Lift

All that money, all that talent, all that distribution. The only thing Netflix's movie making adventure lack is heart.

Like most of their other offerings, this apparent movie lacks soul, spirit, whatever you want to call it. Its not there.

They spent a fortune on the talent and the production values, but apparently they don't care much about the actual script.

F. Gary Gray has clearly decided that he'd rather have a paycheque than make a good movie. This stinker continues along the same lines as everything else that he's made since the Italian Job.

Seriously, this movie is so bad I wanted to call up Netflix customer service and ask for my subscription fee back. Oh wait, they don't have any customer service.

Bad movie. Not even suitable for when you're stoned.

If you are frequently critical of things not making sense in movies, Lift is not for you. Me personally, if I'm not enjoying a movie, I become critical of all its flaws. But if the movie is entertaining me, I can overlook a lot.

And that's exactly what happened with Lift. I won't argue about how "good" it is. But I was thoroughly entertained. It's a fun movie with charming actors playing likeable characters. The action scenes are all enjoyable. And it has a solid musical score.

Lift was a pleasant surprise. I mostly hate straight-to-streaming movies. I just came off of an abysmal one with Amazon's Role Play. Luckily this was endlessly more enjoyable.

(1 viewing, 1/12/2024)

Cyrus (Kevin Hart) leads a team of high tech thieves. His one-time fling Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is the pursuing Interpol art agent. Her superior Huxley (Sam Worthington) offers him immunity if he steals $500 million in gold. Evil criminal Jorgenson (Jean Reno) has to transfer that much to hacker group Leviathan to take over the water infrastructure of the world.

Kevin Hart is being cool Kevin Hart instead of the usual manic clown Kevin Hart. I like this for him. Generally, I like most of the cast. On the other hand, the story is one of those written by A. I. It has ridiculous turns, ridiculous technobabble, and a ridiculous caper. As long as one is willing to live with the ridiculous, this is a light forgettable escapist time.

Have we not seen this type of heist film a million times before? Bad guys catch a break from law enforcement only if they do the police's dirty work for them with a big heist or job. Only for the criminals to steal the prized, priceless artifact (or the loot) at the end and then they get away with it.

Lift is no different. If we were to combine Ocean's 11 with the Fast & Furious franchise, then Lift would be that end product. Only Kevin Hart isn't even as charming as George Clooney or as smooth as Brad Pitt. Dare I say even Vin Diesel is better casted in these types of roles than Kevin Hart. Was Hart terrible? No. But he certainly did not match the acting of his counterpart and love interest, Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha-Raw, who I feel was wasted in her by-the-numbers Interpol agent-turned criminal a la Brian O'Conner from F&F films. She looked stunning though as always.

Jean Reno plays the bad guy but, seriously, we're so used to seeing him in these types of films that his presence in the film holds no weight. He's a decent actor and he's typecasted for these types of roles because he plays them well. BUT, again, it just seemed like more of the same with him as the bad guy in a heist or espionage film now where I can't even get invested in the plot cause I'm so tired of seeing him in these roles.

Anyway, Lift itself was not that bad but it's biggest sin is we have seen this plot seems like 1,000,000 times before to the point where it just gets boring. I will probably forget all about this movie by the end of the week.

One bright spot is F Gary Gary did a great job shooting the film. For the most part, it looks great. The opening scenes of Venice were breathtaking and almost makes up for the rest of the film. But the plot to highjack a plane full of gold instead of doing it on the street is just so dumb and implausible that it makes the movie dead on arrival.

As usual, an expensive cast can't help with a poor script of less than B-grade quality. Kevin Hart is mis-cast and has zero charisma as the supposed leader of an elite team of art thieves. A few other names show up but have little to do.

Action is kind of feeble, except for the initial Venice boat chase which is just OK. The actual plot, such as it is, makes very little sense, and seems essentially random.

Even my wife, who is very tolerant for basic fun movies, was openly mocking the ridiculous and predictable script by the end.

Yes, it's another half-hearted by the numbers effort by Netflix. No, it's really not worth your time. I regretted watching it.