might get mistaken for cockiness or swagger, so he took pains to keep in check. He cracked jokes, sure, but was always careful not to cut anyone down. Teachers loved him, students envied him. He was on a first-name basis with the custodian, with whom he talked car-racing; the lunch-servers snuck him extra tater tots. He went out of his way to ask to sign your yearbook at graduation, though you'd never talked to each other; when you read it later, you found that he'd left his number and invited you over to his house to swim at his pool over the summer. You knew that this was just a cruel joke that he and his friends were pulling, and you had just a scosh too much self-respect to ever actually make that phone call, yet it's true that the first time you read his note, you flushed with a stupid kind of excitement, imagining for one magical instant that you'd somehow fundamentally misread the previous four miserable years of high school and okay I now realize what I'm describing may have been something less than a universal experience and more of a Me Thing so uh let me get back on track and refocus on my original thesis.

Anyway: Ryan Reynolds, Popular Guy.

Again and again, he's chosen roles that highlight what comes easiest to him: Witty banter, mischievous humor, ingratiating charm. And he's carefully blended it with something that comes much less naturally: A pitched self-deprecation we can tell is a put-on, a carefully calculated gambit to win us over and convince us that he's just a regular guy.

He's not of course; he's Ryan Reynolds, movie star.

But there's a difference between choosing roles suited to your gifts and using your gifts to force roles into suiting yourself. The Ryan Reynolds who starred in The Hitman's Bodyguard and Red Notice and Green Lantern and R.I.P.D . and The Change-Up and 6 Underground and The Proposal and the Deadpool films is essentially the same guy, cracking jokes (or, in the case of the Deadpool films, making references ) and coasting on trickster charm.

Movie stars possess and exploit definable personae, to be sure. And certainly the actor has made efforts to stretch into more grounded territory before ( Buried, Woman in Gold ). But Reynolds' growing reliance on his repertoire of easily recognizable actorly tics has caused something to happen.

Too easily, and too often, his natural charm can spill over into off-putting smarm. His wittiness can read as mere glibness. That cockiness he's so careful to couch in performative, over-compensating self-deprecation can leak out and reveal itself to the world.

Last year's wildly overwrought Free Guy — Reynolds' previous pairing with The Adam Project director Shawn Levy — attempted to correct for all this by having him play a literal computer-generated cipher, a background video game character (just a regular guy, named: Guy) who gets upgraded and leveled up into a hero.

Ryan Reynolds as Big Adam and Jennifer Garner as Ellie in The Adam Project. Doane Gregory/Netflix hide caption

Ryan Reynolds as Big Adam and Jennifer Garner as Ellie in The Adam Project.

The Adam Project as acting project

Make no mistake: The Ryan Reynolds on display in The Adam Project is a familiar one. He's funny in the way he usually is, he's handsome and buff and charismatic as ever.

But the reason his performance works as well as it does is that he doesn't lunge at it, in the way we've come to expect him to. Consequently, the film feels slightly less like the Ryan Reynolds vehicle it was no doubt conceived to be. He hasn't disappeared into the role of time-traveling pilot Adam by any means, he's just doing a bit less obvious, outward work to embody it.

Perhaps it's a function that Adam is a smaller, less antic character than the ones Reynolds usually assays — he's more purpose-driven, sadder. Maybe it's that the script gives him more moments to breathe as an actor, as in an emotional scene he shares with Garner in a bar. It's a scene that risks coming off as sentimental, even syrupy, and that's probably why it lands so nimbly — because we can see Reynolds actually risking something in it.

It's also possible that the performance works because so much of it exists in the interplay between the two Adams — Reynolds and Scobell. In their many scenes together, Reynolds allows his familiar, keyed-up, outward persona to recede, in order to really listen to the other, younger actor, who doesn't so much steal focus as confidently accept it. (The kid's terrific, really.)

There's yet another Deadpool on the way, where Reynolds will find himself back on his home, Glib 'n' Smarmy TM turf. But The Adam Project , as pleasantly slight as it is, gestures toward a career trajectory the actor might enjoy in the years to come, after that jawline softens, that tight bod inevitably enDaddens itself, and his characteristic brio settles into the less effortful confidence of middle-age.

Screen Rant

The adam project review: old & young ryan reynolds capture spielberg magic.

The Adam Project is a charming and fun sci-fi throwback, fueled by a strong script and one of Reynolds' best performances.

After achieving success with last year's Free Guy , director Shawn Levy and star Ryan Reynolds collaborated again on Netflix's new sci-fi movie, The Adam Project . The two films are cut from a similar cloth, seemingly modeled after original, high-concept genre films prevalent in the 1980s ( Back to the Future and E.T. were cited as Adam Project influences). Free Guy was a pleasant surprise, earning praise from critics and audiences, raising expectations for the duo's next outing. Fortunately, this latest work delivers. The Adam Project is a charming and fun sci-fi throwback, fueled by a strong script and one of Reynolds' best performances.

Reynolds stars in The Adam Project as Adam Reed, a fighter pilot who time travels from the year 2050 and finds himself in the present day. There, he encounters his younger self (Walker Scobell), a 12-year-old kid grieving the death of his father, Louis (Mark Ruffalo) and making life even more difficult for his mourning mother, Ellie (Jennifer Garner). On a desperate mission to save the future, the older Adam enlists the help of his younger self to thwart Maya Sorian's (Kathleen Turner) plans.

