When I first saw some promotional material for 65 I was beyond excited as it was something that was immediately up my alley, a science fiction movie starring Adam Driver. At worst it was going to be a fun outing with Adam Driver. At best it would become an instant favorite science fiction thriller. Unfortunately, it didn’t become an instant classic, but the movie was something I didn’t entirely expect and it ended up being a real fun popcorn flick. This is a subgenre of film that lets you turn off your brain and watch the chaos unfold on screen, letting you escape into another world. However, this doesn’t always translate to the small screen. While the movie is fun and over the top and better than the last couple Jurassic Park movies (no, seriously, the last two Jurassic movies without the nostalgia were hard to watch), the at-home re-watchability factor on a standard set is lacking something to be desired.
Adam Driver as Mills in 65. Photo By: Patti Perret. © 2023 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
While 65 at home on 4K Ultra HD looks impressive, just watching in a room on a relatively big screen without an additional audio output feels like something is lacking. This movie is verbose and seeing it in the theatre felt like an experience, whereas without that theatre going immersion, the movie lacks a little umph. It is a barebones story. A man, Mills (Adam Driver), gets stranded on Earth, you guessed it, 65 million years ago with the only other survivor, Koa (Arianna Greenblatt), and they’re fighting for their survival and hope to get back home. This movie will give a workout to your television speakers, but with a proper Atmos set up (which the 4K does support), I can only imagine the complete immersion that one could experience being whipped away in this dino-packed action thriller.
65 is certainly the type of movie you buy to show off to friends when they come over and you want to workout your home theatre system. It sounds great on my very standard Sony television and I can only imagine how it would perform on an actual setup. While being a little light and silly on the actual movie itself, it is short enough to not aggravate its audience with an over-welcomed running time, and short enough for a pleasant quick movie night. Adam Driver certainly knows what he is doing, too, as he is just having a blast throughout the movie and knows not to take it seriously and just lets loose and has fun with the fact that he’s from a futuristic society and is landing on a prehistoric planet.
L-R: Ariana Greenblatt as Koa and Adam Driver as Mills in 65. Photo By: Patti Perret. © 2023 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Atop of the movie, boasting a gorgeous picture, there are a slew of bonus features that are sure to satisfy those cravings of wanting to deep-dive further into the film itself. The one feature that doesn’t exist (and honestly it never would on any movie) and I would’ve liked, is a behind-the-scenes featurette on the marketing shift behind pushing 65. Originally, it appeared the movie was about a space man who got stranded, somewhere, and had to fight creatures we’ve never seen before. There was a lot of mystery. However, then it pivoted to telling audiences it was presumably Earth, and had dinosaurs, which still holds the attention but takes a way a lot of mystery. Regardless though, the features include deleted and extended scenes, Future of Yesterday: Creating the world of 65, Primordial Planet, Final Showdown: Concepts to Screen, Set in Stone: Filmmakers, and previews. When playing your 4K Ultra HD disk, do not worry that there is no option for extras, as they are solely on the Blu-Ray disk. While some of these features are run-of-the-mill, like the deleted scenes and previews, the deep dives in the Concepts to Screen and the Set in Stone features provide a lot of behind-the-scene tidbits that will surely satisfy the feature nerds.
Overall, 65 at home is one for the people with systems capable of something more than just a out-of-the-box tv set up, or for people who really love dinosaur movies and Adam Driver. There is plenty of fun and excitement that the movie packs, but with its light hand on story, and honestly not enough dinosaur action, the at-home viewing gets a little bogged down. However, the features more than make up for any shortcomings, so if the price is right, the movie will surely make for a fun movie night at home with some extra love for the creation of the movie itself.
65 Special Features:
- Deleted Scenes (8:03)
- Set in Stone: Filmmakers (4:21)
- Future of Yesterday: Creating the world of 65 (4:56)
- Primordal Planet (2:30)
- Final Showdown: Concepts to screen (10:14)
- Previews
Available on digital-to-own May 2nd, 2023.
Available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-Ray, and DVD May 30th, 2023.
For more information, head to the official Sony Pictures 65 website.
Share this:
Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
Leave a Reply