Over the long and restful break, I decided to entertain and relax myself with a good movie and a cup of hot cocoa. What I found in my search was Netflix’s top pick of the week, “Red Notice.” “Red Notice” follows an international art thief and the FBI agent that is assigned to his case. They start off as enemies but when they must team up together after realizing they were both framed, they soon become friends in a twisted, but endearing kind of way.
Featuring a star-studded cast, “Red Notice” actually managed to keep my attention throughout the running time. It features Dwanye Johnson, who unironically always plays the role of bad cop in every film he’s ever been in. Then we have Gal Gadot; despite her charming persona, I don’t think she was wonderful this time around. Lastly, the film has Ryan Reynolds, who can hardly act and just plays himself. Despite all of this, I can’t help but think that this movie was actually beneath all of them to make, but actors need work too.
Interestingly enough this movie was produced by Dwayne Johnson’s very own production company, Seven Bucks. So in my opinion, it makes sense why these specific actors signed on to be a part of this movie.
The film opens with a short summary of what everyone in the film is after. Everyone’s after the most important and ancient golden egg, once coveted by the famous Cleopatra. Sure, it’s expensive and everyone wants to get in on the profit, but only the smartest and quickest wins.
This film reminded me of a mix between “Ocean’s Twelve” and an Indiana Jones movie, with how quick witted and skillful the characters all were. It was indeed a heist and adventure movie, but it was also low budget. But I will say that the camera work was phenomenal, shot like a grade-A action film, something similar to Spider-Man with all of the quick angles and turns.
But don’t be fooled, none of the characters were superheroes and this wasn’t a supernatural film. So often, I wondered how some of the stunts in the film were even realistic. Agent John Hartley (Johnson) runs across an unstable bridge while packs of soldiers shoot at him. Then, in another scene, he is cornered and as he waits for his partner in crime (Reynolds) a bomb goes off behind him. He rises from the ashes and takes off in full sprint. I won’t say much besides this, but can you see what I mean? I was totally and utterly confused as to how this man could still be standing and that is why I have to dock points from this movie. I just couldn’t get into it.
I did enjoy this movie, I laughed at times and I liked the concept. Netflix should put out more films like this and if my predictions are correct, they’ll probably come out with a sequel. But don’t worry about the future and just watch it now.
Photo Credit: IMDb