Related: Netflix: Every Movie & TV Show Releasing In March 2022

The Adam Project mercifully doesn't get bogged down in time travel mechanics, wasting little time to get the two Adams together on their journey. The rules the film follows will largely be familiar to anyone who's seen similar titles The Adam Project draws inspiration from. Big Adam and Young Adam's dynamic is a greater focus in the script and their relationship with their parents is the movie's emotional core. Young Adam is a nuisance for Ellie, treating her poorly as she tries to keep her head above water. In contrast, Big Adam harbors strong animosity towards Louis. Conversations between the two Adams help them see things from a different perspective, fueling poignant and effective arcs. The sci-fi elements are an entertaining backdrop for a story that's about something much more, allowing The Adam Project to pull at the heartstrings.

Reynolds is reliably embodying an onscreen persona audiences are familiar with, though he is given moments of emotional sincerity to help flesh the character out. In particular, his interactions with Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana (playing Big Adam's wife, Laura) are quite moving, efficiently conveying pertinent information about the characters' relationships to get audiences invested. Reynolds also has excellent chemistry with Scobell, a perfect choice to play a smart-mouthed, younger version of his character. The two play off of each other very well — whether the scene calls for dramatic beats or comedy (the script has some amusing meta jokes about Reynolds). Turner is oddly the weakest link in the supporting cast, though that has more to do with the writing than her performance. Maya comes across as a two-dimensional, power-hungry villain who is just an obstacle for the Adams to overcome.

In terms of sci-fi action, The Adam Project doesn't reinvent the wheel (though there are some neat visuals and concepts). What makes it click is the strength of the characters and their personal stories, getting viewers invested in what's happening onscreen. While the Adams' personal journeys are great, there is a bit of a disconnect with the larger genre plot. Issues with the storytelling stem from telling rather than showing, especially as the terrible 2050s future Big Adam is trying to prevent is hardly shown. This negatively impacts the overall stakes a little bit, but isn't enough to weigh the film down. As a time travel story and a narrative about coming to terms with loss, The Adam Project works well with its fast pace and fun moments.

Levy is developing more movies with Reynolds, and it's safe to say the pair have a winning formula. The Adam Project should generate anticipation for whatever's next — be it Free Guy 2 or another original title. It harkens back to the classic Amblin films (including E.T. and the Back to the Future trilogy) and refreshingly isn't occupied with setting up a franchise. The Adam Project is the kind of high-profile film that likely would have found success at the box office, so it'll probably be a major hit for Netflix, giving the streamer an entertaining genre film with wide appeal. Those who enjoyed Levy and Reynolds' earlier works will find something to latch onto here.

Next: Watch The Adam Project Trailer

The Adam Project will be available to stream on Netflix on March 11, 2022. It runs 106 minutes and is rated PG-13 for violence/action, language, and suggestive references.

Key Release Dates

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The Adam Project Review

11 Mar 2022

The Adam Project

After working together on last year’s Truman Show -esque action-comedy Free Guy , director Shawn Levy and star Ryan Reynolds are back in the saddle, this time on an original sci-fi romp with a timey-wimey twist. Cinematic nostalgia is still the order of the day as we collectively continue to seek reminders of better times, and Levy’s movie — based on a T.S. Nowlin spec script from 2012 — duly obliges, offering a throwback slice of escapism with plenty of heart.

Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) is a time-travelling pilot on a mission to find his wife Laura (a typically strong Zoe Saldana ), who went missing under mysterious circumstances. Pursued by the villainous Sorian ( Catherine Keener ) — a vacuous big bad who exists almost solely to send baddies to their lightsabering doom — Adam crash-lands in the present day, where he makes an unlikely friend in his younger self (Walker Scobell). Merciless Reynoldsian ribbing, several opened cans of whoop-ass and some earnest soul-searching ensue as the two Adams search for Laura, fend off Sorian, and find themselves travelling back in time to meet their late father ( Mark Ruffalo , giving 13 Going On 30 fans the reunion with an excellent Jennifer Garner they’ve desired), who turns out to be the inventor of time travel.

Levy’s cinematic eye for otherwise innocuous details really leaves a lasting impression.

Working in the ’80s Amblin tradition (echoes of Back To The Future and E.T. are rarely far away), Levy uses the fantastical conceit of The Adam Project to offer a film that’s constantly searching for moments of emotional intimacy within the broader blockbuster framework. The genre’s bread-and-butter tropes are all present and correct here — gigantic spaceships, pew-pews, vrooshes and high-stakes showdowns — though their application mostly serves as a reminder of a dozen other films that made better use of them. What plays to the director’s strengths are the small, personal moments: an overdue hug, a whispered apology or a simple game of catch. Levy’s cinematic eye for otherwise innocuous details really leaves a lasting impression.

The real aces up Levy’s sleeve here are newcomer Walker Scobell and Ryan Reynolds. 13-year-old Scobell — a Deadpool megafan — uncannily nails Reynolds’ cadence and sardonic wit as a young Adam, commanding the lion’s share of the film’s big laughs. Opposite him, Reynolds — galvanised by a script that resonated with his own emotional response to losing his father in 2020 — digs deep to portray a man whose biting humour is used to hide a storm of emotions within. It’s arguably his best performance since 2010’s Buried (one scene with Garner, who plays Adam’s mum, is a career best). When the film gives the two Adams space to work through their grief together, allowing Scobell and Reynolds to really explore the way loss shapes and reshapes us over the course of our lives, it’s beautiful.

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Review: Recycled ideas keep time travel flick ‘The Adam Project’ stuck in the past

A man and a boy in a forest at night look to the sky in the movie “The Adam Project.”

