red notice movie review guardian

International edition
Australia edition
Europe edition

Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds in Netflix's Red Notice

Red Notice review – raiders and the lost arc

Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds find some loot but lose the plot in Netflix’s lavish yarn about an FBI art thief hunt

N azi-plundered artefacts, globe-hopping glitz and numerous nail-biting escapes from seemingly impossible situations: on paper, Red Notice could pass as an adequate Raiders of the Lost Ark -inspired romp. But the film, which stars a grumpy and unusually charmless Dwayne Johnson as an FBI profiler on the trail of Ryan Reynolds’s insufferably smug art thief and Gal Gadot’s slinky criminal mastermind, is so concerned with knitting together a mess of double-crosses and false endings that it loses the propulsive drive and excitement of the films it imitates.

Reportedly the most expensive Netflix original production to date, Red Notice would have benefited if some of its $200m budget had been spent on untangling the screenplay.

In cinemas 5 November, on Netflix 12 November

Action and adventure films
The Observer
Dwayne Johnson (The Rock)
Ryan Reynolds

Comments (…)

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, black writers week.

Now streaming on:

Rawson Marshall Thurber ’s “Red Notice” should work on paper. It’s got a charismatic cast sent globe-hopping to beautiful places on a treasure hunt straight out of an “Indiana Jones” movie. How could it go wrong? Well, for starters, Thurber and everyone involved forgot a little thing called personality. Rarely have I seen a movie that feels more processed by a machine, a product for a content algorithm instead of anything approaching artistic intent or even an honest desire to entertain. And while there have been quality blockbusters produced by the Hollywood machine for generations (I miss those days), it feels like we’re increasingly reaching the point where they are so calculated and programmed that the human element is completely drained from them, making them as disposable as a fast food cheeseburger. Worst of all, that “content” approach is pulling the life from stars who have shown so much of it in the past. When the poster for “Red Notice” was released, most people lamented its Photoshopped, bland nature. They didn’t realize how honestly it captured the movie.

Thurber, the director of “ Central Intelligence ” and “ Skyscraper ” (two movies I enjoyed enough on their own terms, for the record), reunites with his muse, Dwayne Johnson , who plays the FBI’s top profiler John Hartley. The film opens with an awkwardly inserted info dump about three coveted eggs that were once the property of Cleopatra. Only two have been discovered, making the missing golden egg into a Holy Grail for treasure hunters, including one of the world’s most notorious criminals Nolan Booth ( Ryan Reynolds ). In the film’s relatively effective opening sequence, Hartley catches Booth trying to steal one of the eggs, inadvertently tying the two for the rest of the film into a classic buddy comedy dynamic—the muscle guy and the fast talker. They battle the authorities, a few bad guys, and another criminal mastermind nicknamed The Bishop ( Gal Gadot ) as they bounce around the world, trying to obtain all three eggs and sell them to the highest bidder.

Films like “ Raiders of the Lost Ark ” and “ National Treasure ” were clear inspirations on “Red Notice” but to say this movies lacks the identity of great action/adventure movies would be an understatement. Thurber’s direction seems to have been simply to put Reynolds, Johnson, and Gadot on camera and allow their screen presence and familiar techniques to carry the story, and one can literally see the weight of that on their shoulders. Johnson has never been this wooden, unable to find the hero or everyman in a non-character. He needs to figure out what's next because he seems to be tired of parts like this one and he's too charismatic to convey tired for the next chapter of his career. Reynolds makes out a little better, but you can almost see him growing weary of his attempts at witty schtick as more of his attempts at humor thud than usual. It feels like everyone thought casting would be all it took to make “Red Notice” charming and then forgot to give their actors charming things to actually do. Oh, there’s a lot of running and a lot of banter, but it starts to blend into cinematic paste.

People have lamented the growing sensation that Netflix increasingly makes product that’s designed to be watched with a phone in your hand, and I’m not sure I’ve ever felt this more strongly than while watching “Red Notice.” Made for $200 million, none of that fortune was spent on anything that retains a human touch—it’s the iPhone app of action movies. Look up and see a beautiful person in a beautiful place running or shooting something—go back to your phone. While there are some truly goofy and yet somehow predictable twists, there’s almost no real story here, certainly not a memorable one. And the settings, while often gorgeous, somehow lack personality too. Even the title sounds like something grabbed out of an Action Movie Screenwriter program.

So much money, so much charm, so much movie, and yet it adds up to so very little. “Red Notice” is as disposable a movie as you’ll see this year, something that most Netflix subscribers will have trouble remembering exists weeks later. It sets up a potential franchise in its final scenes (because of course it does)—let’s hope everyone involved forgets about that too.

In theaters tonight, November 4 th . On Netflix on November 12 th .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Now playing

The Young Wife

Inside Out 2

Robert daniels.

Clint Worthington

In a Violent Nature

The Blue Angels

Matt zoller seitz.

Back to Black

Peyton robinson, film credits.

Red Notice (2021)

Rated PG-13 for violence and action, some sexual references, and strong language.

