Red Notice is a suspenseful action comedy directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber featuring stars
such as Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson (Agent John Hartley) and Ryan Reynolds (Nolan Booth). The movie’s
main plot is centered around the hunt for Cleopatra’s three eggs but the last egg is missing and no one
knows its whereabouts. Well, one person does; the “world greatest art thief,” also known as Nolan
Booth (Ryan Reynolds) who is notorious for getting caught in crimes and evading the police. Booth faces
two major problems; FBI behavioral profiler Agent John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) is set out to arrest
Booth and the bishop (Gal Gadot) is challenging his position as the “world’s greatest art thief.” Booth
finds himself in an unexpected partnership to help find and steal the great Cleopatra’s eggs on a tight
deadline.
Aside from the plot, there were some choices made in directing that both hurt and helped the
movie. The camera work and lighting were nothing special and never helped to move the story along
and they lacked complex and visually captivating scenes. Although, on the other hand, this may have
been exactly what the director wanted because Red Notice consisted of the classic cheesy action movie plot that Ryan Rynolds is notorious for. This added to a sense of irony that made the whole movie more
light hearted, so even the “serious” scenes weren’t necessarily profoundly serious.
The movie used multiple pop-culture references that were incredibly hard to miss when there
was almost one in every scene. However, the best part was the references were never exclusive to just
one generation so when viewers are watching, people of all ages can understand the jokes which are
always delivered creatively through the main comic relief character, Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynold).
Now the acting on the other hand was nothing special, this does not mean bad by any sense,
just not knock your socks off. And again, you can tell many of the actors played into the almost cheesy
type of style of acting that comes with these types of action-comedy films. Ryan Reynolds performance
was very fitting for him and will remind viewers of his other roles such as Deadpool from the Movie
Deadpool. He plays heavily into the classic jokester that adds to the nonchalant confident man that is
always cracking a joke, even in the worst situations.
Red Notice ends with an incredibly shocking plot twist that comes out of the left field, and no
one will be surprised to hear that a second Red Notice will be put into works. This movie has it plus sides
and its down sides but it doesn’t take away from the fact that it was incredibly funny and still a very
entertaining and suspenseful plot. This movie will leave everyone watching wanting to see more of the comedy duo and their plans for crime. I rate this movie 7/10.
Katie Lind // Staff Writer