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What if you had a chance, as an adult, to revisit nagging issues with your parents? To reconcile with your younger self? Could it fix the past, or possibly even the future? This is the question undertaken rather literally in Shawn Levy’s clever time travel flick “The Adam Project.”

Levy and star Ryan Reynolds recently collaborated on “Free Guy,” and “The Adam Project,” written by Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, makes similar use of Reynolds’ strength as a motor-mouthed leading man, a movie star who can simultaneously pull off comedy and action hero antics. “The Adam Project” is doubly quippy with the presence of Walker Scobell, who plays Young Adam to Reynold’s Big Adam, and matches him beat for beat when they meet in their respective timelines.

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As the film explains, “time travel exists, you just don’t know it yet,” asking the audience to suspend their disbelief and just go on this journey, a high-concept sci-fi action adventure that’s more about the symbolic repair of father-son relationships than it’s actually about time travel.

Big Adam comes from 2050, and he’s crash-landed in 2022, in his old backyard, where Young Adam, a twerpy tween who’s too smart by half, is trying to survive age 12. Big Adam was aiming for 2018, in search of his missing wife ( Zoe Saldaña ), but while he’s stopping over in 2022, he needs to fix his ship and heal from a gunshot wound, which offers him ample opportunity to hang with his younger self.

But it’s not all shared quirks and beating up bullies, as the fight that Adam’s chasing finds him, and suddenly he and Young Adam are on the run from a nefarious time-traveling tech mogul, Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener). The only way they can fix things is to go back one last time to find their father (Mark Ruffalo) and stop him from inventing time travel (again, just go with it).

“The Adam Project” is clearly inspired by films like “Back to the Future” and “The Terminator,” both directly referenced in the script. There are shades of more recent films too, such as Rian Johnson’s time-traveling-assassins drama “Looper,” while “Guardians of the Galaxy” comes to mind with the presence of Saldaña and a soundtrack stuffed with classic rock. Keener’s evil mogul is reminiscent of Kristen Wiig’s “Barb & Star” supervillain Sharon Gordon Fisherman. It feels like a retro adventure film, with a precocious kid and an exasperated adult playing “The Odd Couple” but with more fighting lasers and killer robots. Despite all the complexities of time travel on display here, the story feels neither innovative nor fresh.

What makes “The Adam Project” unique is its grounded aesthetic, the woodsy, organic landscape of the Pacific Northwest offering a backdrop for the super high-tech futuristic weapons of invisible planes and light saber bow staffs. There are some remarkable shots, especially in the first half of the film, juxtaposing the world of 2022 with the weapons of 2050, a contrast that mirrors the relationship between the Adams.

The first half is the more intriguing as older and younger tussle with each other and ask the tough questions, figuring out their mission together. But it all falls apart in a hackneyed third act, as the characters end up in a rote standoff, bargaining for a thingamajig to save the world. Plus, every scrap of nuance in the conversation about reconciling their past and present selves is jettisoned for aggressive sentimentality.

By the time a golden retriever puppy trots by for a game of catch, the film has shot right past emotional resonance and landed squarely in the realm of patronizing (unsuccessful) manipulation. This time travel movie is so rife with daddy issues, it’s a shock it wasn’t rolled out for Father’s Day. Unfortunately, what could have been something cerebral and stimulating ends up feeling like more disposable cinema.

Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'The Adam Project'

Rated: PG-13, for violence/action, language and suggestive references Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes Playing: Available March 11 on Netflix

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The Adam Project Review: A Refreshing Throwback to ’80s Adventure

By Jonathan Sim

Following the success of their 2021 action-comedy Free Guy , director Shawn Levy and actor Ryan Reynolds reunite for their newest movie, The Adam Project . This sci-fi action-adventure stars Reynolds as Adam Reed, a time traveler who meets himself as a 12-year-old boy after crash-landing in 2022 and enlists the help of his younger self for a mission to stop the creation of time travel and save the world.

In a blockbuster movie climate filled to the brim with superhero movies, many of us, myself included, have watched movies that came out in the ’80s and ’90s and thought, “Damn, they don’t make movies like this anymore.” However, after Levy and Reynolds cracked cinematic success with a new IP summer blockbuster hit in 2021, their newest project is the type of movie Hollywood doesn’t often make anymore. It may be a movie featuring the talents of the actors of Deadpool, Hulk, Gamora, and Elektra, but this is a refreshing film in the backdrop of never-ending superhero content.

This movie was everything I wanted it to be. It was a throwback to the whimsical adventures of decades past, with influences ranging from Star Wars to Back to the Future . The movie is unafraid to throw in quick references to its references, and it succeeds in recapturing the childlike wonder of that era. Adventurous and inspiring at every turn, this movie has space travel, time travel, and every type of travel that will keep you entertained throughout its exceedingly well-paced runtime.

Reynolds is electric in this movie as Adam, a fighter pilot who needs help on a journey through time. While Reynolds is an easy actor to poke fun at for always playing characters with similar personalities, his sarcastic humor leads to excellent comedic moments. This is an exceedingly well-written film as Reynolds isn’t spouting punchline after punchline, but every time he does, the movie becomes hilarious. He is matched by Walker Scobell, who portrays a 12-year-old Adam. Scobell is a star in the making, perfectly capturing Reynolds’s comedic timing and even recycling Deadpool’s “superhero landing” joke.

The action sequences are a thing to behold. Levy knows how to make the punches feel hard, and he throws everything he has at these sequences. There are fight scenes, a car chase, a jet chase, and every single one is marvelously helmed. In addition, the movie has fun with its science-fiction technology, with Adam using a weapon similar to a lightsaber but with a new twist. There are drones and invisible jets and many inventive ideas that lead to delightful action scenes.

