Project Hail Mary review

In the movie “Project Hail Mary”, scientists learn that in a few years, planet Earth will become unlivable and they need a way to prevent that. Who do ya call? Ken from the “Barbie” movie or rather, Ryan Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace. Dr. Grace is a sheepish, introverted former molecular biologist turned middle school science teacher who is recruited into this program by the mysterious Stratt, played by Sandra Huller. Grace works on how to keep this microorganism in space, called “astrophage”, from siphoning the sun’s energy and destroying life on Earth. Circumstances eventually sees Grace sent into space where he has to use what they’ve learned on Earth to try to fight the astrophage. Along the way, Grace meets an alien who’s world is also in danger from the astrophage. Grace and the alien develop a working relationship and then a friendship and Grace names his new buddy, Rocky. Grace and Rocky have to do some dangerous things to try to save both their worlds. Is it worth going to the theater to find out what else happens? Watch this episode of Movies Merica to find out! “Project Hail Mary” also stars James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce, Milana Vayntrub, Ken Leung, Priya Kansara, Mia Soteriou, Annelle Olaleye and Maya Eva Hosein. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

With the movie title like Project Hail Mary, this is sure to be a big movie for Catholics or football fans, and especially Catholic football fans. Will anyone else like it? Is it worthy of anyone else liking it? Well, I'll give you my take on this latest Ryan Gosling movie with him going all interstellar to save Earth with a little help from a new friend today on Movies America Live. This is the movie that everybody is talking about right now. It uh I think it's gonna end up being here after this weekend going to be the biggest movie so far this year. So I say so far this year because we've got a quite a bit uh of uh quite a few movies coming out this year that I think is going to eventually wrestle that top spot away from Project Hail Mary. I mean, we got a little movie about uh Super Mario that some people like, you know, there. Uh we got the Odyssey, uh, we've got uh, you know, Dune 3 coming up way back in uh or up in uh in December, I think, uh, you know, latest Avengers movie. But for right now, right now here, as of when I'm doing this episode, like Project Hail Mary with Ryan Gosling and a little co-star uh named Rocky is uh, you know, the big kid on the block right there. It's the king in the mountain right now. But uh really quick, just want to welcome my movie maniacs and my fellow freedom-fueled film fanatics out there. And as always, I'm your host, Van Ebert. Uh, some call me Movies America. I go by both. All right. So uh it's all good in the hood right there. And real quick here, uh just want to let you guys know that since you are watching a live show, uh, we have the live chat available for you there. And so, you know, that's you know, at least one thing that that gives you the opportunity for is to talk about the movie. We're talking about it here today, Project Hail Mary. Uh, you know, a lot of people have seen this movie already. If you look at the box office numbers, uh, I'm I'm certainly not the only one that's seen this movie already here. So, and or hey, talk about anything on the live chat. I can't stop you. Uh live it up, go crazy up in the live chat there, everybody. So, but uh anyway, real quick here, let's get into uh some Project Hail Mary. And this movie is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, aka Lord and Miller, which sounds like a uh law firm or something like that. And it stars Ryan Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace, okay. Now that's a name right there, okay? Uh also stars Sanja Hewler as Eva Stratt. Again, another interesting name there. And then uh James Ortiz uh stars as Rocky, okay? And no, it's not not Sylvester Stallone. Slice Stallone is not in this movie right here. Uh, but Rocky is the, and I'm not spoiling anything there. All the trailers have have Rocky in them. But Rocky is an alien that looks like it's made out of rocks right there, and and uh Dr. Grace names him or Nicknames him Rocky uh for obvious reasons uh there. So, and so yeah, he's so James Ortiz does the voice, and he does like the puppeteering and all that stuff for Rocky, the character. And so I'll get into the plot a little bit here. So uh you can probably get a lot of the plot just by watching a trailer here, but I'll give you my uh kind of half-assed uh, you know, breakdown on the plot here. So essentially we've got Ryan Gosling, and he plays like this uh junior high chemistry teacher, and he is approached by this Eva Stratt, again, played by Sandra Houler, and he and she recruits him into a project uh where she also informs him that uh, yeah, we got a little problem. A little problem here uh concerning the planet Earth here. Yeah, there's this thing uh that is actually uh killing the sun and essentially dimming the sun. And uh, you know what, you don't have to be a real genius to know that here on Earth, we kind of need the sun, you know, for all of us to uh, you know, live. Okay. And so since the sun is dimming, then you know, this Eva Strat is telling this Dr. Race played by Ryan Gosling, uh, yeah, this, you know, this Earth, this planet we all live on right now, yeah, it's gonna be dead as a doorknob here in a few decades right there. So if we don't do anything about it, uh, yeah, it's pretty much what two-thirds of the Earth's population is going to die. Actually, the way she puts it is even if every single person on Earth works together to try to solve this thing, two-thirds of the world's population is going to die unless they come up with some kind of solution. And so she comes to Ryan Gosling's character to try to help create a solution, all right? And so they know what's what's killing the sun there, but she just needs Dr. Grace here, again, Ryan Gosling's character, to try to come up with a solution. So they they you know, they they fly him out to where they're doing their research. Um, eventually they find out, you know, oh, hey, this is this is what we need to do. Um they they arrange a space flight there. Um, and then eventually the you know, we see Ryan Gossig is out in space there uh as part of that space flight. And that's where the movie kind of flips between like when Ryan Gosselin is out in space solving the problem out in space, and between when he's on Earth still, you know, in flashback mode. He kind of he's his move, his memory flashes back to back when he was back on Earth trying to solve the problem with a bunch of other people uh on Earth uh there. And so it just it switches back and forth. But uh, and so yeah, it's uh so it's all about saving the planet Earth, but it involves a lot of time in this movie with Ryan Gossing in space with his good buddy Rocky uh there. And I'm not and that's about as much in the plot that I'm gonna go into right there. I don't think it's gonna serve you or me very well if I go into the plot in any more detail there. Watch, you know, watch the movie, you'll get the idea there, which is I'm pretty much like giving up. I'm I'm giving up my uh my take on this movie in saying that. And so I would say go see this movie. Okay, I'm gonna you know, obviously, go into more detail about Project Hail Mary and give you my final thoughts here at the end, right here. But uh yeah, just from uh just from you know Front Street, uh, yeah, go see this movie, okay? Go see, check out this movie uh right here. So, I mean, what you're probably hearing from the general public is accurate right there in that it is a good movie. A lot of people think it's a masterpiece uh there. I will not go that far uh with that. I'm not uh, you know, on team masterpiece here, but I'm on team, it's good, it's entertaining, you know, and it's you know, it's it borrows from a lot of other movies. It's you know, it's part Interstellar, it's part ET, it's part the Martian, and uh, you get you when you watch the movie, you might like you might determine, oh yeah, well, it's this movie too, and that movie too, and that movie too uh there as well. But uh yeah, it's just good pure entertainment right there. But uh, all right, everybody, let's go ahead and uh move on here with the show. And of course, we got uh more Project Hail Mary uh to get into right here as we uh continue on with this movie's America Live episode here. And uh way back in 2011, way back in the ancient days of 2011, uh, there when you know Ryan Gosling started Drive, I thought he did some of the best acting of his career. And he barely said a word in that movie. Okay. Now, fast forward to now, and I'd put his performance in Project Hail Mary up there with his performances in Drive. And I would also compare it to his performance in La La Land.

