Red Notice (4/10)
by Tony Medley
117 minutes.
PG-13.
I guess this is intended as a buddy comedy. But the buddies, Dwayne Johnson, known as The Rock, and Ryan Reynolds, have little chemistry and the lines they are given to utter are fey, at best, certainly not very funny.
John Hartley (Johnson) is some kind of agent apparently after Nolan Booth (Reynolds) who is called the world’s best jewel thief. Let’s stop here. Cary Grant played a jewel thief in To Catch a Thief (1956) and he was dapper, debonair and believable. Reynolds is none of those. But, let’s face it, realism is the last thing to concern anybody connected with this film.
Even though they are apparently on both sides of the fence, the movie would have you believe that they partner up to steal one of Cleopatra’s eggs (don’t ask me). Enter The Bishop (Gal Gadot) who apparently also has the same goal. They have to find it and then abscond with it. It’s apparently a competition between Hartley and Booth on one side and The Bishop on the other.
Reynolds tries his best to put some oomph into the film and he can get and “A” for effort, but Johnson and Gadot just seem to be punching a clock, and who could blame them with this script by Rawson Marshall Thurber, who also directed, so he can take all the blame/credit for this thing that has enough plotholes to overflow a community swimming pool. “Frivolous” doesn’t do this justice.
Netflix claims that it has been watched for more than 148 million hours! Go figure. That doesn’t say much for what Netflix is offering its viewers.
Tony Medley is an attorney, columnist, and MPAA-accredited film critic whose reviews and articles may be read in several newspapers and at rottentomatoes.com, CWEB.com, RobinhoodNews.com, Movie Review Query Engine (mrqe.com), and at www.tonymedley.com. His most recent book is “Learn to Play Bridge Like a Boss,” the most complete “all in one” book for beginners and also for advanced players. He is also the author of three books, UCLA Basketball: The Real Story, Sweaty Palms: The Neglected Art of Being Interviewed, the first book ever written on the interview for the interviewee and still in print after more than thirty years, having sold over a half million copies, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Bridge, which has sold over 100,000 copies. He is an American Contract Bridge League Silver Life Master and an ACBL accredited director.
