(Left) ‘Nightbitch’ director Marielle Heller. (Right) 1992’s ‘FernGully: The Last Rainforest’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
Preview:
Director Marielle Heller is developing a live-action ‘FernGully’.
It’ll be a remake of the 1992 animated movie.
Amazon MGM Studios is backing the project.
1992’s Environmental-themed ‘FernGully’ wasn’t exactly a big hit upon its original release –– it made $32 million worldwide against a $24 million budget. But in the decades since, it has earned a place in at least some cinemagoers’ hearts.
That’s surely what Amazon MGM Studios will be hoping for as it sets ‘Nightbitch’ filmmaker Marielle Heller to write and direct a live-action update.
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And let’s not forget that the studio will also be aiming to replicate the success seen by the likes of Disney and DreamWorks Animation, which have seen several re-imaginings of their cartoon output do good business at the box office in the last few years.
1992’s ‘FernGully: The Last Rainforest’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
The original film followed the magical inhabitants of an Australian rainforest as they fight to save their home, which is threatened by logging and a polluting force of destruction called Hexxus.
We don’t yet know what elements Heller –– who has written and will direct the new film –– is retaining.
When will the new ‘FernGully’ be in theaters?
Amazon MGM Studios has yet to say anything about the movie’s potential release date (and we notice it wasn’t mentioned as part of the company’s CinemaCon presentation), so we’ll have to wait and see on that front.
1992’s ‘FernGully: The Last Rainforest’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
The cast of ‘Spaceballs: The New One’ at CinemaCon 2026. Photo Credit: Greg Doherty/Getty Images for Amazon MGM Studios.
Preview:
Amazon MGM Studios made its presentation to the 2026 CinemaCon crowd.
Among the movies promoted were ‘The Sheep Detectives’ and ‘Spaceballs: The New One’.
There was also a look at Michael B. Jordan’s ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’.
After making its first trip to CinemaCon last year, Amazon MGM Studios has certainly been enjoying a good year at the box office so far, largely thanks to the huge success of ‘Project Hail Mary’ (which, as announced at the panel, just crossed $525 million at the global box office, cementing it as the company’s biggest movie to date, and will see its theatrical window extended, Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!).
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Hoping to keep the momentum rolling, the studio unveiled new looks at this year’s crop of movies and beyond including ‘The Sheep Detectives’ and ‘Masters of the Universe’. But if you were expecting a surprise announcement about casting for the new James Bond movie, there was none –– but VP of Film Courtenay Valenti did promise it’ll be worthy of the venerable franchise’s legacy.
First out of the gate (even though it isn’t out until next March) was newly minted Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan‘s remake of the 1968 caper movie –– previously re-imagined in 1999, which the actor is directing and starring in.
After a look at some fun footage, Jordan himself took the stage to talk up the fact that Jon Batiste is crafting the music for the movie. He also brought out co-star Adria Arjona, complimenting her “intensity, wit, and fire” while calling her “an incredible scene partner.” Their cat-and-mouse relationship (as art thief and the insurance investigator tracking him down) is at the core of the movie.
Kenneth Branagh, meanwhile, plays the antagonist, the person that Jordan’s Crown targets. Jordan says he made the movie for big screens.
Nicholas Galitzine stars in ‘Masters of the Universe’. Photo: Amazon MGM Studios.
Hoping for another big hit, Amazon MGM is putting a lot of weight behind ‘Masters of the Universe’, which adapts the 1980s toy line and cartoon series (and was already focus of a notoriously unsuccessful 1987 movie).
Stars Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes and director Travis Knight took the stage to introduce a new look at the film. Galitzine, of course, was hefting He-Man’s classic power sword, which is surely some sort of safety violation.
Jared Leto stars in ‘Masters of the Universe’. Photo: Amazon MGM Studios.
Some fresh footage from the movie –– which Knight and co. described as tackling how someone is challenged to step up beyond what they think they can do –– was screened after Galitzine had the audience lift the fake swords they received as he recited He-Man’s classic transformation line…
The new scene shows Galitzine’s Prince Adam and Mendes’ Teena reuniting on Earth before they travel to Eternia to battle the evil Skeletor (Jared Leto), which in turn leads into the new trailer.