While Free Guy felt like a movie made primarily for entertainment, The Adam Project goes a bit further by spending a surprising amount of time building character conflicts. Early on, we learn that Adam’s father died in a car accident, and as a child, Adam did not know how to process it. Having an older Adam speak to his younger self leads both versions of the same character to have revelations about themselves, revealing their deeply flawed core. The movie uses time travel not just for an enjoyable story but also to create a fascinating character dynamic.

The Adam Project is much more than a forgettable action flick with time travel. By using time travel to show a man seeing his former self make mistakes and doing everything he can to fix them, the film becomes about a person facing his younger self and his own problems head-on. The places the movie takes the character are awe-inspiring, and the film’s attention to fleshing out our protagonist is what makes the movie better than just another disposable Netflix movie.

Sometimes the best types of movies are the ones that do everything well. The Adam Project has equal amounts of action, adventure, sci-fi, comedy, and drama, complete with a splash of romance. We also have an all-star cast with Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner in a 13 Going On 30 reunion, Zoe Saldaña as Adam’s wife, and Catherine Keener as the antagonist, Sorian. Unfortunately, Sorian may be the weakest link out of everything in the film, as the movie is so focused on the heroes that the villain is the most underwritten aspect of the film.

While Sorian won’t top any best villain lists, this is still a beautifully stylish movie with Levy’s excellent eye for excitement. It feels like a Spielberg film, the type of ’80s movie a child watches at a young age and grows up to have nostalgia for. With Reynolds’s big mouth, kick-ass action sequences, some great laughs, and even greater character drama, The Adam Project is a monumental success that you should recommend to anyone who wants a good movie to kick back, relax, and enjoy.

SCORE : 9/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 9 equates to “Excellent.” Entertainment that reaches this level is at the top of its type. The gold standard that every creator aims to reach.

Jonathan Sim is a film critic and filmmaker born and raised in New York City. He has met/interviewed some of the leading figures in Hollywood, including Christopher Nolan, Zendaya, Liam Neeson, and Denis Villeneueve. He also works as a screenwriter, director, and producer on independent short films.

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‘The Adam Project’ is a fresh and fun movie with winning performances from Ryan Reynolds and the entire cast.

Director Shawn Levy delivers his best film yet, based on an entertaining and original screenplay that pulls influences from ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Field of Dreams.’

(L to R) Walker Scobell and Ryan Reynolds in Netflix's 'The Adam Project'

Premiering on Netflix beginning March 11th is the new time-traveling movie ‘ The Adam Project ,’ from ‘ Free Guy ’ director Shawn Levy . The film stars ‘Free Guy’ and ‘ Deadpool ’ actor Ryan Reynolds as a time-traveling pilot from the future who travels to the past and teams-up with the 12-year-old version of himself in order to save the timeline.

In addition to Reynolds, the cast also features Zoe Saldana , Jennifer Garner , Catherine Keener , Mark Ruffalo , and newcomer Walker Scobell . The result is a really fun and fresh take on time-traveling comedies like ‘ Back to the Future ,’ but also adds the emotion of ‘ Field of Dreams ,’ and features terrific performances from Reynolds and the rest of the cast.

The movie begins by introducing us to Adam Reed (Reynolds), a rebellious pilot from the future who steals a spaceship and travels to 2022, while he is pursued by law enforcement. We are then introduced to a 12-year-old version of Adam (Scobell), who lives alone with his mom (Garner) after his father, Louis Reed’s (Ruffalo) recent death. The two Adams soon meet, and the older Adam explains that in the future, time travel exists, and that he has returned to find his girlfriend Laura (Saldana), who went missing after a recent mission.

With soldiers from the future chasing the older Adam, he soon finds Laura and discovers the truth behind her disappearance. Laura explains to Adam that the timeline has been changed by powerful business woman Maya Sorian (Keener), and it is up to them to stop her from permanently changing the future. Realizing that it was their own father’s scientific experiments that led to the creation of time travel, the two Adams go back to before their dad’s death to get his help in stopping Sorian, who at the time, was Louis’ business partner.

(L to R) Zoe Saldana and Ryan Reynolds in 'The Adam Project.' Photo via Twitter.

(L to R) Zoe Saldana and Ryan Reynolds in Netflix's 'The Adam Project.'

I can’t begin to tell you what a joy it was to watch this film. In a market place packed with sequels, remakes, reboots, and movies based on previous source material, it is so refreshing to see a completely original movie as good as ‘The Adam Project.’ Written by Jonathan Trooper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, the film is completely original and could easily become a franchise in the future.

‘The Adam Project’ marks director Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds second collaboration, after last year’s terrific ‘Free Guy.’ As much as I enjoyed that film, ‘Adam Project’ is even better than ‘Free Guy’ and packs more of an emotional punch, especially with its father/son themes.

Shawn Levy is an incredibly talented director, but I didn’t care much for his early films, including ‘ Cheaper by the Dozen ,’ ‘ The Pink Panther ’ and the ‘ Night at the Museum ’ franchise. But 2011’s ‘ Real Steel ’ showed elements of what the filmmaker is truly capable of when he takes on more adult themed projects like ‘ Date Night ,’ ‘ The Internship ,’ ‘ This Is Where I Leave You ,’ and ‘Free Guy.’ ‘The Adam Project’ is a true culmination of his entire career, and the best movie he’s ever directed.

