Red Notice

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Ritu Arya, Chris Diamantopoulos, Ivan Mbakop, Vincenzo Amato, Rafael Petardi, Ed Sheeran (uncredited)
Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Comedy, Thriller
2021

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An Interpol agent (Dwayne Johnson) will stop at nothing to track down a world famous art thief (Ryan Reynolds).

Review:

Tim: Red Notice received a lot of publicity for being the most watched movie in the history of Netflix. Everyone celebrated the accomplishment, talk of a sequel began immediately, Netflix did the rounds. And yet, all of this for a very average action adventure film. Sure, there are parts of Red Notice I really liked, but it's kind of shocking that we're living in a time where hours watched is the key metric, not quality of the film. Sure, if it was terrible, people might be less inclined to watch it, but being the most watched movie on Netflix doesn't mean much when the film itself is only decent. This movie has strengths, but it's not the victory Netflix claims it is.

I really believe a lot of this has to do with Rawson Marshall Thurber. I think he's an average director at best. Of the four films of his I've seen, only one (We're the Millers) would I consider good. The rest were not (and this makes yet another not-good one). There were a lot of worthwhile pieces here, but Thurber can't quite pull them together into a truly effective movie. This movie could have and should have been much better.

Now, the biggest appeal of the film is obviously the cast. The main attraction is seeing Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds team up. I don't want to hedge here- it's wonderful and the biggest reason to see this movie. Johnson plays the straight man to Reynolds' charismatic comedy and the two just work so well together. They are very different people, but both have experience in action and comedy movies. Their banter works more often than it doesn't. Even when the movie feels lackluster, the power of these two stars together works brilliantly. I hope there's a sequel, just to watch these two continue to work together. Gal Gadot is a decent third wheel here, although she doesn't really get much of a chance to shine. Gadot is certainly more experienced in the action department, but outside of playing Wonder Woman, I'm not sure she is an especially strong actress at this point. I thought she was decent enough in the film. She has a few nice moments, but Thurber never really integrates her into the story. She feels like a tack-on. I think some of this is due to Gadot herself, but much more is that she wasn't presented with the opportunities she needed to really come across as effective.

I've long been a huge fan of globe-spanning adventure movies, especially if there's hidden treasure involved. This movie certainly taps into that, but the story feels secondary. Thurber directs a movie that feels like it's main thrust is- "Look, we got Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds to work together!" And yes, while that is glorious, the story always follows behind it. There's interesting elements to the story, but it feels like an afterthought. Even now, a bit of time after watching the movie, I struggle to verbalize what it's about. There's treasure that Johnson and Reynolds need to find- Cleopatra is involved. I honestly can't remember the specific details. They don't matter much within the context of the film and they don't stick with you. Now, I'm all for leading with characters, but they need a compelling narrative to pull them along. That doesn't quite happen here. The movie is more focused on showcasing its stars than on telling a really good story. Unsurprisingly, the quality of the film is hurt because of this.

Now, please don't mistake this for me saying Red Notice is a bad movie. It absolutely isn't. It's funny, has some solid action set pieces and it combines three talented actors into an action adventure story. I had fun watching the movie. None of it might ultimately have mattered much, but it was light and entertaining. I'd definitely be excited to see a sequel. So, Thurber certainly does some things right and he delivers a decent movie. However, it doesn't have staying power. By the time the sequel comes, I'll likely remember nothing about this movie other than it was fun seeing Johnson and Reynolds together. For a film to be heralded as the most watched in Netflix history, we deserved better than this.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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