SPEAKER_04 10:00

I can admit that. But requesting Iran from a serious musician is just it's too far.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

My lord, did you just say a serious musician?

SPEAKER_04 10:09

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_03 10:10

Can I borrow what you're wearing?

SPEAKER_04 10:11

Why?

SPEAKER_03 10:11

Because I have an audition a serious firefighter.

SPEAKER_04 10:14

I thought you were an actor. I thought you looked familiar.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

Uh Coffee Shop on the Warner Brothers lot. That's a classic.

SPEAKER_04 10:23

Oh, I see. Yeah. You're Barista. And I can see how you could then look down on me from all the way up there.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

And there's a whole lot uh more in those movies than just uh that. Obviously, uh, if you haven't seen Drive and or La La Land, check them out there. So, and and anybody guys are like, oh, La La Land, that's a musical, and I'm a macho dude. I don't want to watch La La Land. Hey, you know what? You might earn some points with the lady uh there, if you're a dude, right, in watching La La Land with her. And I think you'll be entertained. Now, you don't have to tell her you're entertained with that, but it might score you some points with her if you watch it and you pretend that it was such a chore to watch it. But, you know, you'll you'll definitely I think you'll definitely like the movie right there, but just play your cards right and act like it was a chore there, and then you're gonna earn some points uh with your missus right there. But uh anyway, that's a side note right there. Uh now, Ryan Gosson's character and Project Hail Mary is not necessarily a flattering role. I mean, he's not a hero for most of the movie. I mean, he's a guy whose once promising career in molecular biology was trashed over an unpopular thesis, and now he's just like this junior high school chemistry teacher. Now, does that sound familiar, that whole plot line right there? I mean, if this story had taken place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, how his path could have gone so much different. Huh? Upbreaking bad fans? Huh? Yeah. Now his character sort of reminds me of James Spader's timid scientist character from Stargate. Remember Stargate, Kurt Russell, and uh James Spader? And uh it was like uh the uh it was like the movies, like the movie that um Roland Emmerich did right before he did uh Independence Day back in the 90s there. But Ryan Gosling's Dr. Grace character, you know, he's likable though. And you see this with how all the characters surrounding him, you know, take a liking to him as well. And uh, you know, even like the government agents that are there to protect/contain him, uh, you know, they start getting involved in helping him uh, you know, with his experiments to you know help save the world, like literally, literally save the world. And there's a fun sequence where he realizes that, you know, he being Ryan Gosling, he realizes that they have unlimited money via the government credit card. Because remember, this is a project to save the world. So spare no expense, right? The government's like, yeah, well, however much money you need to help save the world there, Dr. Grace. Yeah, you do it. So they got a government expense, you know, account and all that. And so because they realize that, then, you know, Dr. Grace is like, well, let's go on a shopping spree at Home Depot, you know, for all their scientific experiment supplies, galore. And then, of course, they, you know, of course, they throw in a plentiful supply of Skittles, of course. Now, what solidifies this as an excellent performance is how Ryan Gosling, how he gets along with his co-star and founding a rock solid relationship in space. See what I did there, all right? And I speak, of course, of Rocky, the friendly alien that Dr. Grace meets in space, who looks to be made of rocks, and hence him getting the Rocky name. All right. And, you know, their friendship does get you right in the field, especially in certain life or death moments. A la Elliot, you know, remember played by what Henry Thomas uh and his spacey friend uh in E.T. there. There's that that uh friendship dynamic there, that you know, that that uh otherworldly friendship dynamic uh here. And you know, Rocky, to be sure, he's gonna be a hit with the kids right there. And and he's also you know, a bonus there is he's not Jar Jar Binks obnoxious. He's a Jar Jar Binks. Yeah, so uh I didn't mind him too. I mean, I wasn't gagging the whole time when you know Rocky was you know on screen, and and actually they eventually get to the point where Ryan Gossing hooks up like this uh audio software where he can give uh Rocky a voice and it translates what Rocky's language is and it gives him a voice there. And uh so again, I didn't mind Rocky in there. It didn't get so it didn't get so goofy and sappy that it ruined a movie or anything like that. And of course, you know, me liking Rocky, this could just be confirmation that I have the taste and maturity level of a seven-year-old, which I have plenty of people in my life that I think would attest uh to that right there. They'd be like, aha, hey, finally, Van's got some self-awareness right here. He's finally learning. Okay, we need to do uh some more, we need to go over some more Project Hail Mary, don't you think, right there? Absolutely. And uh let's talk a little bit about what kept this movie from being a total home run for me. It was kind of more of a triple, okay, not quite a home run for me. And the driving force behind the need for Project Hail Mary, again, Project Hail Mary is the government