RYAN REYNOLDS & BEN KINGSLEY IN SELF/LESS

2015 rating: ***1/2

Modern Science-Fiction needs only a simple everyday word or term to make an impossibly far-fetched premise believable. In the case of SELF/LESS, a process called Shedding is what a rich powerful dying man does to become young again i.e. remain living. And we get a nice twenty minutes with the iconic Ben Kingsley before he turns into Ryan Reynolds, not continuing his life in the business world but playing street b-ball and having lots and lots of sex. Meanwhile, our young/old hero, taking pills to aid the transition, suffers from mysterious flashbacks relating to a group of deadly suits out to retire him permanently.

Effective action scenes bookend an overlong and not very moving (or interesting) romantic mid-section... And while Reynolds does a good job given the mental and physical intensity of his new life, you might forget he was ever anyone else... Ben Kingsley or Mickey Mouse, it really doesn't matter since SELF is his ride, the best stuff occurring in the now despite everything else relying on the past.