Another jump ahead in time for a quick look at footage from Jason Statham action sequel ‘The Beekeeper 2’. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from The Stath, and should keep fans happy. Statham himself appeared via video to exclaim, “some people say less is more. I say more is more.”
The new movie will see the Beekeeper society looking to overthrow the US government. At this point in time, the jokes write themselves…
Back to 2026’s schedule, and the quirky mystery drama about a herd of sheep who must solve the murder of their beloved shepherd (Hugh Jackman).
Jackman himself arrived on stage (along with co-stars Nicholas Braun, and a returning Galitzine) to tout the film, which also boasts a considerable cast in both live-action (Emma Thompson) and voice (too many to list) form. It’s described as “a warm deeply human story about finding your place in the world.” And we got an extended look at the movie.
Gareth Evans (‘The Raid’) returns with a new action movie, this one starring Sope Dirisu in the story of Colt, a Vietnam veteran turned contract killer, goes on the run after assassinating a gangland boss.
David Leitch in Paris for ‘Bullet Train.’ Credit: Oliver Vigerie/Sony Pictures.
With confetti and chaos, the new movie from director David Leitch launched into a first look at a team of social media types who make videos about, well, how to rob banks.
Leitch came on stage with Pete Davidson, and Davidson revealed that this group of robbers livestreams their crimes and robberies. “They’re putting an end to greed and corruption one heist, and one video, at a time,” he said, before Rhenzy Feliz and Anna Sawai were confirmed to be the other two robbers. Leitch wanted to capture the energy of a manic YouTube video, before a video message from the rest of the cast played.
Mahershala Ali attends the 89th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, California. Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images.
More action, this time a visceral thriller starring Mahershala Ali and following a hitman struggling to balance his job with his faith & fatherhood. Bassam Tariq directs.
Ali took the stage to enthuse about how the movie checked every box for him, and he introduced some intense footage.
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After a quick look at ‘Verity’ (which we’re surprised wasn’t spotlighted more given its Colleen Hoover origins) it was time for…
‘Spaceballs: The New One’ logo. Photo: Amazon MGM Studios.
The much-anticipated ‘Spaceballs’ sequel was introduced by originator Mel Brooks (via video), with cast members Bill Pullman, Josh Gad, Lewis Pullman, Daphne Zuniga and to great response, Rick Moranis actually present to introduce a first look at the movie, which is as funny as you might hope for. Let’s just say the ‘Star Wars’ sequel trilogy is heavily targeted for spoofing.
Henry Cavill in ‘Highlander’. Photo: Henry Cavill’s Instagram Account.
It might still be busy shooting, but the re-imagining of the 1980s action movie is one of the bigger titles on the horizon for the studio.
With Henry Cavill starring as the immortal warrior who must battle others of his kind, it promises plenty of set pieces.
Cavill and director Chad Stahelski (‘John Wick’) are halfway through filming, but the former took time out to appear via video and offer some early footage.
‘Project Hail Mary’ is a big hit at the box office already.
Ryan Gosling stars in the movie.
Elsewhere, Pixar’s ‘Hoppers’ stayed strong but ‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ only found modest results.
‘Project Hail Mary’ chronicles a man in spaceship on a mission to save humanity from a star-snacking organism. And the movie itself, which stars Ryan Gosling, has just saved Amazon MGM’s box office hopes.
The new film, adapted from the novel by ‘The Martian’s Andy Weir by writer Drew Goddard and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, enjoyed a massive domestic opening of $80.5 million, the biggest by far for the studio.
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Even with a hefty $200 million budget to make up (not including a big ad campaign), the movie’s worldwide start of 140.9 million –– the biggest in Amazon MGM’s history and the strongest launch for a movie so far this year –– will go some way to helping that.
Pixar’s ‘Hoppers,’ which has proved to be a welcome success for the animation company, slid to second place after a couple of weeks. It added $18 million for $120.4 million domestically.
Third place went to the Indian action epic ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge,’ which earned $9.5 million from just 987 locations.