The supporting cast is excellent, including Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo, who form a mini ’ 13 Going on 30 ’ reunion with their pairing as Adam’s parents. The two actors anchor the sci-fi elements of the movie with grounded and realistic performances. Garner is wonderful as Adam’s grieving widowed mother, who is trying to do her best raising a son by herself.

And if you have ever lost a parent, you’ll understand what an amazing moment it is in the movie when both Adams get to spend one more day with their departed dad. Ruffalo, much like Garner, ignores the science fiction in the plot and focuses on the relatable aspects of the screenplay giving a realistic and emotionally moving performance.

Zoe Saldana plays older Adam’s love interest and is in many ways the heart of the film, even if she has limited screen time. Saldana has great chemistry with Reynolds and plays off his comedic wit quite well.

Catherine Kenner plays the film’s antagonist Maya Sorian, and while the actress gives a solid performance, it is the least developed character in the movie. However, there are some great scenes where the actress acts opposite a younger version of herself, thanks to some really well done de-aging technology.

Young actor Walker Scobell is a great addition to the veteran cast and gives a remarkable debut performance. He mimics Reynolds mannerisms and attitude perfectly and is very believable in the role.

But in the end, the film belongs to Ryan Reynolds, and the actor gives the type of performance that only he can give. He plays older Adam with his trademark combo of arrogance and sarcasm, similar to his characters in ‘Deadpool’ and ‘ Red Notice ,’ but a little darker in some ways. However, he never allows Adam to become unlikable, even when he is arguing with his younger self. The actor also has some really nice emotional scenes with Saldana and Ruffalo and is completely believable in all the action sequences.

‘The Adam Project’ is the most original, fun, and entertaining movie I have seen in a long time. With a sequel to Levy and Reynolds' ‘Free Guy’ already announced, I can only hope the director and actor find time to make more ‘Adam Project's in the future.

‘The Adam Project’ receives 4.5 out of 5 stars.

The Adam Project

Jami Philbrick has worked in the entertainment industry for over 20 years and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Moviefone.com. Formally, Philbrick was the Managing Editor of Relativity Media's iamROGUE.com, and a Senior Staff Reporter and Video Producer for Mtime, China's largest entertainment website. He has also written for Fandango, MovieWeb, and Comic Book Resources. Philbrick received the 2019 International Media Award at the 56th annual ICG Publicists Awards, and is a member of the Critics Choice Association. He has interviewed such talent as Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Dwayne Johnson, Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Oprah Winfrey, Quentin Tarantino, and Stan Lee.

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THE ADAM PROJECT: Family-Fun Action-Adventure That Falls Somewhat Short of its Potential

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The Adam Project is the type of film that is sometimes sorely needed. It’s a lively, energetic action film consisting of time travel, cool futuristic weapons, and an odd but fitting pairing of a middle-aged man with his younger self. It may bring to mind a multitude of other time travel films ( Back to the Future , for example, or Looper , or even the more recent Avengers: Endgame ), but it has enough of its own ideas to succeed on its own. Where it falls short, though, is in its capacity to linger in the mind afterward, and with the underdevelopment of certain characters and plotlines; still, for a Netflix original, it is worth checking out.

Time Traveling Adventure

The Adam Project begins in 2050. We don’t quite know what’s happening, but there are spaceships explosions and a man named Adam ( Ryan Reynolds ) on the run. Then we come to 2022, where we see a young boy also named Adam ( Walker Scobell ), a kid who gets bullied and is often obstinate and rude to his adoring mother ( Jennifer Garner ). One night, there’s a crash in his backyard, and who should appear but Reynolds’ Adam. We soon realize that Adam from 2050 is none other than the younger Adam all grown up. He’s come back to 2022 to find his girlfriend Laura ( Zoe Saldaña ), who came back in time to try to fix a time stream issue. But he’s also being chased by the relentless Maya Sorian ( Catherine Keener ), who, for reasons not yet known, wants to stop Adam from succeeding in his mission.

THE ADAM PROJECT: Family-Fun Action-Adventure That Falls Somewhat Short of its Potential

As mentioned, The Adam Project may bring to mind a lot of similarly-minded films; after all, when dealing with time travel is it even possible not to touch on similar themes as past works? There’s the idea of going back in time to see your own self, seen in a film like Looper (though with different implications), of changing the past like in the Back to the Future series, some themes touched on in Terminator , and even some ideas explored in a film like 12 Monkeys , which is itself influenced by the French short film La Jetée . What The Adam Project does with these isn’t completely fresh and unheard of, per se, but it does manage to at least blend and mince them up into an entertaining homage-driven romp, with references aplenty but also a lot to help it succeed in its own right.

Ryan Reynolds (and Company)

Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy have been on a good run lately. Starting with the fun video-game influenced Free Guy back in 2021, they’ve now starred in The Adam Project this year, and have also recently announced their collaboration in Deadpool 3 . The third film notwithstanding, since we obviously haven’t seen it yet, what these films seemingly have in common is, first and foremost, a desire to entertain. After all, isn’t that what movies are for?

In The Adam Project , it’s mostly seen through the futuristic action. In several scenes, for example, we see Reynolds ‘ character fight, souped-up guys, from the future, who can turn invisible and also have laser guns, and he takes them on while wielding a fancy white glowing stick (which is definitely not a lightsaber). Coupled with a typically high-energy ballad-like Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times Bad Times,” and later a good use of “Foreplay/Long Time” by Boston, it makes for an inspired good time. Also, when the bad guys die they erupt in a cloud of glowing neon dust, so look out for that.

