“Don’t Look Up” / Z-View
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchette, Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Michael Chiklis and Paul Guilfoyle.
Tagline: Based on truly possible events. The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…When a grad student (Lawrence) and her professor (DiCaprio) discover a huge comet on a collision course with Earth they bring the information up the chain of command to the President (Streep). Unfortunately the information about the possible end of the world comes at a bad time — the mid-term elections are just around the corner. Although sworn to secrecy, Lawrence and DiCaprio take the information to the media. Now that the world knows action will be taken… or not.
A satire about an apocalyptic disaster with this all-star cast had so much potential. Sadly, Don’t Look Up is a bit heavy-handed and long. Lawrence and DiCaprio come off as neurotic worriers needing medication to get through the day (even before the discovery of a planet-killer comet on collision course with us). Streep and her followers are in denial (Hence, the Don’t Look Up title) and more interested in ratings, money and being re-elected. This set-up could have worked if we had some likeable characters and tighter editing.
There are funny scenes and set-ups. Lawrence and DiCaprio are forced to wait for hours and hours to see the President with perhaps the most important information ever. Then when they finally do get in, the President and her staff downplay the danger because of ratings. There’s potential laughs in how both conservatives and liberals react to the knowledge that the comet is coming. It’s interesting that both groups find ways to make money off the comet – a concert for the libs and a rally for the President’s followers. The way the media delivers the message to the masses and makes stars of some and ignoring others is ripe for laughs. And we do get a few, but not enough to get better than a 2 star rating.