operation. It's like an uh an inter-government operation where they got governments all over from all over the world uh getting together uh to try to save the world right here. And so that's that's what Project Hail Mary is here. But the driving force behind the need for Project Hail Mary to even exist is that a microorganism called astrophage, which I think they invented that for this movie. I don't think that's a real scientific thing. I don't know. Uh Google it, crack me if you want there in the live chat. That's totally cool. But this microorganism called astrophage is siphoning off the energy out of our sun and then almost every other sun in our galaxy there as well, thus killing the population of planets. Now, the movie could have done a better job at giving this fact like more impact and continually raising the level of foreboding that this extinction level event or ELE poses throughout the movie. They mention the danger and the stakes, like you know, two, three times tops. And then the rest of the time, the movie makes it easy to forget what the stakes are, thus killing tension. Instead, we get sequences of good old fun, you know, like lots of like, you know, playing around and just having some, you know, fromping back and forth, a lot of kid play, all that stuff, you know, eating Skittles and singing karaoke, etc., and all that. Now that's okay to have that stuff in here to, you know, add a little levity to a heavy subject, but let's not skimp on the heavy either, okay? I mean, we need to, this movie needs to have that tension underlying every scene, you know, to really help you start care not start, but care overall what happened to these characters. Now, I think this movie gets the character development dynamic down to where you do care about what happens to the characters. I mean, like Ryan Gosling, his Dr. Grace character is very endearing. You you don't want him to die. Rocky, you definitely don't want to die because this little, you know, cute little character, right? Um, and you're like, I don't want this alien to die. Uh, you know, you don't, you know, obviously, you know, if you're unless you're a psychopath, you don't want the planet, you know, people on uh, you know, people on planet Earth or any of these other planets uh to die uh right there. So, but they did kind of skimp on the heavy there and kind of uh just kind of along the way forgot to really start, you know, keep driving home the point that you know what, we're talking about an apocalyptic event, like an extension-level event here uh where it's gonna get real dark on planet Earth and all the other planets here, you know, when the suns die, uh it's gonna get very dark, very violent there. So we we absolutely have to find a solution to this massive problem uh there. And I thought the other movie based on an Andy Weir novel, The Martian, with Matt Damon, did a better job of balancing the heaviness of the dangerous mission at the forefront of the movie. And if you remember The Martian basically was all about Matt Damon, uh his uh Mark Watney character uh got left on Mars, okay, when the rest of his space crew, you know, had to had to evacuate Mars suddenly. And they, for good reason, they thought that you know Mark Watney, Matt Damon's character was dead there. So now Matt Damon has to try to survive on Mars until he can be rescued. So that's the basic, the basic premise of uh The Martian. And so the Martian did a better job at of balancing the heaviness of the dangerous mission at the forefront of the movie, and some lighter moments like Damon decrying Jessica Chastain's disco music collection, or you know, towards the end of the rescue operation, you know, these uh he basically he can't quite you know close the gap between the spaceship that's gonna save him and where he's at floating around in the orbit of Mars. And so he's like, hey, I'm gonna go all Iron Man, and he cuts a hole, you know, into his glove, his suit right there, which I don't know, that that's a plot hole right there, because you would think that he would suffocate by stabbing a hole in his uh or he would implode in space there. He'd freeze to death actually uh quicker there. But they just I mean it's just kind of suspension of disbelief. But that part where he's doing the Iron Man thing, he's he's flying, you know, to try to get as close to Jessica Chastain right there. You know, it's got a you know a moment of levity uh there in The Martian, going all Iron Man there. And that's one reason why I like the Martian more than Project Hail Mary. Now, screenwriter Drew Goddard wrote the screenplays for both The Martian and Project Hail Mary, and I think Drew Goddard's writing cultivated more emotionally impact, uh more emotionally impactful moments in The Martian. I mean, who can forget how excited everyone in the movie was when Damon was saved, right? I mean, I mean, I remember the movie theater I was in erupting with applause when that happened, okay, because I mean I was getting I was getting all emotional. Everybody else in the theater was getting emotional, everyone was like, yeah! And of course, you know, if you've seen a Martian, you know, they show crowds of people around the world all celebrating like Times Square and LA and China and you know the UK and France and everyone around the world is all joining together to, you know, hopefully rescue them. And then when he gets when he gets rescued, you know, everyone erupts in celebrations. So very emotional, very emotional moment there. And I didn't get that at any point in Project Hail Mary. I never got that euphoric feeling in Project Hail Mary. Although, like Rocky got a good share of laughs in my viewing at the theater. I mean, because