Searchlight’s ‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ had to make do with $9 million domestically and $11.9 million globally, but has a relatively smaller budget of around $20 million.
Finally, in fifth place we find romantic drama ‘Reminders of Him’, which made $8 million.
What’s on the horizon?
(L to R) Luigi, Yoshi, Mario and Toad in Nintendo and Illumination’s ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’, directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic.
‘Project Hail Mary’ should have a clear run to keep earning next week, though Universal’s ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ is looming, and if it follows the pattern of the original, will likely launch in first place when it arrives on April 1.
Written by Jose Ruisanchez and Irwin Winkler, ‘Ally Clark’ takes us from the towering skyscrapers of New York City to the sweltering bayous of Louisiana and the icy peaks of Alaska, following investigator Ally Clark (Davis) as she embarks on a perilous inquiry into an international conglomerate following the suspicious death of a close friend.
Where else can we see Jason Clarke?
(L to R) Simone Kessell and Jason Clarke in ‘The Last Frontier,’ premiering October 10, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Jake Gyllenhaal will star in a new sports movie called ‘Play by Play’.
Chris McCoy wrote the script.
Amazon MGM Studios is backing the project.
It looks like Jake Gyllenhaal is becoming a company player for Amazon MGM Studios, as the company has bought yet another project for him to star in and produce via his Nine Stories production label.
Plot specifics about ‘Play by Play’ are largely under wraps (more on that below), but McCoy has a past in sports scripting and the potential movie will also be produced by a company called Religion of Sports’, co-owned by Tom Brady (yes, the one who has a little bit of sports experience himself) and Gotham Chopra.
Jake Gyllenhaal in ‘Presumed Innocent,’ premiering June 12, 2024 on Apple TV+.
As we mentioned, Deadline’s report on Gyllenhaal boarding the movie offers no details on the story, but a quick online check suggests it’ll feature the story of a popular pro sports newscaster gets involved in a seedy underworld on his road trips and becomes a marked man by a notorious gang. But we’ll have to wait and see if that is the actual plot.
This is just the latest Amazon MGM movie Gyllenhaal is involved in, following the ‘Road House’ remake and its upcoming sequel.
He’s also in business with the company on ‘Honeymoon with Harry’, a forthcoming dramedy where he’ll star opposite Kevin Costner, as well as ‘Code Black’, a political thriller based on a short story by Harrison Query that’s currently in development.
It’s been years since Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directed a feature film (they’ve produced plenty in the meantime) and their last attempt at a space epic, ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story,’ saw them replaced on the project by Ron Howard. Well, it’s clear that Lord and Miller have the vision for such an undertaking, because their return to the director’s chairs, ‘Project Hail Mary,’ is an often stunning, visually gorgeous sci-fi epic and perhaps the best film of its kind since Christopher Nolan’s ‘Interstellar.’
Based on the novel by Andy Weir (‘The Martian’), ‘Project Hail Mary’ also offers up something else that’s been missing from a lot of sci-fi in these dystopian times: hope. While the movie falters here and there, it also suggests that sentient beings, human or otherwise, can find enough common ground to bring out the best in each other, even at the bleakest moments.
Former molecular biologist turned middle school science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up disoriented on a massive space vessel light-years from Earth, with no memory of who he is, why he’s there, or where he’s going. The only other two crew members – including the captain — are dead, and as Grace’s memory gradually returns (via flashbacks), so do the details of his journey.
It turns out that a vast string of micro-organisms, stretching from the Sun to Venus and dubbed the Petrova line, consumes electromagnetic radiation and is essentially draining our star of its energy and dimming it. The same colony, dubbed by Grace as an ‘astrophage,’ has done this to other stars – with the exception of Tau Ceti, which has resisted the infection.
When Grace discovers that the energy of the astrophage can be harnessed to power faster-than-light travel, a massive global consortium constructs a starship and sends a crew – with Grace as a reluctant, last-minute substitute for the science officer, who’s killed in an accident — to discover how Tau Ceti has survived and hopefully save our sun and civilization.
