Latest / The K.B. Radio Network / Project Hail Mary (2026) Movie Review
Transcript
- 0:11Hello everyone and welcome to the concession stand here on the KB Radio Network.
- 0:17I am your host Kevin Reed and this is the review of Project Hail Mary.
- 0:24One of my most anticipated movies of
- 0:292026 for a number of reasons.
- 0:31You have...
- 0:32Phil Lord and Christopher Miller who directed this film big fans of theirs they've given us such such classics over the last I would say 20-25 years 25 yeah 25 years the
- 0:49Lego movie probably with a chance of meatballs just to dip into the animated side along with the Spider-Verse films and live action wise
- 1:01how can you forget about 21 Jump Street and then you have Ryan Gosling who's in front of the camera as well as behind he also produced this film but Ryan Gosling is one of my faves uh he's one of those actors that is
- 1:17a movie star but his films aren't like super big blockbusters you know he's in blockbuster films but they don't do particularly blockbuster numbers at
- 1:30at the box office and it's sad to say because i thought fall guy was pretty good it wasn't great but it was pretty good uh the nice guys i love the nice guys in in countless other films that he's been a part of but
- 1:46i've been waiting for him to really blow up box office rise to take the mantle as uh one of hollywood's hottest movie stars even though it's kind of ridiculous to say that
- 1:58being as still as ryan gosling and he's he's ryan gosling he he pops up in everything he uh i think his next film is a star wars movie and so he's not hurting by no stretch but i mean as far as the financial side to show that he can carry a film i
- 2:19don't know what else he can do he's shown that but the numbers don't show that but this movie was
- 2:27on my radar because i'm a big science fiction nut i love uh uh space movies movies that deal with space i love isolated movies as well when you have your uh protagonist uh pretty much on his own trying
- 2:46to figure out how to save either himself or the world or both and this film is that uh in Project Mary,
- 2:55which is...
- 2:56based on a novel by
- 2:59Andy rare.
- 3:00And if you don't know who he is,
- 3:02he wrote the Martian as well,
- 3:04which was also turned into a movie a few years ago that starred Matt Damon.
- 3:09And it was directed by Ridley Scott and shockingly a good movie because
- 3:16Ridley Scott has,
- 3:18it's been hit and miss with Ridley Scott over the last few years.
- 3:23when it comes to his films and,
- 3:26He's one of the most prominent filmmakers working,
- 3:30you know,
- 3:31up to that point.
- 3:31But he has had some misses.
- 3:34But The Martian really knocked it out the park.
- 3:37And
- 3:39Andy Rare,
- 3:41not only responsible for that,
- 3:42but is responsible for writing a novel for Project Hail Mary,
- 3:47which has similar tones.
- 3:49You know,
- 3:50an astronaut,
- 3:51per se,
- 3:52stranded,
- 3:53has to find a way to survive.
- 3:55in.
- 3:55this that and the third so it's very similar but very different at the same time.
- 4:01Project Hail Mary tells the story of a science teacher named
- 4:06Raylan Grace,
- 4:07who is portrayed by Ryan Groslin,
- 4:09of course,
- 4:10and he wakes up along on a spaceship light years from Earth.
- 4:15And as his memory returns,
- 4:16he uncovers a mission to stop a mysterious substance killing the sun and save Earth.
- 4:23An unexpected friendship may be the key.
- 4:28I love this movie.
- 4:32This movie was so good.
- 4:35this is officially the bar for 2026 you have to meet the x you have to meet the standards of project hell mary for the remainder edition now we got a long way to
- 4:50go of course but as it stands right now this is the bar everything about this movie worked this movie is close to perfection i am holding back holding back with
- 5:05every ounce of strength that i have to spew out the word masterpiece but it is right there on the cusp this movie just knocked everything out the park i
- 5:21have never and i'm not being facetious i'm not embellishing in no sense of the word i've been going to the movies watching movies on television
- 5:32for the better part of 46 years about to be 47 in a couple of days and i have never sat down and fully enjoyed a movie like i did with this where
- 5:48every aspect of the film worked the comedy and jokes worked i i was laughing
- 5:59I was literally laughing out loud.
- 6:01Normally,
- 6:01if a movie's funny,
- 6:02it's funny,
- 6:03you know,
- 6:04and I'll kind of chuckle under my breath or something,
- 6:06but I was laughing,
- 6:08you know,
- 6:09and for a movie with the tone,
- 6:11with the stakes as high as it was,
- 6:14you wouldn't expect it to be as funny,
- 6:17and if it is,
- 6:18it would kind of throw off the movie,
- 6:20like take away some of the tension,
- 6:23but it doesn't.
