150 Word Review: 'Life' (2017)
Death
One can only watch the Alien franchise so many times before wanting to take a break, which is why Life is worth sitting through, especially if it's late at night. Director Daniel Espinosa's 2017 sci-fi horror film is about a crew of astronauts stalked by a hostile alien life form. Unlike Ridley Scott's original, which takes place next century, Life happens in an unusually upbeat near future, on the International Space Station. Here's the set-up: A probe has returned from Mars with soil samples to be studied, and guess what? Yup.
The cast is a top-notch mix of character actors and up-and-coming hunks, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds. Gyllenhaal's bug-eyed earnestness and Reynolds' trademark smirk are both on display. The zero-g effects are superb. The alien is unsettling: a jellyfish meets a butterfly, plus an eel? It's no xenomorph, that's for sure. Life starts slow, but ends with a scream.