yeah, uh to give this movie its due, uh, yeah, Rocky was a big hit with the audience there, and especially the kids in the theater as well, laughing when Rocky would you know do his stuff right there. Like um, I could see the phrase, amaze, amaze, amaze, uh becoming like a a catchphrase that everyone will uh kids in particular will probably be going around saying to each other or to other people, like, amaze, amaze, amaze. Uh and then Rocky, the alien made of rock, you know, uh, you know, here in this movie here. He's not the guy who likes to punch sides of beef who sounds like a sleepy mafia Goomba. He's Rocky. He's uh, you know, he's uh Dr. Ryland Grace's best friend up in space uh there. And that relationship between them and and it really seems genuine, and and Ryan Gossing sells us on him really caring and wanting to be friends with Rocky there to the point where he makes some decisions uh that um that really demonstrates you know how much he cares for for Rocky. So so uh kudos to Drew Goddard, the screenwriter, on that there, and really convincing you know us of their friendship and all of that stuff right there. So I'm not gonna completely crap on this movie. Again, I give this movie a triple. I uh I don't I don't I don't give it a home run. I don't I don't say it's a home run, but I'd say it's a triple uh there, where I I think the Martian is a home is a home run. Uh but uh but you know, hey, a triple. That's good, right? That's good, that's very good uh there. So that is nothing to sneeze at whatsoever for Project Hail Mary there. Uh and again, you know what? I think that uh, you know, what the lack of good movies here so far. I mean, we've had some good movies here so far in 2026. We know we had Send Help and uh 28 years later, the Bone Temple uh was good there. What were some other ones that I've reviewed? I should check out here real quick here. I'm gonna chi here and see what else. I was gonna say Nuremberg, because that's the movie that I reviewed last week, but that actually came from 2025. Oh yeah. Good luck, have fun, don't die. That was another uh good movie there this year. So, but uh so yeah, but Project Hail Mary. I I want to say, man, decision time here. I'm putting myself uh in a pressure situation. You know, I've got you know one foot in the frying pan and and one foot in the pressure cooker, you know, and my stomach kind of feels like an overstuffed vacuum bag. So much pressure. Uh and I and I stole that line uh from a movie right there. So if you can let me know what movie I stole that whole uh one foot in the pressure cooker, one foot in the frying pan uh line from, let me know in the in the uh in the live chat right there. And uh you win a cookie. There you go, exactly. A virtual cookie, that's for sure. Uh, because I can't send you a cookie uh through the live chat, though. Maybe someday we'll have that uh kind of technology, but unfortunately, not yet. So, but anyway, what you know what what uh we do have available versus uh technology or via technology is the ability to get into a little segment I like to call brew review time. All right, ladies and gentlemen, boys and guests. And let me introduce you to the brew for today for this brew review time. And uh, this is some Odell Brewing Company, Lugine Chocolate Milk Stout here, okay? And so, as you can tell already, you know, this is not uh some you know run-of-the-mill, ubiquitous, find it everywhere kind of brew, kind of beer that you can just go anywhere and get, okay. This is more of a specialty brew. It's not Bud Light, Tranty Fluid, or you know, Coors Lights or anything like that, right? This is uh this is uh for like more advanced uh beer palettes, more advanced beer fans uh out there. So, and this comes to us from uh from Fort Collins, Colorado. That's where this Odell Brewing Compes from. And uh, if you're wondering, hey, what is Lugine? Well, Lugine is uh the name of the local farmer who hauls away this brewery's spent grain. So that's where the name Lugine uh comes from. So, you know, a little love for the local farmer that helps them out there. And uh this this brew is designed to mimic like kind of the nostalgic experience of like a tall glass of chocolate milk there. So, and now to some people that might sound gross. You're like, okay, you had me a chocolate milk. Uh, you had me uh, you know, at that good chocolate milk flavor, but then you combine that with beer. All right. So, but uh, you know, it's worth trying. And you know what, hey, if you at least if you at least try it and you don't like it, you know what? I gotta give you kudos. At least you tried this brew right there. That's a lot more than you know, a lot of people uh would you know would be able to accomplish. Okay. Uh that means that you have at least have the balls, have the courage to try this. And then, hey, if you still don't like it, hey, more power to you. Hey, don't never drink it again there. So, uh, but uh as far as like the taste, because that's what we're here for, uh, to learn like how's this sucker taste? Of course, it tastes like milk chocolate. All right. And also it's got a little dark chocolate there as well. And it's got secondary flavors of like roasted coffee and toffee. Roasted coffee and toffee. Yeah, that rhymes right there. It's got some caramel notes in there as well. And I also tasted uh like some dark fruits uh flavor in there. Kind of like uh like uh like cherry or fig, okay. But again, not the the these tastes, you know, these flavors that I'm that I'm that I'm saying right now here, uh, you know, they're very subtle. The tastes are very subtle, okay? They're not overpowering, they're not overwhelming or anything like that, okay. So don't worry, you're