Once Grace arrives at Tau Ceti, however, he’s met by an even larger alien spacecraft and its sole occupant, a rock-like being with whom he initially struggles to communicate. But as they develop a means to interact, Grace discovers that the creature – who he dubs Rocky – is there for the same reason as him, and the two of them join forces to discover what is protecting Tau Ceti and whether they can use it to save their own planets.
Scripted by Drew Goddard, who also adapted the 2015 film of ‘The Martian,’ ‘Project Hail Mary’ is in many ways a mashup of a number of other iconic sci-fi properties, including ‘Interstellar,’ ‘E.T.,’‘Contact,’‘Star Trek,’ and ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ among others. But Lord, Miller, and Goddard make the film a unique celebration of science fiction itself – as well as science. As hard as the science can get, the film presents its premise with terrific clarity. Science and the way it can bring out the best in humanity (and other species) are important elements of the story.
It does sometimes feels like Goddard tried to get every page of the book onscreen – the movie’s 160-minute runtime might have been shortened by 20 minutes or so — and the tonal shifts as Grace navigates his initial terror and uncertainty, followed by his whimsical relationship with Rocky, sometimes undercuts the stakes. But the movie rallies for a thrilling, emotionally moving climax, buttressed by some truly amazing visuals. From top to bottom, the craftsmanship in this film is nothing less than exceptional. Charles Wood‘s production design, Greig Fraser’s eye-popping cinematography, the visual effects and creature creation all make the universe of ‘Project Hail Mary’ tactile, immersive, and believable. This is truly a movie to see on the biggest screen you can.
This is initially a Ryan Gosling solo joint – he’s onscreen alone, especially in the film’s first half, for long stretches of time. Ryland Grace is a man who runs away from responsibility in every aspect of his life – his career, his relationships – but eventually learns not just to run toward it, but embrace it, becoming a hero along the way. Gosling shows us perhaps his widest range to date, taking Grace through disorientation, fear, cowardice, grief, despair, and eventually hope and purpose, giving a performance that anchors the film and may be his best yet.
But ‘PHM’ is also a two-hander in its second half, as Grace and Rocky get to know each other, becoming collaborators and eventually friends. Rocky was played on set by James Ortiz, and it’s his voice we hear as the Eridanian as well – and Ortiz delivers, giving Rocky real personality where a more recognizable actor’s voice might have simply given him that thespian’s persona. It’s a nuanced performance that combines seamlessly with the digital and practical effects used to bring Rocky to life.
The rest of the cast is relatively small, but the always welcome Sandra Hüller is excellent and soulful as the leader of the project, while Ken Leung and Milana Vayntrub provide some effective moments as Grace’s doomed crewmates.
Final Thoughts
Ryan Gosling in ‘Project Hail Mary’. Photo: Amazon MGM Studios.
Like ‘The Martian,’ ‘Project Hail Mary’ feels like it’s grounded in real science, and features a lone protagonist in a seemingly hopeless situation at the center of its narrative. But ‘Project Hail Mary’ expands on the themes in both of Weir’s stories, with Lord and Miller’s direction, Goddard’s screenplay, and the relationship between Grace and Rocky making this a deeply humanist experience amidst all the filmmaking razzle-dazzle.
This is a movie that says that an answer is possible, even in the darkest of times, and that collaboration and understanding, rather that mistrust and division, is the only way forward for any species. And all of that is couched in a science fiction story as exciting and awe-inspiring as any we’ve seen in recent years. Its relatively minor glitches aside, ‘Project Hail Mary’ may end up becoming a genre classic of its time.
‘Project Hail Mary’ receives a score of 85 out of 100.
‘Project Hail Mary’ opens in theaters on March 20th.
What is the plot of ‘Project Hail Mary’?
Science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up on a spaceship, light-years from home, with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction — but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.
Cameron Diaz will star with Stephen Merchant in a new rom-com.
Merchant is aboard to direct.
Amazon MGM Studios is backing the movie.
Since she returned to screens with last year’s Netflix action comedy effort ‘Back in Action’, Cameron Diaz has been filling her schedule with projects.
The movie is without an announced title at this point, but it does have a studio home, as Amazon MGM has picked up the rights to Merchant’s script, which he wrote with ‘The Outlaws’ collaborator John Butler.
