Ironically for a movie that’s all about twists, turns, cons and double-crosses, Rawson Marshall Thurber’s Red Notice is rather lacking in surprises. And we mean that in the nicest possible way.
Story-wise it is a patchwork pastiche of To Catch A Thief, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Bond, with a bit of National Treasure and Raiders Of The Lost Ark thrown in for good measure (Ryan Reynolds even whistles the Raiders theme at one point). Featuring a frantic museum foot-chase, a prison break from a mountain-top fortress, and a hi-tech heist at an überswanky villains’ masked ball, it hits all the spy/crime-caper/archaeological-adventure beats you’d expect.
Meanwhile, its main selling point is the charismasplosive double act of Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds, and neither deviates even a micron from his long-established and widely beloved on-screen persona. As the wrongfully accused art-crime-specialist fed, Johnson is steadfast and serious, hiding a big, warm heart beneath those bigger, hard pecs. Reynolds riffs and wisecracks as the glib thief, tossing around probably improv’d one-liners, often delivered at comedy-whisper level. Occasionally, they loosen the bromantic banter (served with an eye-rolling side-order of daddy-issue confiding) to make way for Gal Gadot as wily antagonist The Bishop. But while she’s always seemingly a step ahead of them and clearly more capable, Gadot remains a supporting player amid all the film’s globetrotting antics, only popping up every now and again to mess with their plans and join in a set-piece. This is firmly The Dwayne ’N’ Ryan Show.
Though flawed, *Red Notice* is a solid blast of lightweight fun.
So it’s very familiar territory, whether you’re a fan of the genre or the stars. Thanks to those stars’ incredible likeability, it’s comfort-viewing primarily, with Johnson and Reynolds bickering and battling in a variety of exotic locations, including Rome, Bali, Valencia, and a jungle (Johnson’s sixth now?) in Argentina. Despite reaching for Bond/Indy-like levels of international activity, however, the film suffers from a visually unexciting sense of being soundstage-bound and wrapped in green screens. It’s packed with visual effects and they really do show, from ersatz explosions to a few obvious digital doubles which have no truck with the laws of gravity. This creates a level of artificiality which significantly lowers the stakes, making it feel like less a world-spanning adventure than a knockabout in a really expensive playground.
Writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber is a better maker of comedies (Dodgeball, We’re The Millers) than he is action movies (the Johnson-fronted Skyscraper), so it’s as a comedy that Red Notice works best. And given this is his third collaboration with The Rock (the first being another kinetic buddy pic, Central Intelligence), he knows how to get the best out of his big leading man. Which is to just let him get on with doing what everyone loves him doing — while teaming him up with someone who’s also left to play to his strengths. Though flawed, Red Notice is at least a solid blast of lightweight fun. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
