Jennifer Lopez hasn’t had any reviews like this since Gigli. Her new film, Atlas, may be at the top of the Netflix movie charts. But it won’t top the critics’ movie of the year polls. It currently sits at an abysmal 19% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a rather unimpressive 50% from viewers, despite being a curious mix of Terminator And Neon Genesis Evangelion.
According to the New York Times, the science fiction drama sometimes feels “like pure pastiche.” “It looks, in a way that we’re used to seeing on the streamers, a bit cheap, dark, tacky and fake, especially in the big action scenes.” The San Francisco Chronicle isn’t impressed either. “Imagine Lopez trying to deadlift 1,000 pounds for two hours, and you have an idea of what Atlas is like,” it says. But the We are looking at what? podcast puts it best with: “Legitimately afraid this movie was written by someone being held hostage by a hostile AI.”
Here are three better options to stream on Netflix in the US right now.
Looper
It’s hard to watch Looper now without being sad about Bruce Willis, who is fantastic here. While it’s a sci-fi film and inventive at that, it’s essentially an old-fashioned buddy action film of the kind that Willis excelled at before a degenerative disease forced him to retire. Looper is smarter than your average action movie, with great direction from Rian Johnson and great performances from both Willis and Joseph Gordon Levitt. If Stuff put it,”Looper connected Moon, Inception, Interstellar And Source code by proving that the thinking man’s science fiction, last truly prominent in the 1970s, has taken its revenge in the past decade.
Also available to stream on Now/Sky in the UK and Stan/Foxtel in Australia.
Upgrade
Upgrade feels like one long, violent episode of Black mirror, and that’s a compliment: it’s a pulpy revenge thriller set in a believable sci-fi future in which a man wakes up after an accident that leaves his wife dead and his body paralyzed. Will he accept an artificial implant that will give him his body back and help him get revenge? Take a guess. This is old-fashioned science fiction, delivered with humor, verve and a lot of style, and the relatively short running time ensures that it remains tight and tense. It’s a lot of fun, what Daily Gravel House called “an incredibly funny, modestly clever and ultra-gory piece of cyberpunk.”
Currently only available to rent or buy outside the US.
Ready Player One
If you’re looking for a spectacle, there’s plenty of it here. Steven Spielberg’s talents make this film incredibly entertaining, and while the script isn’t brilliant, the set pieces are so spectacular that you won’t mind. If Autostraddle said it’s “a damn fun movie, full of stunning action scenes and laughs and winks at the kids who grew up watching Back to the future And Jurassic Park And AND And Indiana Jones.” According to rich: “Spielberg has seemingly done the impossible: balance sugar rush nostalgia with a compelling story to create a pure, uncynical, cinematic ride that recaptures the magic of his early films.”
Also available to stream on Netflix in Australia and Sky/Now in the UK.