In a plotline that honestly sounds like it could have come out in the 1990s or mid-2000s, the new movie sees Merchant as a workaholic Brit employed at an upscale New York hotel who needs a wife for appearances.
He strikes a deal with a struggling stand-up comic (Diaz) who is desperate for health insurance.
Their fake marriage starts as a transaction – but ends in a hilariously unexpected romance.
Halle Berry stars in ‘Crime 101’. Photo Credit: Merrick Morton.
‘Crime 101’ really wants to be Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’ (and maybe some of his ‘Thief’ as well). Not that there’s anything wrong with that; epic crime thrillers are few and far between these days, and writer-director Bart Layton’s 140-minute L.A.-based drama has a lot of the scope and a glittering cast to make a run at it.
Based on gritty genre writer Don Winslow’s 2020 novella of the same name, ‘Crime 101’ doesn’t quite hit the heights of Mann’s 31-year-old masterpiece – it’s patterned almost too closely on that film’s narrative, for one thing, and it takes far too long to set itself up and finally get to the good stuff. But when it does work – thanks to some terrific work from some of that cast – ‘Crime 101’ can be suspenseful and absorbing.
Story and Direction
(L to R) Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth star in ‘Crime 101’. Photo Credit: Merrick Morton.
A mysterious man named Davis (Chris Hemsworth) is committing a series of flawlessly executed heists – mainly of precious jewels — up and down the length of California’s 101 freeway, from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles. Careful not to harm a single person during his crimes, Davis is also lonely, isolated, and socially awkward, with his only goal to reach a certain sum of money and his past shrouded in shadows.
While most of the LAPD squad assigned to the robberies just wants to close them out, Detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo) sees a pattern in them and is convinced it’s one man, annoying his superiors. His investigation brings him into the orbit of Sharon Coombs (Halle Berry), a claims adjuster whose insurance firm handles the kind of high-end clients who are taking a hit from Davis’ heists.
When Davis targets another of Coombs’ clients for what he hopes is his final job, that puts Coombs on his radar as well – but unbeknownst to Davis, his own benefactor (Nick Nolte) has put a second operator on the job, a psychotic, violent man-child named Ormon (Barry Keoghan) who does not share Davis’ moral code or any hesitation to hurt and kill.
(L to R) Monica Barbaro and Chris Hemsworth star in ‘Crime 101’. Photo Credit: Dean Rogers.
‘Crime 101,’ as with Winslow’s other works and the films that Layton emulates, walks the well-worn gray area of many a crime film where the lines between the criminals and the ‘good guys’ are often blurry and where thieves often have codes of honor that are tested to the breaking point by other forces. But a problem here that hampers ‘Crime 101’ is that it never creates a consistently rising sense of tension for a good portion of the film. Setup takes up a large chunk of its first half, and the narrative finds itself going down more than one blind alley.
There is more attention paid to character development, but only selectively, and often in ways that seem incongruous. But the movie does come to life in fits and starts, including a pulse-pounding car and motorcycle chase involving Davis and Ormon, some other scenes involving the latter, and almost all of the third act, as Davis, Lubesnick, Ormon and others are all drawn into Davis’ carefully calibrated plan. Layton also makes good use of real Los Angeles locations, from downtown to Malibu, effectively making the city very much a character itself, although Blanck Mass’ heavy-handed score, all synths and thunderous drums, works too hard to add extra gravitas.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Chris Hemsworth and Halle Berry star in ‘Crime 101’. Photo Credit: Merrick Morton.
Strangely enough, the weakest component of the all-star cast here may be its leading man. Hemsworth’s Davis is a curiously flat character – and while much of his background is intentionally left murky, there’s not enough for Hemsworth to work with, rendering him kind of a blank. Also unhelpful is his almost complete lack of chemistry with Berry and especially Monica Barbaro, who shows up in the Amy Brenneman role from ‘Heat’ – the love interest who changes the thief’s perspective – and brings her own considerable magnetism in spades, even in a typically underwritten and stock role.
