With so much pranks, random grouping, antic, and backstabs everywhere, it’s shocking that Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadott Red Notice has turned out to be an un inspiring comic affair. That’s essentially audience would feel when they switch on Netflix : the cliché version of the race franchise movie, but made with a bigger budget than Bollywood, this show will be soon forgotten once the show comes to an end.
Red Notice, the new action comedy on Netflix that takes things a bit too far by featuring not only Reynolds, but also perhaps the only other male movie star of this level who is equally repulsed by risks: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
Combined, they are the two most low impacting A-listers working today, and ironically, one of the highest paid artists.
Red Notice Review
Rawson Marshall Thurber’s Red Notice is as silly as they come. Hoping to run simply on the star power of Gal, Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson, it’s a two-hour test of how much and how far back one can roll their eyes.
They reportedly earned $20 million apiece for Red Notice, a movie that ends with a plot twist so out of left field that were Abbas Mustan not on the cusp of releasing their own Netflix project, their legal counsel would’ve advised them to sue on moral grounds alone. Directed by Johnson’s lackey Rawson Marshall Thurber on a reported budget of $200 million, Red Notice is the latest (and so far, most expensive) attempt by the streamer to create IP of its own.
Dwayne plays FBI agent John Hartley, who channels more Fast and Furious’ grumpy Hobbs than he does Moana’s charming Maui. He is on a mission to nab two art thieves. Ryan is thief #1, Nolan Booth, and he plays it as his usual, unmasked Deadpool self. Frankly, I was already over this wise-cracking persona last month after Free Guy and Nolan Booth did not help anything either.
Thief #2 is Gal Gadot’s very pretentiously named Bishop. Even as she delivers roundhouse kicks and administers shock therapy on buff men, Gal never manages to look even remotely menacing or intimidating. Red Notice was never supposed to be a test of any of these people’s acting abilities but it is sure eye-opening to see just who all we have decided to crown the biggest movie stars in the world.
Red Notice marks Reynolds’ second attempt at securing a streaming franchise for himself. Moments after being introduced, his character pours himself a glass of Aviation Gin—self-serving product placement whose brazenness can only rival the UpGrad ads in Taapsee Pannu’s Rashmi Rocket, produced by the company’s co-founder Ronnie Screwvala. It’s a moment so bizarrely misplaced that you almost expect The Rock, who is lurking in the darkness, to reveal himself by popping open a bottle of Teremana tequila. Maybe in the sequel?
Synopsis: An Interpol-issued Red Notice is a global alert to hunt and capture the world’s most wanted. But when a daring heist brings together the FBI’s top profiler (Johnson) and two rival criminals (Gadot, Reynolds), there’s no telling what will happen.