The latest Ridley Scott movie, The Dog Stars, has been panned as a post-apocalyptic film where nothing happens. I don’t agree. To me, Dog Stars is a sentimental apocalypse film, and I found that rather refreshing.

Scott is known for movies like Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator II. His latest movie is set after a hyper‑lethal flu wipes out most of humanity. The Dog Stars centers on Hig (played by Jacob Elordi), one of the few survivors. He lives in an abandoned airport hangar in the Colorado Rockies with his loyal dog, Jasper, and Bangley, a heavily armed former Marine (played by Josh Brolin) who protects their perimeter from feral human scavengers known as Reapers.

Although the setting is Colorado, the movie was filmed in Italy and Rome. (People familiar with Colorado will not recognize some of the geography!) Even so, the cinematography and visuals are lush. And Jacob Elordi is certainly easy on the eye. (Yum!)

Along the way, Hig deals with fallout from his wife’s pandemic death as he begins to fall for a new love interest, Cima, played by Margaret Qualley (daughter of Andie MacDowell). This is where the sentimentality comes in, along with Hig’s relationship with his dog Jasper. (Spoiler alert: the dog dies!)

Monetarily, the film did not live up to its operating budget. I guess sentimentality does not mix with the apocalypse at the box office. But must every apocalypse movie be action-packed and full of wham-bam-thankyou- mam? Those types of movies have been done to death; that’s why I found this version refreshing.

One thing I didn’t care for was the similarity between Brolin’s character, Bangley, and Cima’s father, “Pops,” played by Guy Pearce. They looked too similar and had similar personalities. Perhaps that was on purpose to offer conflict with the more hopeful young people, Cima and Hig, but I kept getting confused about who was who when the two crusty old men finally met.

An interesting sidelight is that actor Josh Brolin almost quit the set because he found it hard to adjust to Scott’s directing style, which was reportedly ‘sitting around telling stories most of the time’ versus a standard rehearsal. After coaxing from his agent to stay, Brolin eventually embraced the unconventional style and became fully engaged.

Dog Stars is currently streaming on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. We paid $20 to watch it and considered it a good investment for an evening’s entertainment.