Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Ritu Arya, Chris Diamantopoulous
I've heard of movies designed to be the kinds you simply shut off your brain to watch. That's not always a bad thing. Some films work that way. Red Notice is such a movie, but the trouble with a picture like Red Notice is you struggle to recall what happened moments after finishing it. I know this much: Everyone is after a priceless egg once owned by Cleopatra. Maybe not priceless, but worth hundreds of millions. Numbers are thrown around as quickly as double crosses in Red Notice. It all adds up to very little.
Red Notice is not built to be original or groundbreaking, but that doesn't mean it has to feel weary and deflated. Writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber has made some funny films in the past (Dodge Ball, Central Intelligence, and Skyscraper, which was cheerfully ridiculous, but fun). Johnson plays FBI profiler John Hartley, who is on the trail of art thief Nolan Booth (Reynolds). He hopes to have Booth help him capture an even more elusive target known as The Bishop (Gadot), who plans to find and steal the fabled Cleopatra egg. Booth and Hartley of course Don't Get Along, but soon Learn To Get Along after trading quips, punches, insults, and involvement in an escape from a Russian prison. I forget exactly how they both came to be prison denizens. Oh yes, Booth is captured by Hartley and Hartley is framed as an accomplice to the Bishop.
Johnson, Gadot, and Reynolds play characters who aren't a million miles removed from their famed personas. Try as they might, they cannot elevate the material above its standard origins. Red Notice is chock full of action, fights, double and triple crosses, and much of it portrayed in front of an obvious green screen even as the scenery switches from city to city. It makes no difference. Red Notice plays like a movie with its wheels spinning furiously in the mud to no avail.
No comments:
Post a Comment