A time traveler teams with his younger self to save the world in the amusingly entertaining The Adam Project, a movie you’ll appreciate only as much as you appreciate Ryan Reynolds’ particular sense of humor.
From Shawn Levy, the director of Reynolds’ 2021 obnoxious hit Free Guy, the straight-to-Netflix action-comedy arguably lands a notch above most straight-to-Netflix films while not entirely escaping the stereotypical expectations such a designation holds. Similar to other Netflix releases, the movie checks certain boxes that makes it feel just a tad formulaic, even if the end product seems very much in line with what Levy intended to deliver to audiences.
The Adam Project is not the best of anything: it’s a pretty routine time travel film, it doesn’t exactly challenge Reynolds to do anything he doesn’t do himself on social media, and the action is pretty standard.
And yet it’s a fun movie, full of smarmy dialogue, fast-paced action and adventure, and colorful visual effects. Reynolds and young Walker Scobell make for a satisfying tag-team duo, even if the blistering sarcasm and side comments become a bit rote over the course of the film’s two hours. Though tonally different, I can imagine that if I were a preteen boy, I’d resonate with The Adam Project the way I did with The Last Starfighter back in the day.
Not quite clever enough to stand out but satisfyingly entertaining nonetheless, The Adam Project may become lost to time, but in the moment is worth the cost of admission (which, if you have Netflix, is $0).
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.
