Popular reviews

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  Review by Fred 🇵🇷 ★★½ 4

  "When you dedicate so much of your life to something, it becomes a part of you."

  The more films I watch, the more critical I want to be of productions that have seemingly endless resources and still squander them on subpar stories. Accordingly, shoestring-budget successes continue to impress me all the more because of their unlikely achievements that stand in stark contrast to their soulless corporate assembly line counterparts. Cosmos uniquely goes beyond the usual limitations smaller films face, though. It's the rare indie movie that literally had no budget at all. All of its performers worked without compensation and throughout filming, its volunteer crew mostly consisted of its two directors and a camera operator (all of whom used pre-owned…

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  Review by Matt ★★★★ 5

  Big things have small beginnings...

  Now THAT is how I want my sci fi! THAT is how you maximise a budget!

  With a premise utterly wedged in accessible scientific intrigue and clear inspiration from the likes of the phenomenal Contact, this is sci fi with an enormous heart that deserves to be seen by millions. Sure, the acting is hammy at times and various twists and turns are signposted from the off, but the sheer watch-ability of it helped by its fantastic pacing and score makes this one of my films of the year. Honestly if you like stories of the little people doing huge things, find the time to see it.

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  Review by JBird ★★★½ 1

  Three men listen to outer space,
  Getting lost in one particular case.
  But the boys will rally,
  With British Adam Pally,
  Hoping to represent the human race.

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  Review by Steve Robinson ★★★½

  Found on Amazon Prime. Filmed with a budget of £0 and filmed in my hometown of Birmingham, England. We get a slow but incredibly well made science fiction movie about friendship, lonliness and finding signals in space. As i say, its slow but well worth a watch.

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  Review by Matt ★★★★ 9

  "We've gone from possibility to probability"

  Still one of the most awe-inspiring independent films I've seen in the last few years and a beautifully accurate depiction of why we gaze at the night sky. The acting is almost endearingly shit when its focused on the human drama side but ultimately it's about togetherness and the power of communication so it fits. Luckily the score is so good you forget about the lack of powerhouse talents and get completely sucked in.

  If you like Contact (and why wouldn't you), Interstellar and anything similar, this is basically the early ultra exciting bit done on a fraction of the budget. When sci fi is good, my god does it deliver.

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  Review by 🚚 Stories for Lorries 8

  Totally respect zero-budget filmmaking. Sage advice would be to take your ideas and script, get some friends involved, use whatever's available (or borrow) and start filming. Reach for the stars, as they say. Cos you never know, you might get noticed at the end of the day. Just look at what happened with Primer.
  Except Primer clocked in at just over an hour, which is reasonable. Cosmos, on the other hand, clocks in at just over 2 hours, which I found unreasonable. Especially when the payoff at the very very end is nothing more than a *spoiler* bright flash of light in the sky.
  But it's the journey that matters, right? Except this is no Contact with Jodie Foster. It's…

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  Review by Steph_h ★★★★ 2

  This is such a great little Lofi with big budget feels  .. essentially it’s just three dudes sitting in their car all night trying to make alien contact and you wouldn’t suspect anything like that would be exciting but it certainly gets the blood pumping. It does take a bit of patience in the beginning so hang tight with this one for a little bit it pays off .. It’s a true labor of love film you can tell and it looks fantastic with some really great simple lighting and the soundtrack just kicks ass.. 

  thx Matt 🙌

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  Review by goldblumslaugh ★★★★

  A micro budget indie gem of a sci-fi flick that's full of heart. It's obviously that everyone involved had a great time producing this. Could have used a bit of editing down, which would have maintained the tension a little better, but was well worth the watch. Can I join the Astro-Nuts, too?

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  Review by John S. ★★★½

  Pretty much only for those with patience and who don’t need spectacle in every movie about looking up at the stars. Wonders done with skilled lighting, mostly done inside a Volvo wagon housing various computer systems from a team of three space nerds—engineers, searchers. They work for major aerospace companies. One of them used to, and now on this night there is tension among them. One is getting the boot while another is taking his place in their little SETI set-up. This grows into a nice bit that keeps the three telescoping rangers on the same team.

  Really excellently done—just a tale of discovery and perhaps triumph among some who’ve made it their life’s journey to find something other than what we’ve got here on planet Earth.

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  Review by Sam of the Night 1

  Massively boring. Badly edited and overlong. Congrats you have a red gel and a green gel. That doesn't make it a movie.

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  Review by Brandon Williams ★★★½ 2

  Happy to finally get a chance to watch this film. First heard about it in a reddit SF channel maybe 18 months ago. It held up to my expectations from the trailer. Given this is the first credit for all 3 actors, they did a fine job. The premise is very cool, perfect for a micro-budget film.

  My main disappointment, just a few script items. Needed an unbiased set of eyes. The first two clues were too obvious, at least for SF vets. Probably didn't even need visuals. Also the action section was NOT executed well. I have at least a half dozen problems there, but won't list them out. In summary, KISS, keep it simple. Don't try to put…

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  Review by Markella ½ 4

  You want to make a quiet eerie film about relationships and friendship with some alien signals thrown in.

  One of those slow burn slow talk nothin much happens pieces.

  You write meaningless uninspired uninteresting dialogue that doesn’t even mean anything and isn’t entertaining

  The characters don’t do anything, there is no story, nothing is elevated

  The characters can’t help themselves from singing a song that literally no one would ever sing

  You fail