A Jake Gyllenhaal Alien Knockoff Is Trending On Streaming
Jake Gyllenhaal's Alien ripoff, Life, is currently climbing the Hulu streaming charts.
As Jake Gyllenhaal is currently lending his voice to the Disney animated film Strange World in theaters this Thanksgiving holiday, it seems some viewers are keen on checking out some of his other work from years prior. FlixPatrol is reporting that the Gyllenhaal-led film Life is climbing the top ten list of movies on Hulu right now, situated at number six as of today. The 2017 science fiction thriller boasts a strong ensemble cast and has been compared to Ridley Scott’s Alien, although it’s also seen as a knockoff of that classic film by many critics.
Directed by Daniel Espinosa, Life stars Jake Gyllenhaal as medical officer Dr. David Jordan, who joins a mission on the International Space Station with a six-member crew that includes engineer Rory Adams (Ryan Reynolds) and CDC quarantine officer Dr. Miranda North (Rebecca Ferguson). The movie is a showcase of international space exploration with actors Hiroyuki Sanada representing Japan, Olga Dihovichnaya speaking for Russia, and Ariyon Bakare standing in for the United Kingdom. The mission hits a snag when the crew finds the first evidence of life on Mars, and the life form evolves at a high rate that ends up threatening the crew and all life back on Earth.
The Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle Life was released in theaters in March 2017 after first debuting at that year’s South by Southwest film festival, eventually grossing over $100 million at the box office against a budget of $58 million. The only joint effort between Skydance Media and Sony Pictures to date, Life was a major blockbuster project for Swedish director Daniel Espinosa before he attempted to tackle Morbius starring Jared Leto, released to negative reviews earlier this year. There was a popular fan theory prior to the release of Life that the movie would serve as an origin story for the symbiote featured in Spider-Man 3 and later the Venom and Morbius films, but that ended up not being the case.
Even if the box office receipts for Life were pretty decent, critics and audiences were mixed in their reviews of the Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds film. Rotten Tomatoes currently ranks the movie with 67% on its Tomatometer based on 262 critics’ reviews, as well as an Audience Score of 54% from over 25,000 ratings from verified users to the site. Similarly, Metacritic reflects a Metascore of 54 based on 44 critics’ reviews and a User Score of 6.4 from 556 user ratings, which typically denotes mixed or average reviews from critics and generally favorable reviews from viewers.
Within Hulu’s top ten, Life and Jake Gyllenhaal seem to be doing well considering most of the movies trending with Hulu subscription users are holiday projects. Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas is currently sitting pretty at the number one spot this week for the streamer, while other flicks like Don’t Worry Darling and How High are also scoring high ratings. With the fall season upon us, Twilight is making its way into the top ten on Hulu as well, in addition to the new Jon Hamm movie, Confess, Fletch.
