Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin
“THE DOG STARS” My rating: C+ (In theaters)
118 minutes | MPAA rating: R
More is less.
That’s the inescapable lesson of Ridley Scott’s “The Dog Stars,” an overcooked adaptation of Peter Heller’s end-of-the-world novel.
On the printed page “Dog Stars” is apocalypse on an intimate scale, fueled not by big action moments but by a creeping sense of loss. But Mark L. Smith’s screenplay pumps things up in an effort to please the lowest common denominator and the results have more in common with your average zombie flick than, say, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
Ten years after a pandemic has wiped out most of humanity, Hig (Jacob Elori) and Bangley (Josh Brolin) eke out a living on an abandoned airstrip in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Hig is a pilot who has managed to keep one Cessna running; he periodically flies into what’s left of Denver to collect food and other necessities. He seems to be a decent guy. Hig loves his dog and visits a Mennonite community in a nearby valley to deliver food and medicine.
Bangley, on the other hand, is a long-time survivalist (no doubt he’s ex-military) who thrives on isolation. Early on he uses his long-range rifle to kill a couple of teens who have wandered into his domain. His approach is to shoot first and question the corpses later.
The plot centers on Hig’s determination to reach Grand Junction after hearing a broadcast from that town’s airport. Forced down by engine trouble, he stumbles upon a father and daughter (Guy Pearce, Margaret Qualley) who have been living peacefully deep in the mountains. The old man is suspicious of this interloper but the woman sees in Hig a last chance for a more-or-less normal existence.
The film’s first half is actually pretty good. Then things go downhill fast.
Screenwriter Smith suddenly changes gears. All that melancholy moodiness is tossed out on its ear in favor of two huge action sequences. In one Hig and his newfound friends must outrace a mounted band called the Scavengers to his newly-repaired airplane. Meanwhile Bangley undergoes a siege by a small army of tattooed berserkers.
Jacob Elori, Margaret Qualley
Things get even more ridiculous when Hig and his new comrades set down in Grand Junction to find the place a fiefdom presided over by the bonkers Darlene (Allison Janney in scenery-chewing overdrive), who wears a spotless airline hostess outfit from the 1970s (love the pillbox hat) and has developed an unconventional diet for her doped-up minions. (Use your imagination.)
At one point we’re supposed to believe that three hand grenades have the destructive power of a small thermonuclear device.
“The Dog Stars” at least looks good, thanks to Erik Messerschmidt’s cinematography — though Italy’s Dolomite Mountains don’t really look much like the American Rockies.
Acting honors go to Brolin for his tough-minded, utterly unsentimental Bangley, whose brusque approach to every action provides the film’s only brief flashes of humor.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 