Red Notice – Blast of a Heist Film
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Writer: Rawson Marshall Thurber (Screenplay)
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Ritu Arya, Chris Diamantopoulos, Ivan Mbakop, Vincenzo Amato, Rafael Petardi
Plot: An Interpol agent tracks the world’s most wanted art thief.
Tagline – Pro and Cons
Runtime: 1 Hour 58 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Red Notice starts when slick art thief Nolan Booth (Reynolds) meets his match when FBI agent John Hartley (Johnson) tracks him down after his latest robbery, the arrest doesn’t go to plan, as another art thief The Bishop (Gadot) gets away with the goods, framing Hartley along the way.
Nolan and John must put aside their differences to finish the collection of eggs that Nolan is trying to collect, clear John’s name and stop The Bishop from getting away with the crime.
Thoughts on Red Notice
Characters & Performances – Nolan Booth is the slick art thief that has been committing robberies over the globe for his whole life, with his latest one getting one of the three eggs of Cleopatra. He finds himself caught, once again needing to escape from prison to steal the next two eggs for a big score. He is full of charisma always looking to talk his way out of trouble, constantly thinking of the plan going through his head. This is a proper Ryan Reynolds character, we know everything part of his strength as a comedic actor, is in this role. Agent John Hartley is the man trying to track down Nolan, he believes he has caught him, until he gets framed for the same robbery, leading to him ending up in prison, with Nolan, needing to work with him to clear his name. he is more of the muscles of the pair, seemingly looking clumsy in certain scenes, but never afraid to fight back. Dwayne Johnson does give us something slightly different to the typical performance, with him not always being the strongest in a fight, but bringing the big guy comedy to the table. The Bishop is the rival to Nolan, she has been working on the same job as him, wanting to use her own skills to stay ahead of him, while always having a plan up her sleeve. The best in combat, she isn’t just the most beautiful woman in the room. Gal Gadot brings what made her strong in Wonder Woman, her action star power, not being given the chance to do as much of the serious side of things, letting the guys roll with the punchlines, negative, her singing of Downtown. Inspector Das is leading the Interpol investigation into both Nolan and Bishop, she will be on the scene of most of the incidents, but seemingly always one step behind them, almost being a pawn in their game.
Story – The story here follows a famed art thief that must team up with an FBI agent to clear the agent’s name and get revenge on his own rival, who stole his latest score right from under his nose. This is a heist movie that will look to understand the world it is in, mixing the ideas of how a plan comes together with the idea of needing to work together with someone you don’t like, slowly starting to get respect for them. This will dive into an ancient treasure long thought to be lost, which will add an Indiana Jones sense to what is going on with the great plans coming together. This might not give us too much we wouldn’t have expected, leaning more towards the comedy than the action, but for a story, it has everything that is needed to a light fun entertaining one that can be enjoyed.
Themes – Red Notice is an action crime comedy that will put a firm focus on the comedy, with Reynolds constantly going for the one-liners to react to the situation, with his character’s defence mechanism. When it comes to the action, the chase sequences are fun, but none of the scenes feel like we are watching anything with any threat in, which can leave them feeling flatter than they should. The film will stake us around the world to create each action sequence, leaving us to get the typical beauty of each city, or see the darkest emptiness of them, depending on the situation.
Final Thoughts – Red Notice is a thoroughly enjoyable action comedy that is packed with laughs and stellar chemistry between the lead three stars.