Title – Red Notice (2021)

Director – Rawson Marshall Thurber (We’re the Millers) 

Cast – Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Ritu Arya

Plot – Interpol agent John Hartley (Johnson) is hot on the trail of renowned art thief Nolan Booth (Reynolds) as the two find themselves embroiled in a dangerous game with criminal mastermind The Bishop (Gadot). 

“You can have excuses or results. Not both”

Review by Eddie on 22/11/2021

It’s been a few days since I sat down and watched Red Notice, yet despite only mere hours passing in time I find myself struggling to recall anything of note in a film that fails to create a spark of imagination or excitement. 

Costing $200 million to make and starring some of the entertainment industries most well-liked stars, Notice is a flashy Netflix exclusive that recently became the streaming services biggest day one hit but despite its high quality coat of paint, Rawson Marshall Thurber’s lifeless and charmless action/comedy romp is an instantly forgettable and an incessantly bland blockbuster that is merely coasting along at all times. 

Spanning a global collection of locales, that often are infused with a seriously distracting amount of poorly done green screen due to the film having to shoot through the Covid-19 pandemic, Notice should be a fun and frantic jaunt across the globe as we follow Dwayne Johnson’s Interpol agent John Hartley (proving once more he loves a dress up more than anyone), Ryan Reynolds (wouldn’t have guessed it) smart mouthed thief Nolan Booth and Wonder Woman herself Gal Gadot as the mysterious Bishop as the trio hunt down some priceless egg artefacts and try outsmart each other along the way. 

Utilising a well-trodden path that was experienced by cinema fans with the likes of the Indiana Jones and early The Mummy franchises, Notice sadly lacks any of the smarts or style those type of entertaining romps possessed as Thurber struggles to bring much to the table when it comes to the action stakes, with many set pieces looking like a glorified video game rather than a top notch cinematic production, while his cast can’t salvage the film from the boredom it will induce with fairly pedestrian turns that do nothing to enhance their reputations as Hollywood heavyweights. 

Recently announcing his break from Hollywood for the foreseeable future after a number of years plying away busily in a number of productions, Notice marks a new low for the career trajectory of Ryan Reynolds in particular who has become a walking and talking caricature of his real life persona mixed with Deadpool’s initially charming boundary pushing and wisecracks. 

Trying little too do anything he hasn’t done in his last handful of big films, Reynolds seems content to sleepwalk through his roles of recent times and his lethargy in bringing the potentially entertaining Booth to life here is a key example of just how tiresome and unenthusiastic this heist/adventure is, with Reynolds lame turn but one component of a film that does nothing too distinguish itself from the pack and seems content with merely existing rather than finding a reason to make us care or wish for more of where this came from. 

Final Say – 

A sadly typical Netflix waste of money, Red Notice should be a mindlessly entertaining and exciting ride but it’s nothing more than a tiresome and trite example of modern day blockbuster film-making, the type of film-making that may get nice numbers to report on in regards to streaming performances but does nothing else worth remembering. 

1 1/2 Vin Diesel audition tapes out of 5