'Future Date' Review: A Charming Sci-Fi Comedy That Runs Out of Steam
- Becca Johnson
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
By Becca Johnson - May 25, 2025
A directorial feature debut from Stanley Wong, who is also front and centre in the leading role, Future Date is a sci-fi comedy set in the very distant future. With satisfying visuals and a good balance of sincerity and humour, this is an amusing and impressive indie flick. However, there’s not quite enough gas in the tank to fill out a full feature, as Future Date loses steam around the halfway mark.
What is 'Future Date' About?
Wong and his co-lead Shuang Hu (Five Blind Dates) play two lonely strangers who never leave their single-occupant apartments. This soon changes when both get the opportunity of a lifetime: to be around another human person for a whole weekend, at a random two-bedroom house in the abandoned Los Angeles suburbs.
From the get-go, Future Date knows exactly the type of movie it wants to be and should be. Never taking itself too seriously, it’s very self aware and goes for a satirical approach with the comedy. It’s really fun seeing our two leads navigate in-person dating, exploring long lost arts such as small talk, going for coffee and cooking real food. As the real world is unlivable the inhabitants are forced into isolation, and many may not have experienced living in a house before, let alone interacted with another human in person. This means that the things we do daily are very alien to these characters, and seeing them undertake regular activities such as eating real food and experiencing the joy of giving and receiving a long hug have some effective charm and humour to them.
Not only this, but it’s hard not think about the things we take for granted whilst watching. The script has a few moments that let us sit back and think about the world we live in and the people around us, reminding the audience that what we have is mostly pretty good. It’s fairly easy for us to meet new people, form relationships, cook delicious food and experience real connection, but for our characters this is not the case. The themes are well-explored and do well to help you put things into perspective.
Engaging Premise, Yet Flawed Execution
All of the above is fantastically done, and often makes for an equally fun and thought-provoking watch. However, once you truly settle into the story, it’s easy to see that it doesn’t have much more to say outside of the initial messages that are easy to pinpoint from the first few scenes. Whilst it’s enjoyable seeing our characters do mundane things and find the beauty in them, it soon loses the initial charm due to repetition and winds up feeling a bit gimmicky. Furthermore, due to the lead characters opposing beliefs, the outcome of their relationship is far too predictable, and doesn’t do anything outside of what’s expected. Whilst Wong is headset on finding love, Hu is more interested in staying in the house than forming a real connection. The ideas are there, and there’s certainly enough intrigue in here to create a story worth telling, but the execution lets it down. It’s questionable whether there’s enough material here to warrant a feature length film, as many elements feel repetitive - the style of jokes, the plot and the dialogue.
For a film of this budget, Future Date impresses technically. The visuals are great, with the team making the most out of their small locations and providing many an intriguing aesthetic. The sci-fi element is also done well, with realistic props and technology that is simple yet extremely effective. By keeping the characters activities small and simplistic - online dating, counseling sessions and remote working - the visuals are achievable and work well on a smaller scale like this. The score is bouncy and poppy, matching the tone of the fun, upbeat and low stakes storyline is it paired with. The performances are far from the best of the year, but Wong and Hu make for compelling leads, with an entertaining side performance from Johnny Pemberton (Ant-Man). It’s really quite impressive given the size of the budget, team and overall production.
Does Future Date Do Enough to Stand Out?
Future Date isn’t attempting to re-write the sci-fi genre or do anything particularly unique or ground-breaking. However, what it does do is provide a brisk 80-minutes of low stakes, low hanging fruit style of entertainment. The plot is engaging, the visuals work well and despite a short film method probably suiting this story better, it shows promise for Wong as a director. A few more fresh ideas and a less predictable second half would’ve helped Future Date become something far more memorable.
Future Date is available to stream on Prime Video
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