Frozen

 

Early in Netflix's The Midnight Sky, there's a fleeting image of Gregory Peck in On the Beach, the 1959 movie that stunned audiences.

So somebody in this 2020 flick knows there is a great end-of-the-world movie ... and it's not this one.

 

Midnight Sky offers an already-dead world, a few cardboard characters on a spaceship, plus a touch of Sixth Sense. And Gravity.

 

Stanley Kramer's earlier flick, based on the Nevil Shute best-seller, follows flawed humans waiting out the radioactive clouds that will eventually reach Australia, humanity's last outpost.

 

You ached for them.

You shared their peril.

The closing 10 minutes of On the Beach sent stunned audiences into the streets.

 

Once again, Netflix has given film-makers millions to squander on sets and special effects.

 

Nothing in Midnight Sky has heart. The pace is glacial. It's boring.

 

To stick in an actual image as homage to On the Beach invites a comparison.

 

Loser.

 

On the Beach, 1959