not gonna take a you know drink off the signal, oh my god, this is a tastes like liquid fig. All right. No, don't worry about that, okay? It's all good in the hood, okay? But it's it just kind of tastes more like beer, okay, but with, you know, like chocolate, coffee, kind of, you know, kind of a uh flavor to it here, but uh very subtle. Okay, there you go. I can't stress that word enough. Subtle, okay? All right, not overpowering uh there. And then the aroma here is you know, kind of like you know, obviously chocolate, because it's supposed to mimic a you know a glass of chocolate milk. And I'd say like coffee there as well, just a kind of a faint scent of coffee there in the in the nose on this uh bad boy here. And since this beer is essentially dessert and a glass, okay, which again I recognize, I acknowledge some people might find that absolutely disgusting, just the prospect of that right there. You know, I can see I I I can totally imagine people like, yeah, Van, I'll just be sticking with my my Coors Light over here. Okay, but uh, you know, uh yeah, but thank you. But thank you. Okay, you uh you drink the chocolate milk beer, I'll be back here, you know, with my with my uh my Coors Light. I'm all good. I'm all good. So uh but since this is essentially you know dessert in a glass, as far as what foods it pairs well with, uh it pairs well with like a lot of desserts, right? It pairs well with chocolate cake, uh brownies, uh, vanilla ice cream, uh also uh like fresh raspberries, okay? So, you know, if you like to try new things, you know, for your taste buds there, you know what, uh then yeah, go ahead and kind of go down that road of you know, maybe eating a slice of chocolate cake and then uh you know, then washing it down with uh a little Lugine chocolate milk stout right here. And uh, and yes, I would recommend this. It's not the best stout, like chocolate, you know, oriented stout that I've ever had there, but uh it's uh it's not so bad where I uh where I need to steer you away from it there. But uh, I don't know. The idea of this with some chocolate cake, it's got my curiosity peak there, okay? Got my curiosity peaked. I I would uh give that a day in court there. So, but uh yeah, instead of me uh yapping about it here, let me take a drink off this thing here, okay? All right. Humbly with your permission. All right, there we go. We're gonna set that bad boy down right there. But uh yeah, pretty good, pretty good. And uh, you know, again, like I said, this is not uh the most you know uh widely available beer that I've ever reviewed on here. It's opposite, it's uh it's also not the most obscure beer I've ever reviewed on here. But you might have some trouble getting your hands on it if you live like in, you know, uh, you know, Santa Fe, New Mexico, or you know, or uh, you know, I don't know, St. You know, St. Petersburg, Florida, or something like that, right? Um, because it's brewed in Fort Collins, Colorado. But, you know, uh, if you you can go to like an app like Open Bar on your phone, uh just called again, it's called Open Bar. I think it's available for iOS and Android. And you can go in there and you can see if you can get your hands on some loo jean here. Um, or you can go to uh Uber Eats. That's probably gonna help you more if you live in Colorado, um, so that you know, whoever's your Uber driver can get their hands on some loo jean to deliver your to your place right there. Um and then also uh as a last resort, like say yeah, if you live nowhere near Colorado, but you really want to get your hands on some Lu Gene uh over here, but you know, you live in uh Prague or you live in not St. Petersburg, Florida, you live in St. Petersburg, Russia, okay? And you really want to get your hands on this, you can go to a website called GoPuff, as in PuffTemagic Dragon, gopuff.com. And they specialize in getting beer all over the world. Pardon me, man. It's a pretty unclassy uh beer burp right there. But uh anyway, and so yeah, they they they specialize in getting beer to whoever wants it, who was ever willing to pay for it, okay, because you're gonna be paying some scratch for that for that uh service right there. Uh yeah, so gopuff.com, go there and and uh see if you can find some Lu Gene right there, and uh you might be able to get that in your hands right there, all right? So, anyway, enough about right that enough about that right there. I think uh you guys have learned enough about Lu Gene. And we've got some more Project Hail Mary to talk about, so let's get to it. Okay, and I just have some random thoughts about Project Hail Mary, and since I keep comparing Project Hail Mary to the Martian anyway, let me also just say that Daniel Pemberton's soundtrack for Project Hail Mary is rather interesting. And by rather interesting, I of course mean not as good as the Martian soundtrack by Harry Gregson Williams. Now, Gregson Williams brings stirring strings along with an edgy synth score to elevate the entertainment experience of the Martian, okay? Because, you know, there's a a scene where uh in the Martian where it's just it's it's it's it's uh Mark Watney, Matt Damon's character right there, just really uh thinks that okay, he's gonna die. Okay. Um the circumstances before this moment were like, okay, there's a you know a serviceable, you know, chance that I will be rescued, but then something catastrophic happens, and then that serviceable chance goes from serviceable down to really, really, really remote uh there. And so he's obviously understandably sad um and reflective and and and uh nostalgic. And so it's a perfect scene for some stirring, sad strings. And so Harry Gregson Williams brings that to us in the scene, but then