I wasn’t planning on reviewing this, but I felt somewhat compelled to after seeing it. This movie doesn’t even fall into the SO BAD IT’S GOOD category, it’s the kind that’s SO ludicrous you’re left just scratching your head why it ever got green-lit. I tweeted this right after I saw it…
Watching #RedNotice is like caving in to junk food… tolerable at first but could barely even finish it halfway thru.
Such a waste of $200mil, wow 🙄 pic.twitter.com/qreQtTrgoT
— FlixChatter (@FlixChatter) November 13, 2021
… Most of those $200 mil budget went to its stars… Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot who according to IMDb trivia are getting $20 million each for their roles, likely even more for The Rock who is listed as one of the producers. As if that weren’t enough, there’s the flagrant product placements for Johnson’s and Reynolds’ own brands of liquor that each of their character drink in the film (Aviation American Gin and Teremana Tequila, respectively). The filmmakers are obviously going for a buddy-cop comedy style, but the silly banters goes from amusing to irritating in no time flat as they’re rehashing the same ol’ shtick that’s been done better in other movies. The whole prison scene is so absurd I wish I could erase it from my memory… heck, it makes the prison sequence in Paddington 2 seems far more credible.
As for the plot, if you could even call it that… well, it’s a heist action adventure involving an Interpol agent and the world’s most wanted art thief. Who’s playing who? Well, the movie employs the ‘things are not what they seem’ twist which can be a fun mystery in a good movie, but here it ends up being so pathetic. Even the beautiful Italian locations, Rome and Sardinia, are practically wasted here… the only scene that got a strong reaction out of me was when Johnson smashed a Porsche Taycan in Rome… such a waste of fancy automobile, but then again, the entire movie is an exorbitant waste of talents and resources.
I guess one could judge a movie from the cast alone… which in this case if basically filled with attractive people with limited acting skills. I love Gal Gadot in the first Wonder Woman (sadly WW1984 was a disaster) but clearly she is not a dramatic actress. As the enigmatic character known only as The Bishop (it’s never explained why she’s called that), Gadot seems to be channeling Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider movies… down to her gloating smirk every time she outsmarts all the men in the movie. She basically resorts to just prancing around in a slinky dress here, there’s even a scene of her climbing up the ladder to yacht in a skimpy bathing suit as if she’s auditioning to be a Bond girl.
Now, Ryan Reynolds has certainly settled nicely into the comedy genre and he’s fun to watch in a well-written material (i.e. Deadpool, Free Guy) but not so much in lazily-written ones like Hitman’s Wife Bodyguard and this one. I think he is a naturally funny guy, as evident when he trolls himself (and his wife) on social media, but simply throwing silly quips and incessantly bantering with your co-star is NOT acting. I suppose he’s fully aware of it as I read him jokingly say that he and his co-stars are wasting Netflix’s millions on just goofing around on set… Heh, maybe it IS time for him to retire and just save us from these kinds of insipid drivels until he figures out just what real acting is.
As for Dwayne Johnson, well he’s pretty much playing a variation of himself in his movies. I’m fine with him as an action star, I mean he’s obviously built like one… but he doesn’t seem content with that as he seems to have this longing to be a romantic leading man as well 🙄 I grimaced during the lovey-dovey scene between him and Emily Blunt in Jungle Cruise as the romance just feels so forced, and he’s so cringe-worthy here as well in another eye-roll inducing kissing scene. Another tidbit on IMDb I found was that Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, and Keanu Reeves were considered for a part that I think Johnson ended up taking on. Well, kudos to them for saying no to a ghastly script despite the huge payday.
I have no idea who Rawson Marshall Thurber is (the only thing I’ve seen him do was We Are the Millers which isn’t great either), but really, he has no business writing screenplays as there is nothing remotely original nor creative about this movie. To add insult to injury, the action scenes are crappy and cheap-looking (even movies with a fraction of its budget looked far better!). The scene where Reynold’s character is supposed to arrive in Bali on a boat (clearly none of the crew ever set foot in my country during filming), the backdrop looks like something from a zoom virtual background photos!
Now, I don’t expect every movie to be award-worthy, but even ‘brainless’ movies ought to still offer some kind of entertainment value, otherwise WHAT IS THE POINT?? There is really nothing to recommend this even if you are a fan of the three actors… I suggest just rewatch their more watchable movies instead. Oh and that cameo? I’m not gonna spoil it for you though you might already know from social media, but wow man, it’s got to be a stupendous career low to agree to do such a humiliating cameo. Tiresome contrivances abound from start to finish, going from cheesy, silly, preposterous in one not-so-quick succession all the way to its lame finish that shamelessly teases a sequel! Seriously Netflix, wouldn’t it be nice if you’d spend even half of that budget to fund good independent filmmakers instead?
I rarely give a rating this low, but Red Notice really is SO bad that it’s borderline irresponsible. Apparently it has the dubious distinction as being the most expensive Netflix movie to date, well it’s also the dumbest movie of the year (maybe even of the decade).
FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
I understand that Netflix is still pretty hands off when it comes to their films with big named stars. But I wish they assigned someone to overseas these big production films. Clearly the script shouldn’t have been green light in the first place. But they should’ve brought someone who’s actually good at storytelling to come on board and change the script and make it decent. I don’t even remember the cameo you mentioned but I don’t think I cared when I saw it. Lol!