Despite looking like he just came right from the ‘Task’ set to this film – his rumpled, exhausted cops are virtually indistinguishable – Mark Ruffalo brings his usual wounded dignity and innate decency to the role of Lou, who you can’t help but love thanks to his dogged determination and, uh, attempts at yoga (too bad Jennifer Jason Leigh is wasted completely and barely seen as his estranged wife).
The film’s MVPs, however, are Berry and Keoghan. The former is electric as a hard-working, quick-witted woman pushed to the brink by her obnoxious, sexist bosses, while the latter is genuinely frightening and unpredictable as the wild card psycho Ormon. Even though we’ve pretty much had enough Joker in recent Batman movies, Keoghan almost makes us want to see his cameoing Clown Prince of Crime from ‘The Batman’ show up again in Matt Reeves’ upcoming sequel.
Final Thoughts
Chris Hemsworth stars in ‘Crime 101’. Photo Credit: Dean Rogers.
Bart Layton definitely gets an ‘A’ for effort with ‘Crime 101’ – he really wants to make the kind of complex, morally ambivalent, tense, adult-oriented thriller that is harder to glimpse at the multiplex these days than an influencer staying off their phone for the entire length of a movie.
Yet Layton makes his melodrama almost too complicated; careful pruning of some subplots and sequences – he apparently likes one slowly rotating opening shot of the title motorway so much that he does it again later in the film – might have jacked up the pace and added more urgency to the proceedings. Still, while ‘Crime 101’ is not the epic crime drama the director-writer may have had in mind, it still manages to generate enough heat of its own to keep one interested.
‘Crime 101’ receives a score of 70 out of 100.
Corey Hawkins and Mark Ruffalo star in ‘Crime 101’. Photo Credit: Merrick Morton.
What is the plot of ‘Crime 101’?
As an elusive jewel thief (Chris Hemsworth) mystifies police with a string of heists along the 101 freeway in Los Angeles, his path crosses that of a disillusioned insurance broker (Halle Berry) who is facing her own crossroads. As the thief plans one final heist, a relentless detective (Mark Ruffalo) is closing in, raising the stakes even higher for all three.
Halle Berry attends the European Gala Screening for Amazons: ‘Crime 101’ at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on January 28, 2026 in London, England. Photo: Kate Green/Getty Images for Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Henry Cavill in ‘Highlander’. Photo: Henry Cavill’s Instagram Account.
Preview:
Henry Cavill has posted the first look at the new ‘Highlander’ movie.
He’s playing sword-swinging immortal McLeod.
Chad Stahelski has started directing the film.
After a long development process, and plenty of casting news drops, the new take on 1986 action pic ‘Highlander’ is officially in production with Chad Stahelski directing and Henry Cavill starring as an immortal warrior who must battle others of his kind.
Cavill’s caption includes the phrase, “this has been quite the journey for me, which I’ll tell you all about when the time is right,” which might be a reference to an injury he sustained while training, which pushed the schedule of the movie back.
Henry Cavill in ‘Highlander’. Photo: Henry Cavill’s Instagram Account.
The 1988 original revolves around Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert), a Scottish Highlander born in the 16th Century who is somehow immortal. He has survived through the centuries, and learns from Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez (Sean Connery), that he is part of a race of many who can only die when beheaded.
We don’t exactly know what elements the new movie (written by Michael Finch) will utilize, but Stahelski has said the focus will be on modern-day New York and Hong Kong.
When will the new ‘Highlander’ be in cinemas?
(L to R) Sean Connery as Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez and Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod in 1986’s ‘Highlander.’ Photo: 20th Century Fox.
Amazon MGM Studios has yet to announce a release date for the movie, but a 2027 date is not out of the question given that cameras are rolling.
List of Movies and TV Shows in the ‘Highlander’ Franchise:
‘Mercy,’ a new sci-fi crime thriller starring Chris Pratt, arrives at a rather unfortunate time. The film’s scenes of a dystopian Los Angeles riddled with crime, anarchy, and drugs may seem like certain government officials’ feverish imaginations of how big cities really look, while the constant video surveillance and instant sentencing in A.I.-run courts – where trials are over in 90 minutes – might seem like a positive approach to them as well.
