Red Notice ★★★
Rawson Marshall Thurber
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Ritu Arya, Chris Diamantopoulos
Scrolling through Netflix looking for something to watch is like navigating a minefield. Choosing the right movie for the right situation can make or break your evening, so I present to you: Red Notice - the perfect compliment to whatever else you plan to do.
Red Notice stars Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as Special Agent John Hartley who is brought in to catch master jewel thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) before setting aside their differences to take down the Worlds Greatest Thief: The Bishop, played by Gal Gadot.
It looks like the cast had a lot of fun with their electric charisma and witty one liners. Another classic Ryan Reynolds performance keeps the film afloat and The Rock continues to prove the Fast and Furious franchise is crumbling away without him. Mix it in with a sinister yet glamorous role for Gadot and it’s like the whole film is designed purely to meet expectations. If you’re hanging out with your friends and need some street-cred inducing ambience then just push play.
What you may fail to notice if you try to engage with Red Notice is that you’ve seen this all before. The parties, the betrayals, the globe-trotting adventure story where the dynamic duo race against the villain to reach the MacGuffin in time is so cliche by now that you really don’t need to watch it.
To its credit, the film is stylishly shot and delivers some quality action scenes. You’ll find yourself saying ‘…cool’ every now and then in between bites of your dinner. If you manage to miss some of the more dodgy CGI moments then your viewing experience may improve further. I enjoyed the creative location titles across the film the most as they complimented the aesthetic very well.
Overall Red Notice is one of those movies where it’s less about the film itself and more the purpose it serves. It follows a schematic that ticks all the boxes yet ultimately leaves it as average as you can possibly get. As I was on the fence between two and three stars, it was the pizza and beers that just tipped it for me.
Red Notice available now on Netflix