Bird Box Review: 4 Ups & 4 Downs

Downs...

4. It Wastes Most Of Its Ensemble Cast

Bird Box Jacki Weaver BD Wong Rosa Salazar Machine Gun Kelly Lil Rel Howery
Netflix

Though it's fair to say that Bullock, Malkovich and Moonlight's rising star Trevante Rhodes all get a fair shake here, the overwhelming majority of the film's gigantic - and talented! - ensemble cast gets depressingly little to do.

Sarah Paulson fans should be well aware of what the movie's trailers already made pretty clear: she's in the movie for nothing more than an extended cameo that lasts a matter of minutes.

Elsewhere, the on-the-rise likes of Rosa Salazar and Lil Rel Howery barely make a dent, while acting vets like Tom Hollander, B.D. Wong and Parminder Nagra basically fade into the periphery.

The movie's worst talent-squandering crime, though, has to be keeping Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver almost entirely in the background save for just one mildly memorable moment.

Hell, blink and you'll miss a cameo from Ant-Man and the Wasp star David Dastmalchian, who appears for such a brief, inconsequential period of time you're safe to assume he owed a producer a favour.

Given the embarrassment of acting riches in this film, it's a shame the script couldn't better juggle its sometimes borderline-invisible characters.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.