We’re not quite there yet, but the potentially provocative message half-heartedly presented by ‘Mercy’ gets muddled and buried in this otherwise flat thriller. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov in the Screenlife style that he favors these days (which features prominently in movies he’s produced like ‘Unfriended’ and ‘Searching’), ‘Mercy’ has some eerie parallels to the current moment but is an otherwise derivative, generic procedural.
The year is 2029. Crime runs rampant throughout Los Angeles and other major cities, leading the government to institute a massive surveillance network in which every citizen’s mobile device, every doorbell cam, every public camera – every form of audiovisual communication – is monitored by the authorities. And should a person be accused of a crime, they are arrested and taken to the Mercy Court, where an A.I. acts as judge, jury, and – if at the end of a 90-minute trial you are convicted – executioner, killing you right there in the so-called Mercy Chair.
Detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt), a recovering alcoholic, wakes up in the Mercy Chair with no memory of the previous evening or morning to learn that he is accused of murdering his wife (Annabelle Wallis) in their home. The A.I. presiding over his case, Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson), has a wealth of video and circumstantial evidence with which to convict him. But Raven – a proponent of the Mercy system – is convinced that even with his problems, there’s no way he would kill his wife. Can he assemble his own defense – including testimony from his daughter (Kylie Rogers) and sponsor (Chris Sullivan) – in 90 minutes, all while strapped to the death chair?
It wouldn’t be off-base to say that ‘Mercy’ reads like an off-brand combination of ‘Minority Report’ and ‘Judge Dredd,’ with Pratt’s Raven a mix of both protagonists. This is a near-future distillation of the ideas expressed in those and other properties about freedom, totalitarianism, and so on, with the surface relevance of A.I. sprinkled over it. But while highly derivative, ‘Mercy’ doesn’t add anything new to the conversation. And at a time when both A.I. and authoritarianism are legitimate existential threats to society, the film pays brief lip service to those ideas before turning into a routine police procedural with predictable villains and a pre-ordained outcome. It never digs into what’s really wrong with the system in the film — A.I. almost comes out as the hero.
Bekmambetov has apparently shot the movie for IMAX, which makes the Screenlife presentation – a large chunk of the story is told through screens, phones, cams, and the like in an increasingly frenetic, cluttered fashion – an odd choice. The rest of the movie consists of extreme close-ups of either Pratt or Ferguson’s faces, making the whole thing seem even smaller. There is some excitement and suspense generated during a few sequences, but otherwise ‘Mercy’ never fully comes to life.
Chris Pratt is good at playing either lovable, action-oriented goofballs or everyman action heroes, but anything beyond that might be trouble. Chris Raven is supposed to be a decent cop brought down by the bottle and grief, but Pratt doesn’t quite have the gravitas to pull off what’s supposed to be a deeply flawed character. Nor can he portray anything complex with the camera stuck on his face for much of the running time. This isn’t a good role for him, and between this and last year’s woeful ‘The Electric State,’ he needs to recalibrate.
The best performance in ‘Mercy’ is from Rebecca Ferguson, whose piercing eyes and unnerving stillness actually make for quite an eerie simulation of artificial intelligence. There are moments when a strange smile slips across her face, and others where she goes creepily blank, that will have you believe you’re watching some form of sentience trying to imitate a human. The script lets her down too in the end, but she’s believable as an unknowable entity with the power of life and death.
The derivative nature of ‘Mercy’ and its claustrophobic use of the Screenlife aesthetic to tell its story would perhaps be alleviated if there was a story there worth telling. But the movie can’t even get its mixed messages straight. At a time when we’re seeing the very real damage that A.I. can do, ‘Mercy’ almost sidesteps that question entirely.
The simplistic ‘everyone makes mistakes’ theme doesn’t really hack it here, not with the complicated issues that the movie deals with only in the most superficial way. For a movie that touches on issues affecting us literally as this is being typed, ‘Mercy’ feels like it’s exploiting those same issues for a throwback to a less intelligent kind of sci-fi movie.
In the near future, a detective (Chris Pratt) stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced A.I. judge (Rebecca Ferguson) he once championed, before it determines his fate.
