LEONARDO DICAPRIO & JENNFER LAWRENCE IN 'DON'T LOOK UP'

Title: DON'T LOOK UP Year: 2021 Rating: **1/2

Adam McKay's DON'T LOOK UP is as much a satire of the gigantic-falling-space-rock-about-to-destroy-Earth DEEP IMPACT and ARMAGEDDON as MARS ATTACKS was to INDEPENDENCE DAY, and the anticipated political bias by the unapologetic liberal director isn't completely one-sided since capitalistic big-tech Mark Rylance channels mousy Covid guru Dr. Anthony Fauci — while Meryl Streep's intentionally-vapid female American President suffers a nude-text scandal liken to New York's once-beloved Democrat Anthony Weiner... 

But the two genuine main-characters are both intensely camera-shy, awkwardly idealistic, science-minded astronomers, one a student the other academically-legit in Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio respectively (the latter falling into what aging sex symbols rely on when the movie itself has to continuously mention how handsome they are)...

Jennifer Lawrence in DON'T LOOK UP

Yet DiCaprio's neurotic Dr. Randall Mindy is no intrepid hero, and with a frantic, panic-stricken manner of desperately trying to get his point across, he seems a leftover from the semi-stammering has-been actor Rick Dalton from Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD... 

And eventually Leo's brainy science-guy is thrust into a fickle burst of viral/media fame by sexed-up talk show host Cate Blanchett... Meanwhile Jennifer Lawrence has such a smug "I know more than you" hipster attitude, her role's more a writer/director mouthpiece than an actual plot-driven performance...

Leonardo DiCaprio looking up in DON'T LOOK UP

Overall DON'T LOOK UP is fairly entertaining despite being more of a truncated binge-series than an overlong motion picture, and perhaps would have worked better as the first since, produced by Netflix, there's a page-turning cadence where, as an audience, you'll want to see what happens next... 

But probably more to the oblivious-world-in-peril than those either warning of the impending doom or in-denial about it since, basically, whether enlightened or idiotic, everyone on board are equally shallow and one-dimensional. (And as for bravely sticking with an anti-Hollywood-Ending, SEEKING A FRIEND AT THE END OF THE WORLD covered that ground already, and with far more effective results).

Leonardo DiCaprio in DON'T LOOK UP

Mark Rylance in DON'T LOOK UP

Jennifer Lawrence can't believe how right she is throughout DON'T LOOK UP