for most of the most of the movie, you know, he does uh his score is composed of like some edgy synth uh to it right there, and it just makes the makes the movie just that much more compelling right there. Now, I don't know what the hell that Hemberton was going for here with Project Hail Mary. I guess maybe he was going for like some quirky, playful sound that would fit right in with a commercial for a new tablet for preschoolers. I no idea. I have no clue whatsoever. And another random thought I have about Project Hail Mary is it sounds like the Project Hail Mary novel by Andy Weir got much more into the science than the movie did, all right? They probably had to cut out some of the science there for time constraints. Uh, and then also sometimes scientific things don't translate very well to movies, so they kind of had to uh kind of cut that out a little bit right there. And Lord and Miller, again, the the directors of this movie, uh, Lord and Miller prioritized injecting more humor into the plot since comedy really is their thing. A la, their 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street movies that they did, you know, back in the day with uh Channing Tatum and uh who was the other, oh, Jonah Hill, uh, back to those Jump Street movies there. Now, regarding the science, though, I thought screenwriter Drew Goddard did a good job at not making the audience go cross-eyed, and he instead made the science easy to understand in Project Hail Mary, okay? I mean, the science basically boils it down to there's this scientific phenomenon, and then there's the sun, and the scientific phenomenon is essentially killing the sun, or more specifically, every sun in our galaxy, and it'll end life on Earth and all other planets. Better do something, all right? The end. Very simple. Okay, so they made the the science and the idea of what has to be done very simple, very easy to uh understand, right there. You didn't have to go to MIT uh to understand what has to be done in order to potentially save the world there in this movie, Project Hail Mary. So, all right, let me do this here real quick and let you guys uh know about the fact that you know this Sunday show you guys are watching here, uh, you know, some of you are watching it live. And again, if you're watching it live, please get in the live chat, okay? Go ahead and say, you know, just get a live chat and just at least, you know, put a like a hi, you know, emoji in there or a thumbs up or a poop emoji or whatever you want in the live chat there on Rumble or YouTube. And the way to get in the live chat there, real quick, is uh there's a button, you know, on Rumble or YouTube. That basically the button just says chat or live chat right on down there. There you go. And say hi. Uh, but uh again, so I just go into that to as part of letting you know that uh I also have a live show on Thursday night, okay? And that show on Thursday night is called Movies America Spoiler Warning. And that's the show uh where I'll talk about the same movie I'm talking about today. So this Thursday's episode will be all about Project Hail Mary, okay? But on the Thursday show, I don't worry if I drop spoilers about the movie or not. Okay. Uh that's why I have spoiler warning literally in the title of the show right there, okay? Because I want to give you ample warning right there, okay? And so, yeah, so go ahead and check that out right there. Uh would probably help. I'll let you know what time uh that comes on with on Thursday night there. And so this movies America spoiler warning show comes on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Central, 5 p.m. mountain, or 4 p.m. Pacific, okay? And uh yeah, I go into more in-depth into the movie there. I give myself more time to do a deep dive, do an autopsy. I bust out the old, you know, scalpel and suction and forceps, and we do a deep autopsy on the movie of the week here, in this case, Project Hail Mary. All right. Like I said, you know, there's uh, you know, there's spoilers. Now I don't go out of my way to drop spoilers about the movie, but I'm also, you know, not gonna be chewing my fingernails here and walking out of eggshells worrying about whether or not I drop a spoiler. That's today's show, okay? So you probably see my fingernails are all gone because I've been chewing them out of nervousness, making sure that I don't drop a spoiler on today's show. That's for sure. But uh, that's just that's just the message that I'm trying to get across to you. So there you go. But again, Thursday night, uh that show comes on at 7 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Central, 5 p.m. Mountain, and 4 p.m. Pacific time. And uh yeah, you just go to my ex account. Uh I'm on X under at Movies America, and just look for the links uh there to join the show on Thursday night there. And again, hey, don't be stingy with uh with the links to that show right there. If you know anybody that's into movies, um especially somebody that you know, SC and Project Hail Mary, send that link to them and let them know, hey, you know what, uh you were you were talking a whole lot about that Project Hail Mary uh movie here. As a matter of fact, we were all trying to get you to shut up about it, but you just couldn't stop yapping about it because you love that movie so much. Well, hey, here's a show where you get in the live chat and you can yap about that movie all you want, all right? To other people that have seen, you know, in this case, Project Hail Mary. It's a fan, you know, it's a uh fantastic, fun chance to, you know, nerd out on the movie of the week right here. Okay, because I I mean I feel your pain, man. I know I I I've seen, you know, I I sometimes I'll see a