This is a very good example of lazy filmmaking. So many scenes were obviously shot on sound stages and yeah that “Bali” scene was the worst looking green screen shot of any modern films that I’ve seen. After seeing the movie, I don’t know if I believe the reported $200mil budget now. Even if half the budget went to the stars, there’s still at least $100mil they could spend on making the movie look good.
Yeah the script is so abysmal, I mean it’s just lazy and absolutely dumb. It’d have been more tolerable if the movie looked beautiful and has great action, nope, none of those to be found either. Yep, lazy filmmaking through and through. Like you said, even after the cast payouts, there were still over $100mil for production, but there are far more movies with much smaller budgets that look better.
I refuse to see this. I like Ryan Reynolds though I think he needs to do different things. I like Gal Gadot despite her support for the evil Israeli government. The Crock, not so much these days.
I actually liked We’re the Millers (which my dad loved) but I won’t see this as there’s another reason for me not to see this. Ed Sheerhan. I hate that no-talent racist ginger who is pretty much the equivalent to another no-talent ass-clown in Michael Bolton in the fact that they both fucking suck.
Well given your strong feelings about The Crock, ahah, I definitely won’t recommend this for you. I hope Reynolds’ supposed retirement would mean he’d make smaller, better movies!
Hmmm, I have no idea that Ed Sheeran is racist, I mean I remember Jamie Foxx’s story that he had discovered him in Graham Norton. In any case, that cameo is just absolutely stupid and pointless.
I also heard the film is made as an excuse because both the Crock and Ryan Reynolds are schilling out their own brand of liquors as product placement in the film. That’s just tacky.
I don’t drink alcohol but to get people to drink something that might taste like piss.
Ahah, I literally said that in my review… there’s the flagrant product placements for Johnson’s and Reynolds’ own brands of liquor that each of their character drink in the film (Aviation American Gin and Teremana Tequila, respectively).
There’s a lot of things I would say to him about his stupid ass gin. I’d do it in a promo of his own but also lay some hard truths about his desire to return to wrestling to remind him that the last time he wrestled a full match. He tore every muscle in his body and limped like a bitch while the matches he was having in the months before WrestleMania 29 showed that he couldn’t hang with the guy who should’ve headlined that year’s WrestleMania.
Today in that shithole company who released 8 more people among the 80 they released this year citing “budget cuts”. There is no one who was in his level let alone worthy to wrestle him. Everyone else outside of WWE right now whether it’s AEW or New Japan. Dwayne will never catch up to them. Even the older guys who are way tougher than him.
Wrestling’s just SO tough on people’s bodies… I can see why some of them turn to acting (well making films I should say as most of them just play themselves), at least they can use stunt doubles, ahah.
How do you feel about John Cena? I thought he was quite funny in Suicide Squad though he’s not that great in the latest Fast & Furious movie, basically just the same big tough guy as Dwayne.
I think John Cena is alright as an actor though he was fucking hilarious in Tour de Pharmacy with the way he says “cheetah blood”. As a wrestler, he’s eh… I just loathe that goody-too-shoe persona he always play. There’s a lot of bullshit and contradictions into the ideas that his character always claim to be.
Let’s also not forget that he proposed to another wrestler at WrestleMania and then a year later got cold feet and never showed up. That wrestler would, rightfully, be slut-shamed as Ronda Rousey would tell her… “the only door you ever broke was John Cena’s till he kicked your ass out”.
Ouch. It seems I’m one of the only ones to give this a fresh tomato. Not because it was a great movie (it isn’t). But for me it delivered exactly what I was expecting – goofy, action-packed disposable entertainment. And I actually laughed at Ryan Reynolds. That’s quite an accomplishment for me. LOL
Hey Keith! Are you saying normally you’re not a fan of Ryan Reynolds? I had a hard time with his brand of comedy in the Hitman’s Wife Bodyguard but it’s so much worse here. Well, you said it’s disposable entertainment, that’s a spot-on description right there, if only it were more entertaining.
I guess you could say I’m aggressively lukewarm on Reynolds’ shtick. For some reason I thought some of his silliness landed a little better here. Maybe because the Rock is a pretty funny pseudo-straight man.
Aggressively lukewarm, ahah, that’s an interesting way to put it. I wasn’t really a fan of his generally, but I enjoyed him as Deadpool and Free Guy is a lot of fun. As for The Rock, I wish he’d just stick to being an action guy, he can’t sell being a romantic lead, no matter how hard he tries!
It’s like we’re one mind, Ruth! I agree with so much of this. It’s really staggering when you think of how that $200M could be spent elsewhere.
I think there was just one moment when I genuinely did laugh-out-loud. The rest of the time I was just grimacing.
This won’t be a highlight of any of their careers.
Hey Claire! Incredible isn’t it how much $$$$ is wasted for something so lazy and insipid! I can’t remember when I laughed out loud, I think I was too busy rolling my eyes, ahahaha.
Pingback: The Alliance Lately: Issue No. 42 – The Minnesota Film Critics Alliance
Pingback: November 2021 Viewing Recap + Movie(s) of the Month – FlixChatter Film Blog
Pingback: Trailer Spotlight: The Gray Man – drops on Netflix July 22 – FlixChatter Film Blog