Red Notice (2021)

Red Notice (2021)

4/10

Starring

Dwayne Johnson

Ryan Reynolds

Gal Gadot

 

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber

 

I’ll give Red Notice one thing: with three of the coolest actors in the cast, it hooked me enough to watch from start to finish. I didn’t see the first twist coming, but the second one (if you can even call it a twist) was predictable. And the ending? Just plain dumb. I’ve seen better setups for a sequel than this poorly wrapped package.

This movie was a solid five out of ten from the start. You wouldn’t think it could get any worse—until the first twist drops between two of the characters. From that point on, everything went downhill. The silver lining is that when the movie starts falling apart, there are only about ten minutes left, so you don’t have to endure it for too long.

The bottom line? Red Notice is a nonsense film that relies entirely on the charisma of its actors. Honestly, I’ve never been so eager to see more screentime for Gal Gadot than I was in this movie. There was just too much Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson. (Yes, that’s a sentence I never thought I’d say: too much Ryan Reynolds.)

The plot is pretty straightforward. An Egyptian billionaire is willing to pay a fortune to anyone who can bring him the three gem eggs of Cleopatra. The international thief known as The Bishop (Gal Gadot) is at the top of the wanted list for her crimes, followed closely by Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds), another notorious thief.

Nolan goes after one of the eggs in Italy, but FBI agent John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) gets tipped off by The Bishop and teams up with the Italian police to catch him. They apprehend Nolan, but in a twist, The Bishop double-crosses Hartley, landing both him and Nolan in prison.

As it turns out, The Bishop orchestrated the entire setup and later visits the pair in prison. She proposes a deal: if Nolan, who knows the location of the third egg, agrees to work with her, she’ll help clear Hartley’s name and give Nolan a cut. They reject her offer, break out of prison, and decide to team up themselves in a race to get the eggs before The Bishop does.

Like I said, the movie had all the ingredients for a great film, but it lacked the story and strong direction to pull it off. The writing and directing by Rawson Marshall Thurber are subpar.

The only time the movie manages to be remotely entertaining is when all three leads are on screen together. Otherwise, it falls flat. You can catch Red Notice on Netflix, but don’t set your expectations too high.