Main cast: Dwayne Johnson (John Hartley), Ryan Reynolds (Nolan Booth), Gal Gadot (Sarah Black/The Bishop), Chris Diamantopoulos (Sotto Voce), Ritu Arya (Urvashi Das), Ivan Mbakop (Tambwe), Vincenzo Amato (Director Gallo), and Rafael Petardi (Security Chief Ricci)
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Well, it seems like a surefire recipe for success, on paper at least: The Rock, Wonder Woman, and Deadpool in the same movie, all at one another’s throat as they race to recover some priceless bejeweled eggs of Cleopatra. The Rock is FBI profiler John Hartley, while Deadpool and Wonder Woman play art thieves Nolan Booth and Sarah Black. At first Hartley is after Nolan after the latter stole one of the two eggs that have been found (one more is still missing), and then Sarah joins in the fray, and soon everyone is trying to outwit and outrace the other to get all three eggs first.
That’s Red Notice in a nutshell. Sounds good, right? What can go wrong? Well, aside from the lead actors playing the same characters all over again. Different clothes, different plot, but yes, it’s the same people. When it comes to you know who, even the same freaking facial expressions. Judging from the supposed record-breaking viewership numbers issued by Netflix though, the recipe works in bringing in the eyeballs and moolah, so hey, good for everyone involved in this baby.
However, hold the firing squad, because… everything works, and falls into place great here.
Dwayne Johnson is a lot like his alleged arch-nemesis Vin Diesel, which has a crack made at his expense here because why not, in that he needs a partner in crime to balance off his frequent one-note character that tends to be too capable and too amazing to the point of being too boring for words. Unlike Mr Diesel, Mr Johnson is also a good comedian that isn’t afraid to poke fun at his own typecasting, so when he is paired with Ryan Reynolds, and the script doesn’t allow Mr Reynolds to improvise so much that he starts to grate on the nerves—well, the perfect chemistry happens and everything ends up just one big merry ball of fun.
Gal Gadot is arguably the weakest link of the three, but she doesn’t really hog the screen time, showing up mostly to pose around and act like a sexy femme fatale, so she’s not too bad here.
The plot is a mix of road trip adventures, heist, and even a foray into the South American rainforest, so it’s everything from Indiana Jones to the last few movies these three actors appeared in, complete with plot holes and nonsensical plot twists galore. Do I care? No, I’m too busy having fun, thank you. I’m not even mad at Ed Sheeran being in this thing, because he’s actually quite funny in his few minutes of stinking up the joint.
Is anyone else mesmerized by the folds of skin at the back of Mr Johnson’s head, by the way? Nolan isn’t kidding when he says that Hartley’s head looks like a big penis from the back. Oh, and bless this movie for poking fun at Ms Gadot’s singing. Just imagine a world where such irreverence roams free…
Red Notice is easily one of the most entertaining big idiot ball of dumb I’ve come across in a while, and to think I initially wanted to postpone watching this thing because I am tired of watching another film with the overexposed male leads this soon. I’m so glad I did, because I’ve had a great time. Like Rebecca Black would sing, fun fun fun, and that’s what really matters in the end. Hmm, I think I may watch it again after writing this review.