movie that's so good that you know I just can't stop talking about it. Okay, I nerd out on the movie where normal people, you know, they watch a movie and they're like, oh, it's a good movie. All right, hey, what's for supper? You know, or you know, if you're a movie maniac or a fell, you know, a fellow freedom-fueled film fanatic uh like I am, sometimes you just want to keep talking about that movie. Okay, you want to keep you want to keep discussing it. It's kind of like you remember the movie A True Romance, you know, with Christian Slater and uh Patricia Arquette, and you know, he they both go to uh see three, you know, three kung fu movies with Sonny Chiba and they come out of the movies, and uh and Patricia Arquette as Alabama. She's like, you know, one of the things I like to do is after I go see a movie, I like to go, you know, uh go get pie and talk about the movie. And uh so if you're like Alabama on Sure Romance, and uh maybe you don't like to get pie, but you like to talk about the movie there, uh then yeah, this show right here, and then the Thursday show uh gives you that opportunity to talk uh about the movie. You know, if you're like, man, this movie's so good, I got all these feelings about it, all these thoughts about it, and I just can't hold them in. I gotta purge, okay? I gotta just puke out my all my thoughts. I gotta get them out somewhere. And whenever I try to talk to my wife or my husband about it, uh, you know, there, they just you know roll their eyes and they tell me to shut up. But uh if I only, if I only if I only have some kind of outlet where I could talk about this movie that I just love so much, well, you know what? Yes, you are you know, just get ready to be happy. All right, you are in uh you are in a good place because all you gotta do is just come to this show, Movies America. There you go. All right. That's how we roll up in here. But enough about that. I just wanted to uh yeah, let you guys know about the the Thursday night show that I do. All right, let's do this. Okay, here. So now we are to one of the uh most beloved sessions or segments of my Sunday show here that you're watching right now. And uh that's a segment where I answer if the movie that I'm talking about this week is a woke after school special. Okay. And just in case you guys don't know what an after school special is, okay, for all you young whippersnappers out there who don't know what an after school special is, all right. I will explain it to you real quick, real quickly. Okay. So an afterschool special is like this, you know, these little shows, these little episodes of these shows that came out like back in the like late 70s, early 80s. I don't know, like I don't know when they went off the air and whatnot, but sometimes in the in the 80s. And so they are these shows that came on after school, hence the name of the shows. Um, and they usually went like a half an hour long or something like that. If you know somebody correct me in a live chat or the comments. If I've got that wrong there. But these are like a half an hour long. They came on after school. And they're all about like teaching kids important life lessons. You know, like, hey kids, you know, don't get in a van, you know, with no windows if it, you know, pulls up, you know, to you in your neighborhood, you know, especially if the driver looks like Joe Biden or something like that. But even if it doesn't look like Joe Biden, don't get in that van. All right, especially if they come out and they say, hey kids, I've got some free candy in the van. Like, don't get in that van. Or, or don't smoke cigarettes, or don't drink. So that's what after-school specials were for, is just kind of trying to teach important life lessons, which is a you know a good motivation, right? That's nothing wrong with that. You know, there's their hearts in the right place. It's just that they were very corny, okay, very cheesy, okay, and very of their time. If you like, you know, go if you like go to YouTube and you like search for you know 70s or 80s, you know, after school specials, you watch them and you'll be like, oh my God. These things are definitely of of their time, you know, from the 70s and 80s. But the most important thing I'm trying to communicate to you about an afterschool special is they're just so corny, so cheesy. And so that's that's what that's what I mean uh behind naming a segment. Is this movie a woke after school special? That's where it that's where it comes from. And so, as far as like Project Hail Mary, is Project Hail Mary a woke after school special? And thank the stars in space and our Almighty God, no. Okay. Now, some with an extremely touchy trigger finger handling a woke gun might pull a trigger on the trivial fact that the big boss, the head cheese, the grand poo-baugh of Project Hill Mary is a woman, again, played by Sanjay Houler. But that's pretty thin. That's very thin, alright. Hell, it's anorexic as Martin Riggs and Letha Weppon would say, all right. I don't consider that woke at all. Okay. You know, some people might be might be saying, hey, you know, there's another end of the world movie called Armageddon, and the and the head guy over there was a guy, you know, that was Billy Bob Thornton. And now, of course, in 2025, you know, the head cheese of the big operation is a woman. Oh my God. How 2025 is that? Okay, so now I'm not going that far with it. I mean, a woman, you know, in this world uh of Project Hail Mary, she could be the smartest, you know, person uh there, the most capable to lead to lead the agency right there. I'm not so I'm I I don't consider that woke at all, okay? And Project Hail Mary is another example of cinematic evidence that studios