Red Notice

Amongst Netflix's diverse collection of films, there not been a more obvious attempt at a crowd pleaser than 2021s action adventure flick, Red Notice, which stars Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot. Channelling a lot of inspiration from the Indiana Jones films, Rawson Marshall Thurber directs Red Notice and the film has proven to be successful enough for Netflix to greenlight several more sequels but will they be worth your time? Let's start with what we have here. 

The story followers Johnson's Interpol agent trying to an ancient Egyptian artefact in Rome but an art thief, played by Reynolds, catches it and thus the chase begins with a couple of twists and turns along the way. With a script that hardly pushes its cast, yet managing to play to all of their strengths, Red Notice delivers exactly what you will come to expect after just a few minutes into the film and it generally does it well.

Visually it is bright and colourful, despite always being undercut by iffy studio lighting and greenscreens that give the film a fake feeling, the story moves along with a steady pace as we get to see Reynolds and Johnson play-off against each other that all works fairly well. The action is fun too and all goes in hand to produce a fun experience but it won't stick in the mind long after watching.

Red Notice knows exactly what it is and will be an easy watch if you're in search of some light entertainment that comes in just under the two hour mark. There's nothing remarkable here, Reynolds is playing Reynolds as is the case with Johnson, but as a dumb guilty pleasure, I had fun here and can put it in the recommendation category if an action adventure comedy is your thing.