If not much into action, though, there’s still plenty of heartfelt moments and humor to be had between our two protagonists, who share fittingly ample amounts of chemistry considering they’re supposed to be the same person. Reynolds is his typical quick-witted self, but it’s the young Scobell who often stands out here, managing to interject some truly funny moments into the film, with some expert timing for his jokes. At times, though, the humor does feel misplaced, especially when the film is trying to be more of a serious action-adventure as opposed to a straight action-comedy like Levy’s previous film Free Guy . Still, it’s at least not enough to be obtrusive, and as a whole, the balance between humor and seriousness is somewhat close to equal.

Lost Potential

Despite the entertainment value, you can’t help but feel the lost potential of The Adam Project at the same time, similar to Levy’s prior work. In Free Guy , for example, the film is about a video game character (played by Reynolds ) suddenly becoming self-aware while living in a violent mission-driven world. But what it does with this is somewhat underwhelming; while it has its moments, it doesn’t really delve much into the implications of artificial intelligence, choosing instead to opt for action scenes within the video game world.

With The Adam Project , it’s somewhat the same. The discussion of time travel is often overlooked and not fully delved into, with the film instead transitioning into yet more futuristic action battles. Though the implications of how much a past choice can influence your future are actually expanded upon as reasonably as you can expect (with some emotional resonance to boot), it still feels like more could have been added. This is, as I mentioned, first and foremost a film meant to entertain, but to at least take something more with you after the credits roll would have made it even more impactful.

There are also some characters and plotlines that are glossed over throughout. Catherine Keener ‘s character, for example, just seems to exist as a means to create conflict for our main protagonists, with her full motivations never really being expanded upon. While I usually enjoy Keener in films, this is one where she is unfortunately underused. The same can be said here for the usually-great Zoe Saldaña , who at least gets an epic action scene but not much more. Mark Ruffalo is an example of a character who at least does get more screentime, even if he still doesn’t strike an impact like our two leads. He doesn’t come onto the scene until the final act, but through Ruffalo’s valiant efforts, he manages to have at least some emotional resonance. Altogether, the unlikely three leads manage to exude the necessary heart at the center of the film.

To conclude, The Adam Project is an exciting time-traveling romp from Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy that is sure to give you a couple of hours of entertainment, however fleeting it may be overall. But hey, sometimes fleeting is perfectly acceptable. Not every movie needs to be groundbreaking or thought-provoking in order to be a success. And for time-traveling films, you could do much worse. The cast is fully on board, even if some of them are underused, and director Shawn Levy sure knows how to shoot an action scene. For those reasons and more, The Adam Project is worth your time.

What are your thoughts on The Adam Project ? Are you a fan of Ryan Reynolds’ recent films? Let us know in the comments below.

The Adam Project is now streaming on Netflix.

Watch The Adam Project

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David is a film aficionado from Colchester, Connecticut. He enjoys writing, reading, analyzing, and of course, watching movies. His favorite genres are westerns, crime dramas, horror, and sci-fis. He also enjoys binge-watching TV shows on Netflix.

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THE ADAM PROJECT – Review

What if you could make your peace with your own history? What if you could, as an adult, go back and make peace with your younger self, and make your peace with the parents we failed to understand when we were growing up? What if you could go back and reconnect with your parents with the benefit of a lifetime of wisdom and perspective? These are the questions director Shawn Levy asks in his latest film THE ADAM PROJECT. Starring Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldaña and Catherine Keener, the film is the story of a time-traveling pilot Adam Reed (Reynolds) who teams up with his younger self, (Scobell), and his late father, Louis Reed (Ruffalo) to come to terms with his past, and losses, while saving the future.

In this throwback to the sci-films from the 80’s, the filmmaker proves with THE ADAM PROJECT the power of nostalgia. It’s filled with themes movie going audiences witnessed and embraced with the likes of E.T., THE LAST STARFIGHTER, EXPLORERS and BACK TO THE FUTURE, with a hint of RETURN OF THE JEDI, as well as exciting battles with time soldiers, evil villains, de-cloaking spaceships and disintegration effects.

At the heart of the story is how these characters come to terms with loss and the past. While Adam’s journey in saving the world involves reconnecting with his younger self and teaming up with his dead father, the driving force is what sent him on this path to begin with – his search for his wife Laura (Saldaña), who is sent into the past by time-traveling supervillain Sorian (Keener) who stole and profited from the invention created by the “Godfather of Time Travel” Louis (Ruffalo).

The chemistry between the young newcomer Scobell and Reynolds is spot on and their adventure adds a beautiful mix of adventure-fantasy with real character emotions.

However the best scene and one driven by the quiet soulful acting of Reynolds is where a grown-up Adam offers his mother (Garner) the encouragement and acknowledgment of how she and her young son are both still grieving with the loss of husband and father. It’s something she never expects, but at the moment she needs it most. The father-son storyline may take center stage in The Adam Project, but it’s this one scene in particular that gave the film one of its most touching moments. “Boys always come back for their mamas.”

Huge thanks to Levy for casting Ruffalo and Garner, who previously starred in another fantasy film from 2004, as the couple Louis and Ellie Reed. Haven’t we all been waiting for a 13 GOING ON 30 reunion?

Written by Jonathan Tropper and T.S. Nowlin & Jennifer Flackett & Mark Levin, THE ADAM PROJECT is filled with comedic banter and terrific action-packed sequences.

The Adam Project is the second creative collaboration between Levy and Reynolds off the heels of Free Guy and it was just announced the two will go for a third helping with DEADPOOL 3 as first reported by The Hollywood Reporter

Even Reynolds got in on the announcement over on Twitter.

