Netflix's U.S.top five is predominantly earthbound at the moment, which is no real surprise.Jacob Tremblay plays a young Ted Kaczynski while Shailen Woodley gives chase in Tyler Perry's keeps his chart streak alive, and the true-crime doc is mesmerizing nonfiction (more on it in my weekly documentary roundup).
That's all fine and dandy, but don't overlook Netflix as a place to find good sci-fi movies, with this weekend's picks including a deep-space mission flick starring Brad Pitt, an underrated genre-blending gem with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, and a dark robot thriller with Hilary Swank.3 Ad Astra Brad Pitt searches the stars for his lost father and answers Writer-director James Gray's () psychological sci-fi film has a lot in common with other slow-burning, atmospheric space movies of the time, such as Robert Pattinson's death-row-inmates-sent-to-a-black-hole flick , and even Christopher Nolan's earlier father-daughter mind-bender While they all feature hard sci-fi space exploration aesthetics, they also have similar "sadstronaut" isolation themes.BratdPitt stars as astronaut Roy McBride, who learns that the power surges that are wreaking havoc on Earth could be coming from the last known location of his father, Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), who vanished with his team 16 years earlier during a mission to Neptune.
So naturally, they send Roy to the Moon, then to Mars, to try to contact his father.With help from Cliff's aging colleague Colonel Pruitt (Donald Sutherland) and the daughter of one of Cliff's team members, Roy takes the journey further into deep space to learn the truth.While is not the interdimensional brain melter that is, it's still a visual feast that also earned an Oscar nod for sound mixing.
It maintains an impressive 83% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and is well worth the two-hour runtime.Like Ad Astra PG-13 Science Fiction Drama Release Date September 20, 2019 Runtime 123 minutes Cast See All Brad Pitt Roy McBride Tommy Lee Jones H.Clifford McBride Liv Tyler Eve Ruth Negga Helen Lantos Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming RENT BUY Director James Gray Writers Ethan Gross, James Gray Producers Anthony Katagas, Arnon Milchan, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, James Gray, Jeremy Kleiner, Rodrigo Teixeira Main Genre Sci-Fi Budget $87.5 million Studio(s) 20th Century Distributor(s) 20th Century, Disney Executive Producer(s) Anthony Mosawi, Jeffrey Chan Wing-Hung, Lourenço Sant'Anna, Marc Butan, Michael Schaefer, Paul Conway, Sophie Mas, Yariv Milchan, Yu Dong Powered by Expand Collapse 2 Cowboys & Aliens Close encounters in the Wild West MCU godfather and current Star Wars Universe bigwig Jon Favreau had just directed two Iron Man movies back-to-back before jumping behind the camera in this fun genre-smashing 2011 sci-fi film.
And even more fun, the director pulled together James Bond and Indiana Jones to do it.may not have wowed critics (or investors), but the film, adapted from Scott Mitchell Rosenberg's 2006 graphic novel, has found modest success on streaming and earned cult status.I, for one, think it's just an enjoyable and quirky popcorn movie you can throw on with your teens that entertains the thought that aliens have been visiting American humans long before Roswell and Area 51.
It's the 1870s in the American Southwest, and outlaw Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the desert with amnesia and a weird metal gadget wrapped around his wrist.When flying saucers descend from the sky and start abducting folks, Jake must team up with his enemy Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), and the feisty Ella Swanson (Olivia Wilde) to fight for their lives.Like Cowboys & Aliens PG-13 Action Science Fiction Thriller Western Release Date July 29, 2011 Runtime 119 minutes Cast See All Daniel Craig Jake Lonergan Harrison Ford Woodrow Dolarhyde Olivia Wilde Ella Swenson Sam Rockwell Doc Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming RENT BUY Director Jon Favreau Writers Damon Lindelof, Roberto Orci, Hawk Ostby Producers Alex Kurtzman, Bobby Cohen, Brian Grazer, Denis L.
Stewart, Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, Ryan Kavanaugh Main Genre Sci-Fi Powered by Expand Collapse 1 I Am Mother When the robots take over, can they be trusted? If you're into post-apocalyptic and AI sci-fi like and even Apple TV's excellent series , then I think 2019's will be worth your time this week.This Australian thriller, which Netflix snapped up after its Sundance premiere, explores themes of social isolation, nature vs.nurture, and "greater-good" ethics.
After an extinction-level event wipes out humanity, a droid called Mother (voiced by ' great Rose Byrne) raises a girl known only as Daughter (B's Clara Rugaard) in isolation within a sealed bunker that also houses tens of thousands of human embryos to repopulate the planet.Daughter loves the nurturing android—created by the wizards at Weta Workshop () using a full-body suit—but her world is flipped upside down when a wounded stranger (Hilary Swank) arrives and tells Daughter a different story about the outside world than Mother has led her to believe, and that robots cannot be trusted.With an impressive 89% score on Rotten Tomatoes, is a creeping psychological sci-fi film that builds into some exciting action as a standoff brews, and we learn the clinical nature of humanity's supposed saviors.
Like I Am Mother Release Date July 7, 2019 Runtime 113 Minutes Director Grant Sputore Cast See All Clara Rugaard Rose Byrne Hilary Swank Luke Hawker Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming Powered by Expand Collapse Houston, we have a movie night Fine, only one of this weekend's movies leaves the planet, but they're all pretty—wait for it—out of this world.I'll let myself out.But before I do, I want to remind you to check out How-To Geek's deep well of movie and TV show recommendations that we pump out each week and weekend.
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