The Adam Project (2022) Review

The Adam Project (2022)

The Adam Project follows Adam Reed, who, after accidentally crash landing in 2022, teams up with his 12-year-old self to save the future and get his wife back. 

After the shocking success of Free Guy, Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds next partnership in The Adam Project immediately became one of my most anticipated movies of this year, in a weird, retro, childhood nostalgia kinda way. Safe to say, it totally sticks the landing too, calling back to those classic action/adventure/science fiction flicks of the 80s with ridiculous plots, exciting effects, and all with the added tinge of heartfelt, family elements that make our main characters look inward at the relationships they share with their parents.

Something we get twofold in Adam Reed, a snarky 12-year-old with a penchant for getting in trouble, who comes to face to face with himself from the year 2050, who is just as troublesome with a little more mileage under his belt. It’s a partnership of necessity in its present, that allows these two Adams to confront their past and alter their future for the better, through rectifying their fractured relationships they shared with their parents. For future Adam, the death of his father left him angry, unable to cope with grief. For present Adam however, his father’s death left him with resentment for his mother, who was grieving in her own way, something Adam could never understand. Their chance encounter not only takes us on a time-hopping, action-packed adventure, but heals them, and the future, stopping time travel from ever occurring, giving both their, and their fathers life, meaning. 

We get a wonderful cast, starring Alex Mallari Jr., Jennifer Garner, Zoe Saldaña, Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo, Walker Scobell, and Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds trademark sarcastic wit is on full display here, this time in two, with Scobell mirroring that wit with precision, allowing this duo to feel like two parts of a hilariously damaged whole, riffing off each other to perfection, especially in the presence of a surprisingly amusing Mark Ruffalo. 

The Adam Project, directed by Shawn Levy, is a love letter to the family sci-fi flicks of the 80s, utilizing the fantastic one-two combo of Reynolds and Scobell, to create a film that is lively, exciting, and incredibly nostalgic and meaningful with its insights into parenthood and past regrets.

8.7/10