Red Notice – Movie Review

Long time no see! We’re back! I swear we’re back now. We’ve been crazy busy and been to London on a well earned break this month so, now that we’ve got the holidays out of the way, it’s time to get back to what we do best. This time it’s a movie review of Netflix’s newest hit movie, Red Notice. So let’s watch the trailer and then we’ll get into the nitty gritty of the movie but as always we can’t ensure there will be no spoilers.

So, Red Notice is Netflix’s new action comedy release starring Ryan Reynolds, Gal Godot and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson which is already extremely popular on the streaming service. Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, Red Notice follows John Hartley (Johnson), an FBI agent, who has to team up with art thief, Nolan Booth (Reynolds), as the try to find and steal the Eggs of Cleopatra in order to beat a notorious art thief known as The Bishop (Gadot) and clear Hartley’s name. The film received a limited theatrical release before appearing on Netflix on the 12th of November. The movie ranked in Netflix’s weekly Top 10 charts in 94 countries and, with tentative rumours of a sequel appearing, it seems Hartley, Booth and The Bishop may be returning to our screens in the near future.

The movie introduces us to our two main characters, John Hartley and Nolan Booth, who are immediately at odds with one another. Hartley is an FBI profiler who has warned Interpol that art thief, Nolan Booth, is going to attempt to steal the Egg of Cleopatra that is on display in an Italian museum. The heist does indeed take place and leads to a chase scene through the scaffolding in the museum and sees Booth escape to his hideaway with the Egg. There he comes face to face with Hartley who has tracked him down and Booth is subsequently arrested and Hartley is left in charge of the Egg. The Egg, which was returned to Interpol, turns out to be a fake and Hartley is informed that his FBI credentials are fake as well and he is accused of stealing the Egg and arrested. While in prison, both Hartley and Booth are taken to the warden’s office where they meet The Bishop, an art thief of such notoriety that they are described as a myth by the likes of Interpol. The Bishop explains that she fully intends to find all three Eggs, having taken the real Egg stolen from the museum from right under the FBI and Interpol’s noses, in order to claim the 300 million reward on offer for bringing them together in time for a wedding hosted by an Egyptian billionaire buyer. Hartley must escape prison with Booth and attempt to prevent The Bishop from stealing the other Eggs by stealing them first in order to prove his innocence. But, with the last Egg supposedly lost years ago, can the duo manage to prevent The Bishop from succeeding?

Professional critics seem to have slated the movie but, when it comes to the actual viewers, the movie has received varied reviews. I would recommend that you don’t go into the movie looking to scrutinize the plot too closely. It’s just a bit of globe trotting, art stealing comedy fun and Ryan Reynolds, as always, brings a heaping helping of sarcasm, wit and humour to the movie with sassy one liners while opposite serious and stoic Johnson which creates the ideal conditions for a buddy movie odd couple. Reynolds isn’t solely responsible for the laughs as a fantastic Ed Sheeran cameo does give you some laughs as well. Honestly, it’s National Treasure, Catch Me If You Can and a bit of Indiana Jones all blended into one movie which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Action scenes are well choreographed and look slick which is a bit different from the high impact violence some movie watchers have been offered lately. The key thing with this movie is never to take it too seriously. Gal Gadot doesn’t get nearly as much screen time as I thought she would but when she does make an appearance she does well as the villainess of our movie. The movie never over complicates the plot but there are still some brilliant plot twists in there to keep you entertained as you watch. It does pause at points to dump chunks of plot relevant information but, thankfully, these moments don’t last overly long. Red Notice is by no means flawless but still worth a watch for the entertainment value and laughs. It’s available now to stream on Netflix.