are finally realizing the population who wants woke instead of entertainment is microscopic. Just tiny, tiny, infinitesimal, very microscopic. I'm sure they're loud. You know, they're colorful. I mean, they have septum rings and pink hair and and screech a lot, but they're still, still microscopic in comparison to the amount of people that want entertainment. All right, don't get it twisted, don't get confused. Just because that screeching makes your ears hurt and they're really, really loud, they're still microscopic. Okay, they're it's it they're like that that that that that mosquito that just keeps buzzing by your head. It's annoying, but it's teeny tiny and it has no power over you, and you could squash it like a literal bug in this case, right there. And so Hollywood is finally, finally, you know, uh, you know, using more than two brain cells, and that they're they're they're kicking in a third brain cell, and that's enough to let them know that the vast majority of the world wants to see entertainment. Not woke, not woke messaging. They want to see entertainment. Okay, they want to see things that are interesting and compelling. So that's my answer uh as to whether Project Hail Mary is a woke after school special, and thank God it is not a woke after school special. All right, but my final thoughts about Project Hail Mary is it's good. It's not as good as The Martian, uh, the other movie that is based off an Andy Weir novel that actually was written by the same screenwriter uh that did Project Hail Mary. Uh but Project Hail Mary is still good, still good. Uh it's it's a great movie to take the family to. Okay, I I can't, I can barely remember any cursing uh in it. It's PG 13, so there's obviously some cursing in it, but I can't remember any of any kind of significance or anything like that. I I can't remember somebody dropping like some thunderous F-bomb or something like that, right? Um and the kids will love they'll love Rocky. Okay, he's a very endearing, you know, alien character in there, kind of like E.T. or so very the kids will love him and all that stuff. But uh yeah, so check. Uh so they'll they'll love they'll love that for sure. And uh it's it could be it could just be a good family time where your kids love it and mom and dad like it there as well. So um I would definitely recommend checking it out on IMAX if you can or any PLF. Uh PLF stands for premium large format, of which IMAX is a premium large format theater. Um like, I don't know, if you live if you live in a really big metropolitan area, you can get your get you know, go get your hands on a 40x theater or something like that. So, but uh yeah, I'd say like a 70 millimeter IMAX. Uh that's that's what I would you know recommend seeing this movie on. But I realize, yes, you know, there's very few 70 millimeter IMAX theaters uh in in the world. I used to live in a town, I used to live in Dallas Fort Worth, and I had a 70 millimeter IMAX theater about 20 minutes away from me. Now uh the closest one is about 20 hours away from me. So yeah. Anyway, all right. So well, those are my final thoughts uh about uh Project Hail Mary uh there. But uh real quick here, uh kind of back into begging mode a little bit. Real quick, just let me ask you to follow me on the platforms that I'm on here, okay? And I'm on X under at Movies America. I'm on Facebook, I have a Movies America uh page, a Movies America group on Facebook. Uh I'm all I've also have my Van Ebert profile on Facebook, I'm on Instagram, I'm on uh Rumble. Uh if you're watching me on Rumble, you're like, of course you use on Rumble. But if you look up, look up Movies America on Rumble, you'll see there's like three Movies America accounts. And uh yeah, if you would go ahead and uh follow or subscribe uh to me on all three of those. That would be fantastic, okay? Uh what else am I on there? I'm on Gab. I'm on Gab.com. If you're a Gab man or Gab woman right there. So check me out on that. Okay. And then hey, if uh you want me to follow you back, hey, just DM me on X and let me know, hey Van, I followed you on this platform and that platform and so on and so forth. And uh, yeah, let me know what your username is on the platform, you know, that that you follow me on, and I will follow you back. There you go. Very quick, very, very simple, very easy, very cheap. It costs neither of us anything, and it's a really quick way for you to get uh get a get an additional follower, that's for sure. So all right. Well, I just want to uh thank everybody for uh watching this episode uh right here. I know we're like right in the middle of March Madness, and so you know, people are like uh, you know, watching March Madness basketball games and that kind of thing. And you know, for many, if you're into basketball, it's hard to break away from those games and check out uh this show right here. But for the ones that did uh check that out, hey, I definitely appreciate it. Like Sean Cav here in the live chat on the Rumble side uh jumping in and saying, Hey, man, how you doing? And uh hello, hay back to you uh there. And right there. I like that he says, What's a basketball? Yeah, I don't know. So uh, well, hey, after the show, I'll give you a call there, Sean, and I'll explain a basketball and all that. We'll we'll talk uh how much you have to inflate it and all that stuff, what it's used for. So I got you, buddy. I got you, buddy. We're gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna school you on that right there. But thanks for being here, uh, my good friend there, as we uh and we're getting ready to end the episode right there. But uh as I always say, get out there, people. Those movies aren't gonna watch themselves. See ya.