Not all missions are created equal
Netflix’s second-most expensive movie ever also marks the streaming service debut of another Hollywood titan. But while the slightly more pricey
The Irishman is a triumph of storytelling, stellar performances, and de-ageing technology, the newly released 6 Underground’s budget was clearly spent on pyrotechnics, and stuntmen and women. There’s plenty of car-nage, visceral violence and gun play, as the man who gave us Bad Boys, The Rock and, um, Transformers: The Last Knight, brings his trademark brand of (Michael) Bay-hem direct to your home.
A kind of Bond-meetsBatman by way of the Fast and the Furious franchise, in 6 Underground, Ryan Reynolds plays a former micro-magnet magnate turned ghost who assembles a team of other off-gridders (a driver, a doctor, a spy, a parkour specialist, and a hitman), with the aim of ‘‘taking out some truly world-class evil people’’.
‘‘Nobody’s going to save the world, but we can make it a little less s….y,’’ is his rallying cry.
However, overthrowing the corrupt Turgistan dictator and his generals won’t be a walk in the park, especially after the first job in Florence goes rather pear-shaped.
‘‘We probably could have used a warm-up mission,’’ Reynolds’ character reflects in hindsight.
You guessed it, with Deadpool writing duo Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese on script duties, 6 Underground is filled with witty retorts, snarky comments and a cynical voiceover. Reynolds has clearly been hired to deliver Deadpool-esque deadpan, which he does with aplomb, sparking nicely off co-stars like Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (Widows) and Dave Franco (The Disaster Artist).
But, despite its diverse cast, this is a film that trades in simple politics and black-and-white characters. Nuance and shade have never been a part of Bay’s oeuvre, unlike orange sunsets, helicopter chases and bombastic scores, which are all present and correct here, too. If you’re after a pre- or post-Christmas blowout where ‘‘the mission is more important than the man’’, then this will prove ideal.
Of course, the imminent arrival of Christmas also means the re-screening of traditional festive, free-to-air fare like Love Actually, Bad Santa and Die Hard.
For those seeking a deeper appreciation of that latter Christmas Eve-set action movie before it airs on TVNZ2 on that very night this year (8.30pm), there’s a 45-minute primer, which has recently been released as part of Netflix’s four-part The Movies That Made Us series.
Director John McTiernan, screenwriter Jeb Stuart and actor Bonnie Bedelia recount how a sequel to a 1968
Frank Sinatra movie, starring a TV rom-com star, began shooting with only a third of the script written.
Three decades after it made back almost five times its budget and was nominated for four Oscars, the discussions of how one action movie dialled down its ‘‘toxic masculinity’’ and subverted traditional expectations, to great success, is just as fascinating and relevant today.