Survivors of a deadly pandemic traverse a post-apocalyptic landscape to find the origin of a mysterious radio transmission.
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong, Daisy Kakkar
Release Date: August 28, 2026
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rated R for strong violence, and language.
Runtime: 1h 58m
Review:
The Dog Stars boast a top line director and cast but it struggles to find something new or interesting to say in a genre that’s been run ragged by this point. Ridley Scott’s film is more of a meditation on grief and the ability to find hope after extreme loss with the occasional action set pieces replete with post-apocalyptic marauders. Scott takes full advantage of the Italian landscape subbing in for the Rockies by delivering plenty of sweeping shots of the terrain as we follow Jacob Elordi’s Hig fly from spot to spot in his old Cessna. The aforementioned action set pieces are all well-constructed jolts of energy when they take place however those expecting more of those moments will be left wanting for more. The overall pacing of the film is strangely disjointed as we’re given large stretches of quiet character moments before those set pieces pop up. There’s not much time spent on who or why these marauders have gone full Mad Max with only Allison Janney’s Grand Junction getting the slightest bit of backstory but her character comes and goes so quickly it barely leaves an impression. There are some strange similarities with Neil Marshall’s underrated 2008 film, Doomsday, which is also populated with strange and dangerous survivors, but this film is so incredibly self-serious that it barely gives itself a moment to breathe. The main cast keeps the whole thing from being a total disaster with Jacob Elordi delivering a solid, soulful turn as Hig who can’t let go of the memory of his wife. He and Josh Brolin have great chemistry together onscreen, but the story separates them for large portions of time unfortunately. It’s a shame because you can tell Brolin is having a ball playing Bangley, a gruff former Marine survivalist, who has been surviving on an abandoned airfield with Hig for an undetermined amount of time. Margaret Qualley and Guy Pearce make up the rest of the main supporting characters with Pearce playing a different sort of gruff survivor although he’s more concerned with the safety of his daughter. Qualley and Elordi work well together to make their relationship entertaining enough even though there’s nary a question the two will ultimately end up together by the time it’s all said and done. It’s something that The Dog Stars suffers from in general, for all its thoughtful reflections on grief there’s very little that happens that’s surprising or revelatory which makes it all feel like a missed opportunity.
C+
