Look, sometimes there are just some movies that you watch without hopes or expectations, and “Red Notice” definitely falls into that category.
And honestly, I find myself having such a mindset when Ryan Reynolds is involved in anything.
Red Notice leans heavily into the comedic aspect of its “action-comedy” style and is unapologetic in not taking itself seriously.
All I can say is turn off your brain and prepare yourself for Reynolds to run his mouth in his usual hilarious and often ill-timed dialogues.
Red Notice is an action comedy film written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber.
It stars Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Ritu Arya, and Chris Diamantopoulos.
The film marks the third collaboration between Thurber and Johnson following Central Intelligence (2016) and Skyscraper (2018) and the second collaboration between Johnson and Reynolds following Hobbs & Shaw (2019).
Red Notice clocks in at 118 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for violence and action, some sexual references, and strong language.
Two thousand years ago, Marcus Antonius gave Cleopatra three bejeweled eggs as a wedding gift symbolizing his devotion.
The eggs were lost to time until two are found by a farmer in 1907, the third remaining lost.
In 2021, Special Agent John Hartley (Johnson), a criminal profiler for the FBI is assigned to assist Interpol agent Urvashi Das (Arya) in investigating the theft of one of the eggs kept on display at the Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome.
He determines the egg on display is a forgery and the real egg has been stolen, so Das has the room locked down.
However, before the room is sealed shut, international art thief Nolan Booth (Reynolds) manages to escape, pursued by Hartley.
Booth eventually escapes to his home in Bali with the egg, but finds Hartley waiting for him, along with Das and an Interpol strike team.
They arrest Booth and take the egg into custody.
Unbeknownst to anyone else, Booth’s main competition, Sarah Black AKA “The Bishop” (Gadot), is disguised as one of the strike team members and swaps the real egg with another forgery in the back of the vehicle.
The next day, Das confronts Hartley believing he’s responsible for the egg’s theft.
As a result, she has him incarcerated in a remote Russian prison in the same cell as Booth.
Shortly after arrival, they are brought to Black where she proposes to Booth they work together to find the third egg, revealing to Hartley that Booth does in fact know of its whereabouts.
Booth declines her modest offer, and she departs stating she’ll find the second egg; when she does, she warns that his share will be less.
Hartley suggests that he and Booth work together to beat Black.
If Booth helps him imprison Black then Booth will take her place as the No. 1 art thief in the world and clear Hartley’s name.
Watching Reynolds and Johnson’s characters try not to kill each other and creating a tentative friendship based on revenge is the best part of this movie.
Be prepared for an interesting twist at the end of the film – I don’t want to spoil it, but, it’s pretty easy to spot.
Aside from that, catch “Red Notice” streaming on Netflix now and buckle in for plenty of laughs.
