6 Underground: Ryan Reynolds’ gross-out thriller does world no favours
This confused, repetitive and derivative screenplay cannibalises everybody from Quentin Tarantino to Reynolds himself.
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6 UNDERGROUND
Two stars
Director: Michael Bay
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Melanie Laurent, Corey Hawkins
Rating: MA15+
Running time: 127 minutes
Verdict: Ugly and confused
MICHAEL Bay and Ryan Reynolds must surely have seen the images from Abu Ghraib. And yet they’re still prepared to argue that the US has been unnecessarily restricted in its war against evil by nitpicking niceties such as rules of engagement and international war
crimes treaties.
6 Underground, a jingoistic vigilante action movie with a weapons arsenal that would put a small nation to shame, tells the story of a filthy rich “philanthropist,” who rather than sinking his billions into humanitarian projects, like Bill Gates, has hand-picked a hit squad to help him take down his own personal list of bad guys and thus make the world a better place.
Frustrated by his inability to make a difference through official channels, One (Reynolds) fakes his own death in order to go off grid.
The pig-headed “ghost” then carefully selects a bunch of similarly damaged individuals — a doctor (Adria Arjona), an ice queen and former CIA agent (Melanie Laurent), an erratic Colombian assassin (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), a freerunning thief (Ben Hardy) and a crack sniper (Corey Hawkins) — to help him execute his ambitious plan.
To bring down a vicious despot who is so heartless he is prepared to use chemical weapons on his own people (no prizes for guessing the geographical location we are operating in here), One intends to stage a coup in which he will replace the incumbent tyrant with his brother, who is much more progressive (and that tactic has worked so very well for the US in the past).
The complicated set-up, spanning three continents, allows Bay to deliver a series of impressive set pieces, including a pedal-to-the-metal car chase through the streets of Florence that winds up circling Michelangelo’s statue of David in the Uffizi gallery, and an extraordinarily explosive sequence at the top of a Hong Kong skyscraper involving a glass-walled swimming pool.
No one is questioning Bay’s skills as an action choreographer, but 6 Underground’s confused, repetitive and derivative screenplay cannibalises everybody from Quentin Tarantino to Reynolds himself.
One shares a number of key traits with Deadpool’s self-hating superhero, which might be explained by the fact that both films were penned by long-time collaborators Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese.
From multiple decapitations to gouged eyeballs and an extreme slo-mo shot of a mouthful of bloody teeth flying across the room, 6 Underground never misses the opportunity to provoke a grossed-out groan.
Collateral damage is wanton and extreme — only small dogs and babies appear to be off limits.
If One was serious about doing the world a favour, he would have nixed this project before it got off the ground. Even 6 Underground’s best feature — the visual effects — will be somewhat diluted on the small screen.
Now showing on Netflix
Originally published as 6 Underground: Ryan Reynolds’ gross-out thriller does world no favours