- 6:25It really worked,
- 6:27and Lord and Miller,
- 6:29is a master of that,
- 6:30or they are a master of that.
- 6:34This was just perfectly done.
- 6:37The cinematography in this movie,
- 6:40Greg Foster was the
- 6:44DP on this film.
- 6:47If you don't know his filmography,
- 6:49he did The Batman.
- 6:51He did
- 6:52Doom. I believe Doom Part 2.
- 6:55I'm not 100%
- 6:56on Doom Part 1,
- 6:58but he...
- 6:58He could have done that as well.
- 7:00But he has an excellent filmography if you go through his resume.
- 7:07And this was shot so beautifully.
- 7:10I was blessed to watch this in
- 7:13IMAX. And
- 7:15I don't normally promote IMAX like that.
- 7:20I will just tell you,
- 7:20go see it any way you can.
- 7:23But if you can,
- 7:25if you can spare the extra couple of bucks.
- 7:28to go see it in IMAX go see this in
- 7:32IMAX my god this was one of the most beautiful movies to look at visually it was stunning visually stunning
- 7:45Ryan Gosling gives an Academy Award worthy performance in this film once again I'm not
- 7:53I'm not just whistling Dixie here
- 7:56He gives.
- 7:57Probably his best performance in this movie.
- 8:01Ryan Gosling,
- 8:04let me try to put it in perspective here.
- 8:06You look at a film like
- 8:08Cast Away with
- 8:11Tom Hanks,
- 8:11right?
- 8:12He had to literally carry that movie by himself.
- 8:15Why?
- 8:15Because he was by himself.
- 8:18You know,
- 8:19and that's not easy.
- 8:20That's not easy for an actor to carry a film by they self.
- 8:25You know,
- 8:26because you have to be...
- 8:27emotionally invested not only in that character but what's going on around you and and connect you to the story in the world that's being built here and tom hanks is tom hanks he can do no wrong so you expect that with tom hanks they
- 8:46asked ryan gosling to do that in this movie for the better part of the book and he did it he did it he brought you through
- 8:56every range of emotion you could fester in a human being.
- 9:02But what made the performance unique was he would hit you with these emotional moments when we just got finished hearing these jokes or him trying to break the levity of the situation.
- 9:17But his emotion was so heavy and he'll just have a tear running down his cheek.
- 9:23And I found myself like sniffing,
- 9:28sniffing it in the theater,
- 9:29you know,
- 9:30like trying to hold it back.
- 9:32It was...
- 9:32that deep of a performance man where this character i believe i believed in this character he is one of the most realistic characters i've seen in a film in a mighty long time he's
- 9:49a he's a character where you can either look at him and see yourself or look in him look at him and see somebody you know or love and that's that guy that's that person
- 10:02You're like,
- 10:03okay,
- 10:03he's not a hero.
- 10:05And this film also shows how this character,
- 10:10even though literally the weight of the world is on his shoulders,
- 10:16he doesn't want this job.
- 10:18And this is expressed throughout the entire film.
- 10:24But in spite of that,
- 10:26he still tries to get the job done.
- 10:30You know,
- 10:31he.
- 10:32he fights through that fear that he has you know that that anxiety that he has that you know i don't want this responsibility and the fact that i have to do this or try to complete this and knowing what the end results you know what's at the end of this rainbow for you you
- 10:51know it's not it's not a happy ending but he still has to barter on you know literally being thrown in this situation and
- 11:02Man,
- 11:03it was so powerful.
- 11:04It was so powerful of a character because,
- 11:09you know,
- 11:10I started self-reflecting.
- 11:12And when a movie does that to you,
- 11:14you can't help but love it.
- 11:15You know,
- 11:16when you got to start looking within yourself,
- 11:19like,
- 11:19okay,
- 11:20what would I do in that situation?
- 11:22We all say we can,
- 11:23we'll run into the burning building and save somebody or we'll jump in a lake,
- 11:29even though we can't swim to try to.
- 11:31pull somebody to safety or whatever but when that situation actually happens to you would you actually freeze because there's a lot of people who will freeze up and it's not like they don't want to do it it's just a mental block you know it's like something
- 11:48holding you back is that fear you know bravery isn't something you're born with you know the only way you know you're brave if you do something brave you know if you the only way you can find out you're a hero
- 12:01heroic person if you do something heroic you know you have to throw yourself in that situation and so in this particular situation it's basically what happens to uh our lead character of grace and i man
- 12:19this movie is two and a half hours long and i could have went two and a half hours more just following him such a power and you needed the right actor for this role
- 12:30And Ryan Gosling was perfection.
