Movie Review: 65

As the writers behind A Quiet Place and the directors of a cult slasher hit in Haunt, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods have firsthand knowledge of the power that tight, tense thrill rides wield in the genre movie space (both of these films are just over 90 minutes long). Confusingly, they seem to have set aside the lessons learned from their past triumphs when assembling the final cut of their third directorial effort 65.

On paper (and routinely in practice), 65 has all the makings of a great genre exercise. Giving dinosaurs the action horror/thriller treatment produces several tense scenes while also providing a unique take on this underexplored subgenre of sci-fi pictures, the VFX for the dinosaurs are quite good and there's a sweet father/daughter-esque bond that forms between two people (Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt) who crash landed on prehistoric Earth after their spaceship was knocked out of orbit by a meteor shower. Given its simple plotting and the urgent, perilous stakes attached to them (roughly 90% of the film consists of Driver and Greenblatt trying to get to the ship's still in-tact escape pod that is several miles away from the crash site), 65 should've been a movie that never took its foot off the gas. Instead, Beck and Woods chose to tell this story in a pretty deliberate fashion that often grinds things to a complete halt in between the moments of action/suspense. 

Having so much dead air in a movie that only runs for 93 minutes with credits isn't just detrimental to the quality of the film, it makes no logical sense. The whole point of making a 93-minute movie-particularly in the sci-fi/horror/action/realm-is to grab the viewer by the throat from the jump and not let go until the credits start rolling. Utilizing a stop-and-start approach like 65 eliminates the brute propulsive force that all the best genre films with short runtime have used to their advantage and begs the question if Beck and Woods weren't interested in going balls-out for the entire runtime, why didn't they just expand the running time by writing a more detailed script that better suits the slow-ish pacing? There's enough of a spark present in the creature action beats, key character moments and the sheer originality of its genre mash-up to make 65 worth a watch, but it's hard to ignore just how much better it would have been if Beck and Woods had made something with a greater sense of forward momentum and more liberal use of its prehistoric predators. 

Grade: B-