It’s a yolk a minute
Red Notice Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson Director: Rawson Marshall
Thurber Duration: 1 h 58 m
Netflix’s Red Notice is equal parts Gal Gadot running, Ryan Reynolds shooting off his mouth and Dwayne Johnson blowing things up. It’s pitter-patter-pow!
That’s not meant to be negative; merely descriptive. Though for all its reported $200-million budget, Red Notice does feel like something its three superstars knocked together between other work in superhero movies or the Fast & Furious franchise. On the plus side: Killer comic chemistry!
The plot, from writer/ director Rawson Marshall Thurber (Central Intelligence, Skyscraper, both starring Johnson), imagines of trio of priceless jewelled eggs that once belonged to Cleopatra. Well, actually not quite priceless: an Egyptian billionaire is willing to pay $300-million for the set. This will require stealing two and locating the third, believed lost for centuries.
Reynolds plays Nolan Booth, an art thief who is also a dab hand at prison escapes, and a witty ad libber, though that last might just be Reynolds and not his character. Johnson is John Hartley, an FBI criminal profiler who tracks Booth down in the early going. And Gadot is The Bishop, a rival thief who gets the drop on both men, requiring them to work together before she can put all their eggs in one basket.
The film features a host of ingredients you’ve seen in other (and to be honest better), heist thrillers. There’s a fancy party with masks and dancing. There’s a dizzying number of exotic locations, including Rome, Bali, Russia, London, Argentina, Belleville, Cairo and Sardinia, and yes I did throw a red herring into that mix. There are secret underground passages with booby traps that somehow remain functioning for decades without maintenance. There’s a Wilhelm scream. There may even be stolen Nazi treasure.
And there are double crosses en route to triple crosses that will have you wondering if there might be any quadruple crosses, and whether you can say sextuple crosses without blushing.
But there is also the broad buddy-comedy humour that is cinema comfort food, no less tasty for being completely expected. Reynolds does his silky-voiced sarcasm thing, Johnson counters with bullet-headed seriousness, and Gadot sidles between them, charming and dangerous. They look like they’re having a blast. I foresee a sequel, as long as Netflix can find the cash, and everyone’s busy schedule lines up. ★★1/2