Long Distance

I like the actors in this. But Naomi Scott was almost completely wasted. Anthony Ramos is forced to carry most of the movie. And while he does an admirable job, it became kind of boring and linear.

The special effects are solid. The aliens are interesting and fairly scary. They could have fine-tuned them a bit, but overall they're pretty great. All the other effects are well-crafted and believable. So, if I can give props to anyone, it's the special effects team.

I can't say the same about the writers and editors. This was really poorly scripted and edited. There were giant plot holes, convenient things happen in the plot to overcome serious obstacles and some of the dialog was just terrible. The plot doesn't flow particularly well, either.

4/10. Watch it once. Enjoy the special effects.

While in the Netherlands I had the pleasure of catching this movie, and after watching it I was surprised it has not gotten a broader release. I looked online and learned it had only a minimal release as of the time I wrote this review and unfortunately, Universal Pictures doesn't have it on its release schedule. It's sad because it was a breath of fresh air and well worth a watch if you can find it.

It started with a great opening that hooked me right away. I really enjoyed the "AI" or computer interaction with the main character from the very beginning. It had a sort of detached caring combined with a lack of empathy, which made for a hilarious combo. I think it may be the fastest I've ever laughed after starting a movie. The sarcasm was epic and I loved it.

The movie progressed nicely and held my interest throughout. It's not breaking any new ground with regard to the general plot line, but the execution was funny and had enough action to maintain a good pace. I would like to see more movies like this. If you like sci-fi comedy with action, you should enjoy this one enough.

A mining spaceship gets hit by a meteorite and crashes onto an uncharted hostile planet. Lower level crew member Andy Ramirez (Anthony Ramos) and Naomi Calloway (Naomi Scott) are two survivors.

There is some action and some thrills. It's a creature feature. The creatures are good solid CGI creations. My biggest problem is that I don't really like Andy. He's a scared idiot for most of the movie. He gets a gun-like device, but nobody ever uses it for some reason. He's just not the brightest light in the room and that gets frustrating. It's a simple little sci-fi with creatures. It would be fine but Andy annoys me.

The movie has a decent pace, keeps you in suspense and has a surprisingly light atmosphere, for a movie about monsters. There is even a bit of a family atmosphere and romance (5%), but it is mainly a movie about buddies (male-female relationships), with sharp language (sometimes funny) with horror elements, but the scenes are designed in such a way that even people who don't like horror movies can watch it. It is scary, but not too much, because the main characters support and motivate each other, often in a comical way. The plot is of a high standard, special effects too, there are some logical gaps, but they are either explained at the end of the movie or are not that important. Generally, I recommend it as an interesting, calming movie with horror elements :-)

Distant or Long Distance (I still don't get why you would call a movie with two different titles) is an entertaining sci-fi movie, not the best, for sure not, but good enough to watch once. The cinematography wasn't bad at all. The main reason I started watching this one was to see Zachary Quinto, but he turned out to be just the voice of a computer, so that was a bit disappointing. The rest of the very small cast did well though, not Oscar winning performances but good enough to look professional. In short it's worth a watch, just don't expect too much comedy as it's also categorized. I laughed once and that's it.