Red Notice review: Heist movie for dummies

There’s no need to use your brain at all in Netflix’s starry action blockbuster which may as well be subtitled, “heist movie for dummies”.

Netflix knows that if they promote a feature with big movie stars, its members are going to click.

Just take a look at their top 10 most watched original films – unlike the TV side, the streamer’s most popular movies nearly all feature bankable marquee stars.

Think Chris Hemsworth in Extraction, Adam Sandler in Murder Mystery, Sandra Bullock in Bird Box and Mark Wahlberg in Spenser Confidential.

It doesn’t matter if they’re any good (they are not), what matters is that movie stars sell, especially when those audiences don’t have to pay extra for it.

That’s the only way to explain Red Notice, an action blockbuster that reportedly cost $US200 million to make, which would stack as Netflix’s most expensive film production yet.

It stars not one but three glittering celebrities whose images will be splashed across the featured tile on your interface – the self-satisfied faces of Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot.

And Red Notice is – quelle surprise – not good.

Red Notice: Heist movie for dummies. Picture: Frank Masi/Netflix

A bloated, smug and wholly predictable enterprise that relies solely on its star power, Red Notice should be subtitled “Heist movie for dummies”.

It’s not that Red Notice is offensively unwatchable, but it treats its viewers like mugs who have never before seen an action comedy with a heist element, overexplaining things that are already obvious.

At every opportunity, it points to neon signs that scream, “Look here, look how we tricked you, let’s flashback to things that you’ve already figured out! We’re so smart, you’re so dumb!”

Take for example, its laboured attempts to deconstruct the genre – a play-by-play plan in which Reynolds’ character refers to the guards as “featured extras” or immediately whistling the Indiana Jones theme five seconds into a jungle scene.

Gal Gadot as thief, The Bishop. Picture: Frank Masi/Netflix

All that shouting means Red Notice is completely forgettable the moment the credits roll but it even disengages the viewer during the film with its propensity to spoonfeed. Why think about it at all when Red Notice forces you not to?

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, the film is as lazy as it assumes its viewers are.

In the film, Ryan Reynolds’ master art thief Nolan Booth forms an unlikely alliance with FBI profiler John Hartley (Johnson), when they go up against a rival thief, The Bishop (Gadot), in the hunt for the legendary golden eggs of Cleopatra.

It’s a globetrotting adventure that takes in Italy, Bali, London, Russia and Argentina, in grand scenarios that have the hallmarks of an epic heist movie. But even with all that money splashed across the screen, Red Notice is flat and tired.

The only time the movie comes alive is during the fight scenes. Picture: Frank Masi/Netflix

While Reynolds quips his way through the film, dialling up the snark to at least an eight, Johnson and Gadot are phoning it in anytime they’re not punching, kicking or stabbing someone. At least some of the fight choreography is occasionally thrilling.

It’s also the second Netflix heist movie in as many weeks – the other being Army of Thieves – in which an overzealous Interpol agent ends up being an antagonist.

Red Notice will undoubtedly soar in Netflix’s daily top 10 lists, as all the big star vehicles do, but don’t kid yourself into equating that ranking with something worthy of the top spot.

Rating: 2/5

Red Notice is in cinemas now and on Netflix from Friday, November 12 at 7pm AEDT

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Originally published as Red Notice review: Heist movie for dummies