The third film in my Shawn Levy trilogy will be a tad more stabby. pic.twitter.com/ofBrFyaRsv — Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) March 11, 2022

Of note are the artists also bring the audience an emotional character story first and foremost and the time travel device to facilitate the story. Their work on THE ADAM PROJECT make the audience really care about the the characters’ journey in the end.

Visual Effects Supervisor Alessandro Ongaro (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) delivers a certain wow-factor without tipping too far into sci-fi. The time soldiers’ decloaking and decimation effects (think cool digital poprocks candy) were created by VFX studio Scanline to give them a more tactile feel than what would traditionally be seen in sci-fi movies without it being too violent, Editor Dean Zimmerman (Free Guy, Stranger Things), who has worked with Shawn Levy for 20 years, beautifully cuts together a film that keeps the pacing of the story moving and provides some cool battle scenes, and Director of Photography Tobias Schliessler uses classic framing and uncomplicated lighting in order to draw the audience’s attention to the characters at all times.

What gives the film its emotional cohesiveness is composer Rob Simonsen’s simple score, while also making it sci-fi epic. He creates a futuristic feel with his use of orchestra and piano but keeps the human drama very human. Simonsen truly sets the tone for the entire film with the sound “The Adam Suite Theme.”

In the end THE ADAM PROJECT is a wonderful movie and a contemporary version of a movie really not being made anymore — the Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis-type action-adventure movie like The Last Starfighter, E.T. , The Goonies or Back to the Future – and one to watch with the family.

THE ADAM PROJECT is streaming now on Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/title/81309354

4 out of 4 stars.

Huge passion for film scores, lives for the Academy Awards, loves movie trailers. That is all.

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Francis Ford Coppola pictured at the 2022 Oscars in Los Angeles. His self-financed epic Megalopolis will finally debut at Cannes film festival in May.

Forty years and $120m later: Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis to debut at Cannes

Godfather director’s self-financed passion project, starring Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza and Dustin Hoffman, will show at the film festival in May

After months shrouded in controversy – and 40 years in the making – Francis Ford Coppola ’s feature Megalopolis will debut at Cannes film festival in May.

The film, a passion project, which the Godfather and Apocalypse Now director has funded with $120m of his own money, has been in development since 1983 when Coppola wrote the first version of the screenplay.

In the decades since, it has been announced, delayed and abandoned multiple times – with footage even shot then discarded in several instances.

Starring Adam Driver , Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Jon Voight, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman, as well as Coppola’s sister Talia Shire and his nephew Jason Schwartzman, the film will finally premiere in a gala slot at Cannes on 17 May, Variety reports .

“I’ve known Francis since the centenary of cinema in 1995, and when I had my first year at Cannes, he came to present Apocalypse Now Redux,” Cannes director Thierry Frémaux told Variety. “Megalopolis is a project that he wanted to achieve for so long and he did it independently, in his own way, as an artist.”

Megalopolis wrapped production last year. Plot details remain vague, though it has long been considered a difficult beast to film: an epic that spans ancient history and a cataclysmic future, riddled with esoterica and tortuous concepts.

Megalopolis’s official logline describes it as a “story of political ambition, genius and conflicted love” where “the fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems”.

In March, the film screened for potential buyers – including Universal, Netflix and Sony – in an industry event hosted at Universal CityWalk Imax. According to the Hollywood Reporter , responses were mixed, ranging from a glowing commendation to one studio head putting it bluntly: “It’s so not good, and it was so sad watching it.”

No distributor is currently attached to the film.

Early last year, the Hollywood Reporter wrote of an anonymous source who said the Megalopolis set was “absolute madness” due to a high staff turnover, an escalating budget and visual effects issues.

Coppola and Driver both denied the allegations. “We’re on schedule,” Coppola told Deadline. “I love the actors and the look is great, I don’t know what anyone’s talking about here.”

Driver later wrote in a statement: “I’ve been on sets that were chaotic and this one is far from it.”

Cannes seems a natural fit for Coppola’s project: he premiered Apocalypse Now at the festival in 1979, which had a similarly beleaguered production process before its rise to acclaim after its Cannes appearance.

This year’s Cannes will run 14 to 25 May, with the full selection of films to be revealed on Thursday. Already locked in to debut outside of competition include George Miller’s Mad Max prequel Furiosa , as well as opening night feature The Second Act, starring Léa Seydoux and Vincent Lindon as actors in an absurdist meta-comedy directed by the popular French film-maker Quentin Dupieux .

Cannes film festival
Francis Ford Coppola
Adam Driver
Dustin Hoffman
Shia LaBeouf
Aubrey Plaza

