Red Notice – Film Review
by Fran Winston

Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Ritu Arya, Chris Diamantopoulos

Available on Netflix Friday 12th November

A Red Notice is a global alert from Interpol to hunt and capture the world’s most wanted. In this case, the world’s greatest art thief, known as The Bishop (Gadot). In his hunt for this elusive mastermind, the FBI’s top profiler John Hartley (Johnson) finds himself forced to work with the second-best art thief in the world Noah Booth (Reynolds). But with the pair unable to agree on anything The Bishop remains one step ahead of them.

This is the biggest project ever undertaken by Netflix and did have a cinema release in the US, although it is only available on the streamer everywhere else. Boasting a glamourous, high profile cast and exotic locations, it would definitely benefit from a big-screen viewing. It feels reductive to watch such a spectacle on your laptop or tablet.

It is extremely slick and does have a nice twist that, although predictable, still leaves you somewhat slack-jawed. Indeed, it is as if director Thurber read “action movies by numbers”. It is just a shame that all these ingredients don’t add up to a more spectacular movie.

It’s not the casts’ fault. They have great chemistry. Although Reynolds is pretty much playing Reynolds, which seems to be his stock in trade these days. Mind you that suits this cheeky chappy art thief character and I could absolutely see him in a remake of Raffles (you can have that idea for free, Hollywood).

It is an entertaining film but it just always feels like it is lacking something. Part of the problem is that there’s nothing new or unexpected here. It ticks all the boxes you would expect but so do plenty of other films with a fraction of the budget. Perhaps I was expecting too much given the calibre of the talent. Either way, it falls short of expectations.