- 12:34I spoke a little bit about Lord and Miller.
- 12:38You know what I was thinking throughout this film,
- 12:41among
- 12:42500 other things,
- 12:43while I was just sitting there in pure glee?
- 12:47What happened on the set of the Han Solo movie that got them fired?
- 12:54How did they get kicked off of the Han Solo movie?
- 13:00And that will be one of the I can't wait for that book to come out that tell all to tell us what exactly happened,
- 13:08because if this is the level of a space movie we were going to get in a solo movie,
- 13:17we missed out.
- 13:18And all due respect to Ron Howard,
- 13:20one of the greats.
- 13:22But,
- 13:22man,
- 13:23I wish Lord and Miller would have got the opportunity to to complete their vision.
- 13:28with this lord uh with this uh that uh han solo movie because the one we got it was fine but it wasn't nothing to write home tell mom about but man i just got mad i got mad thinking about that i'm
- 13:46like what how did you how did they drop the ball now granted it could have been a learning experience for maybe they weren't ready for that for prime time at that moment
- 13:57Because it's been some years since that.
- 14:00So maybe they learned.
- 14:02Maybe they revamped some of their methods or how they directed a film and whatnot.
- 14:09Because,
- 14:10man,
- 14:10they directed the piss out of this movie.
- 14:14how we're supporting character they do have a supporting character and i'm not spoiling anything because it's all in the trailers uh the alien rocky look i thought this was when i first saw the trailer the first trailer and
- 14:32that that uh alien popped up i was like oh my god where are we going with this you know what kind of what kind of story are they telling here because obviously i didn't read the book and so i
- 14:43I was a little hesitant with that and how they were going to portray this character or how this character was going to help the story and whatnot.
- 14:55Oh,
- 14:55my God.
- 14:57Great.
- 15:00That character was great.
- 15:02It was it was so perfect.
- 15:04It was so perfect in the way that Ryan Gosling bounced off of this
- 15:09CGI rock alien creature was.
- 15:14was just beautiful.
- 15:15It was one of the most beautiful bromances you'll see on the big screen.
- 15:23Look,
- 15:23bro,
- 15:25short story long,
- 15:27this movie was perfect.
- 15:29It was a masterpiece.
- 15:31I tried to hold it back,
- 15:32but I can't.
- 15:32It was a masterpiece.
- 15:34I've been trying to find a flaw since I left the theater.
- 15:41And it's been about,
- 15:42what,
- 15:42an hour,
- 15:43two hours since I've been home.
- 15:46So it's,
- 15:47I don't know,
- 15:48I can't find a flaw in this movie.
- 15:52That's why I'm giving Project Hail Mary the beloved
- 15:57A+.
- 16:00This was great.
- 16:01I am going back to see this again in the theater.
- 16:05I'm not waiting.
- 16:06I'm not waiting till it drop on screaming or...
- 16:10a prime video whatever i'm going to see it again on the big screen because it needs to be watched on the biggest screen possible preferably ibex i'm telling you it i'm telling you it's worth every penny this
- 16:25was this was beautiful uh the story was beautiful visuals were beautiful the acting was beautiful perfection this is that's like the meme of uh martin scorsese uh
- 16:40absolute cinema that's that's this this it was perfection but i would love to know what did you think of project hell mary did you like it did you did you did you read the book and what is the book anything like the movie i would love to know i want to know did they make any changes did they take liberties here or there and did the ending change or whatever i would love to know uh what
- 17:07the book said.
- 17:09And I guess y'all probably tell me,
- 17:10well,
- 17:10read it yourself.
- 17:11Well,
- 17:11okay,
- 17:12I'll read it then.
- 17:13But I just wanted to know.
- 17:15But in case you wanted to tell me,
- 17:17you can e-mail the show,
- 17:18kbradiopodcasts at gmail.com.
- 17:21You can also search for the show on all social media platforms.
- 17:24Just search for the KB Radio Network.
- 17:27Also,
- 17:27don't forget about YouTube.
- 17:28Subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel.
- 17:31And like this video if you don't mind.
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- 17:41wherever,
- 17:42you are currently listening to The Concession Stand here on the KB Radio Network.
- 17:48Everybody,
- 17:49thank you for joining me for this review of Project Hail
- 17:54Mary. I want you all to know that I love you.
- 17:56Continue to love everyone.
- 17:57And until we speak again,
- 18:00you all be blessed.