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COMMENTS

The Adam Project movie review (2022)
The action and fight scenes are very well staged, especially one with a tender reunion in the midst of the mayhem. Big Adam's warming to his younger version gives the story some heart in the midst of the mayhem as well. There is genuine tenderness in his realization that anger does not prevent sadness and that second chances are possible.
The Adam Project
A time-traveling pilot teams up with his younger self and his late father to come to terms with his past while saving the future.
'The Adam Project' Review: Back Talk to the Future
Early in "The Adam Project," a pipsqueak asthmatic named Adam (Walker Scobell) and his golden retriever gallivant through the woods among shimmering falling debris. The cause of the wreckage ...
The Adam Project Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 16 ): Kids say ( 46 ): The real surprise in this fun, layered, time-traveling action mystery is the tenderness with which family relationships and sentiments are handled. The Adam Project gives its characters the opportunity to go back in time to right misdirected relationships and fix missed chances to fully express ...
'The Adam Project' Review
The Adam Project. That original script was by T.S. Nowlin, while the rewrite is headed by Jonathan Tropper, who wrote the novel and screenplay that became Levy's swiftly forgotten 2014 feature ...
The Adam Project Review
The Adam Project is a wonderfully slick futuristic family film that captures the feel-good fun and epic adventure of '80s sci-fi. ... All Reviews Editor's Choice Game Reviews Movie Reviews TV ...
The Adam Project (2022)
7/10. Funny, Exciting and Endearing. rogier-86785 11 March 2022. The Adam Project is an adventurous film in the mould of Spielberg and other '80's and 90's pics, meaning confused conversations, quick quips, great close ups and seeing the world from a child's point of view as well.
The Adam Project
The Adam Project will undoubtedly be a big hit for Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds, and Netflix. The film goes beyond its sci-fi time travel tropes and delivers some wonderful character-rich performances.
'The Adam Project': Ryan Reynolds in a Back-to-the-Future Confection
'The Adam Project' Review: Ryan Reynolds Meets His 12-Year-Old Self in Shawn Levy's Back-to-the-Future Action Confection Reviewed online, March 8, 2022. MPAA Rating: PG-13.
The Adam Project review
The Adam Project review - big-hearted family time-travel adventure. Ryan Reynolds stars as a pilot who crash-lands in 2022 and meets his 12-year-old self in this engaging Netflix film. R yan ...
The Adam Project review: Ryan Reynolds confronts his younger self in
The movie-logic premise of it all, at least, is hard to argue with: Time travel exists, and Reynold's circa-2050 Adam Reed is somehow able to revisit his 12-year-old self (Walker Scobell) without ...
Movie Review: Netflix and Ryan Reynolds' 'The Adam Project'
The Adam Project. Feels Like a Fake Movie. The Adam Project doesn't feel like a real movie. It feels phony both from the outside — Ryan Reynolds traveling back in time to meet his 12-year-old ...
The Adam Project (2022)
The Adam Project: Directed by Shawn Levy. With Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner. After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self for a mission to save the future.
'The Adam Project' review: A less-glib Ryan Reynolds makes for a bold
'The Adam Project' review: ... But the Netflix film is a relatively streamlined affair that moves at a gratifyingly brisk clip, wasting little time on backstory (or forwardstory, or ...
The Adam Project Review: Old & Young Ryan Reynolds Capture Spielberg Magic
Published Mar 10, 2022. The Adam Project is a charming and fun sci-fi throwback, fueled by a strong script and one of Reynolds' best performances. After achieving success with last year's Free Guy, director Shawn Levy and star Ryan Reynolds collaborated again on Netflix's new sci-fi movie, The Adam Project. The two films are cut from a similar ...
The Adam Project Review
When rogue pilot Adam Reed (Reynolds), a time traveller from the year 2050, accidentally crash-lands in 2022, he finds himself face-to-face with his 12-year-old self (Scobell). Together, the pair ...
'The Adam Project' review: Ryan Reynolds can't escape the past
Rated: PG-13, for violence/action, language and suggestive references. Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes. Playing: Available March 11 on Netflix. Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly ...
The Adam Project Review: Ryan Reynolds Shines in '80s Throwback
The Adam Project Review: A Refreshing Throwback to '80s Adventure. March 10, 2022. By Jonathan Sim. Following the success of their 2021 action-comedy Free Guy, director Shawn Levy and actor Ryan ...
Movie Review: 'The Adam Project'
Premiering on Netflix beginning March 11th is the new time-traveling movie ' The Adam Project ,' from ' Free Guy ' director Shawn Levy. The film stars 'Free Guy' and ' Deadpool ...
The Adam Project
Time flies.A time-traveling pilot teams up with his younger self and his late father to come to terms with his past while saving the future. Watch The Adam P...
THE ADAM PROJECT: Family-Fun Action-Adventure That Falls ...
Ryan Reynolds (and Company) Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy have been on a good run lately. Starting with the fun video-game influenced Free Guy back in 2021, they've now starred in The Adam Project this year, and have also recently announced their collaboration in Deadpool 3.The third film notwithstanding, since we obviously haven't seen it yet, what these films seemingly have in ...
The Adam Project
The Adam Project is a 2022 American science-fiction action comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and written by Jonathan Tropper, T. S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin.The movie stars Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell in his film debut, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Catherine Keener and Zoe Saldaña.In the film, fighter pilot Adam Reed (Reynolds) crash lands in 2022 after getting injured ...
THE ADAM PROJECT
Written by Jonathan Tropper and T.S. Nowlin & Jennifer Flackett & Mark Levin, THE ADAM PROJECT is filled with comedic banter and terrific action-packed sequences. The Adam Project is the second creative collaboration between Levy and Reynolds off the heels of Free Guy and it was just announced the two will go for a third helping with DEADPOOL 3 ...
Forty years and $120m later: Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis to
Godfather director's self-financed passion project, starring Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza and Dustin Hoffman, will show at the film festival in May Michael Sun Wed 10 Apr 2024 00.22 EDT Last ...
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Review [Editor's Note: This is a Region-Free 4K UHD import from Italy, which also comes with a Region B-locked Blu-ray.] Ferrari has long been a passion project for Michael Mann on multiple levels, some of them perhaps a bit less obvious than others. While he's described himself as not being much of a car person, he's still been fascinated by Ferraris since his film school days, and he ...

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‘The Adam Project’ Review: Ryan Reynolds Meets His 12-Year-Old Self in Shawn Levy’s Back-to-the-Future Action Confection

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Reviewed online, March 8, 2022. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 106 MIN.

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