CRITICAL / FILM REVIEWS: Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds reunite in front of Rawson Marshall Thurber’s camera for “Red Notice”, classic and overall effective entertainment.
Red Notice : an explosive trio
If her name doesn’t ring a bell, Rawson Marshall Thurber is however a regular at the Dwayne Johnson formula. Indeed, the two artists have already collaborated twice: in Skyscraper and in Almost Secret Agents. He also staged Dodgeball and attaching it The Millers, a budding family. For his new achievement he joined the great Netflix family with Red Notice. Also worn by Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot, the feature film was released on November 12 on the platform. The story tells how an Interpol agent goes in pursuit of an expert art thief, played by Ryan Reynolds. The FBI calls in its best profiler (Dwayne Johnson) to arrest the latter. But the two men are overtaken by another thief, Le Fou, played by Gal Gadot, which forces them to team up.
Thereby, Red Notice replay the classic buddy movie formula without revolutionizing the genre. Rawson Marshall Thurber opts for a fairly classic but often effective action comedy, which reenacts the commonplaces of the genre, magnified thanks to the trio of actors. In 2 hours of entertainment, the filmmaker offers some well-thought-out action sequences, as evidenced by the awesome opening scene (which sometimes reminds Casino Royale, proportions kept), but above all a good dose of humor very anchored in the characters that Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds have created during their careers. Red Notice does not revolutionize the genre and is sometimes lazy, but the relationship between these two actors, between action and comedy, hits the mark.
References in all directions
So Ryan Reynolds replay his eternal score of funny little clever, a role he has already played in countless films such as Hitman & Bodyguard, 6 Underground, RIPD, or of course Dead Pool. For Dwayne Johnson it’s the same, and the comedian is back in the shoes of a funny and muscular protagonist in a Jumanji, Jungle Cruise, Journey to the Center of the Earth 2 or Hobbs & Shaw. So inevitably, it is a bit repeated, but it is always a pleasure to see these two actors having fun on screen in custom-written roles. Thereby, Red Notice is like this explosive duo: a light, quirky, talkative blockbuster, sometimes too long and clumsy, but which reflects a real desire to offer entertainment without the fuss, without pretension and totally fun.
Red Notice is like a best of entertainment from recent years. Rawson Marshall Thurber does not hesitate to borrow from his elders. The most informed spectators will obviously find a large part ofIndiana Jones (especially in his last part in the forest), but also nods to Welcome to the jungle, of James bond, To tomb Raider, at the cinema of Guy Ritchie (UNCLE code in the lead) and obviously to the saga Ocean’s. But the movie that most resembles Red Notice is once again Hitman & Bodyguard. Already because Ryan Reynolds is in a mirror role, and that the forced association of the two protagonists is very reminiscent of the agreement imposed between Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson.
There is ultimately not much to add on Red Notice. Rawson’s film Marshall Thurber is presented as a classic spy comedy, with no other ambition than to entertain the whole family, via well-known strings of this kind of cinema. It is obviously not a masterpiece of the seventh art, but it is not shameful either. It’s just a little too long but often very endearing.
Red Notice by Rawson Marshall Thurber on Netflix from November 12, 2021. Above the trailer. Find all our trailers here.