116 minutes

Dwayne Johnson as John Hartley

Ryan Reynolds as Nolan Booth

Gal Gadot as Sarah Black

Ritu Arya as Inspector Urvashi Das

Chris Diamantopoulos as Sotto Voce

Rawson Marshall Thurber
Michael L. Sale
Julian Clarke

Cinematographer

Markus Förderer
Steve Jablonsky

Latest blog posts

Apple TV+'s Land of Women is Pretty and Pleasant

The Most Intriguing Festival Films Still Seeking U.S. Distribution

Suicide by Proxy: An Interview With the Filmmakers of The Devils' Bath

Furiosa Doesn't Feel Like Any Other Mad Max Film, and That's What's Wonderful About It

Supported by

‘Red Notice’ Review: When the Stars Don’t Shine

This globe-trotting heist thriller starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot is yet another vacant bid at franchise creation.

Share full article

‘Red Notice’ | Anatomy of a Scene

Rawson marshall thurber narrates a sequence from his film..

“Hi, I’m Rawson Marshall Thurber. I’m the writer/director of Red Notice.” “He knows what he’s doing.” “Red Notice opens with John Hartley, an FBI profiler played by Dwayne Johnson, arriving at the Castle Sant’Angelo Museum to try to stop Nolan Booth, played by Ryan Reynolds, from stealing a priceless egg. So John Hartley has come in, and he’s realized that this egg is probably not the real one. And he decides to prove it by grabbing a nearby soda and pouring it on top of the egg and watching as the egg melts in front of his eyes. And the moment he does, he spots Nolan Booth, Ryan Reynolds, take off. And that begins our chase. I wanted to start the movie off with a bang, and I thought a foot chase through the museum might be a fun way to do it. Because of some of the restrictions put on us from the pandemic, we couldn’t leave Atlanta. So we had to build the entire museum on a soundstage in Atlanta. We had an incredible production design team led by Andy Nicholson, Academy Award nominee. And he and his team built the entire museum inside. And if you watch the sequence, Ryan and Dwayne chase each other through hallways. And oftentimes what we would do is have them run through one hallway, and then overnight, we would change it over to look like a different hallway, and they’d run back the other way. And if you didn’t know it, you wouldn’t know it. It’s part of movie magic. So we kept reusing the sets over and over, rebuilding them, redressing them, and got ourselves a pretty cool foot chase to start things off. On top of which, we wanted to add some dynamic camera movement to the opening chase. So not only were we in a handheld mode, but we also added a piece of technology that is not used very often. We used a tiny little camera called a Komodo Cam, created by the Red Digital camera system. And it’s about the size of a tissue box, and we attached that camera to a race drone. And we chased Ryan and Dwayne through our sets as they ran hither and thither, and it got us some pretty great shots. As you’ll see, certainly when Ryan comes into the big scaffolding room and he goes running and jumps over the table, the camera that follows him and chases him all the way up onto the scaffolding is our Komodo Cam, our race drone operated by the world renowned Johnny FPV I wanted the chase to be fun. I wanted it to be fast. I wanted to show Ryan’s character, Nolan Booth, that he’s someone who out-thinks problems. He would rather trick you than try to punch you. And so what I liked about the scaffolding sequence is that Nolan Booth never throws a punch. Ryan never throws a punch. He’s bobbing and weaving, ducking and dodging and using his wits to outsmart the security guards trying to chase him. And to me, that’s much more fun than simply pulling out a gun and shooting at people. We had a great stunt team that started to design the actual sequence in terms of the pratfalls and the gags. At the end of the sequence, Ryan pulls a final pin, and the entire scaffolding collapses. What we had to do is, of course, shoot every single piece of it before we collapsed the scaffolding. And then overnight, our special effects team and rigging technicians set the scaffolding to blow and fall. And then you set up about eight or nine cameras, because you really only want to do this once. And then everybody gets safe, and on the count of three, they hit the button, and the whole thing collapses. And we got it in one take.”

By Beatrice Loayza

At some point between Dwayne Johnson’s early years as a pro-wrestler and his rise to becoming one of the highest-paid actors in the biz today, something about him fizzled out. The action star rose because of his cocky charm and the ease with which he imparted a leonine intensity, shifting to softy mode at the drop of a hat. When Hollywood began relying increasingly on green screens, Johnson stood out, larger-than-life, against muddy digital backdrops of crumbling cities and candy-colored jungles. Yet I find myself missing the days when his eyebrows did all the work.

Case in point: “Red Notice,” the actor’s latest collaboration with the writer and director Rawson Marshall Thurber (“Skyscraper,” “Central Intelligence”). In this Netflix adventure movie about cops and art thieves in search of a rare treasure, Johnson goes through the motions with none of the pizazz. He’s practically dead-eyed, as if his soul has been sapped by the corporate overlords who roll out mediocrity after mediocrity with his name on the marquee. Our eyes gravitate toward him, though lately only for one good reason: he’s massive. Cue a completely out-of-the-blue face-off with a raging bull. (Yes this happens.)

Thing is, we already know he’s the biggest and toughest there ever was. Johnson knows this as well. His unwillingness to break with this persona has begun to feel played out, not least of all because he seems bored doing it.

In the film, Johnson plays John Hartley, an FBI profiler forced to team up with the expert art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) when he is framed by “The Bishop” (Gal Gadot), a rival art thief with a penchant for sabotage. Together they form a triumvirate of stereotypes: the lawful strongman, the cunning jester and the femme fatale. Constant rug-pullings complicate this equation, though not in any genuinely surprising ways — the performances are too sleepy and perfunctory to pull off the film’s many tricks and double-crossings with any flair or umph. And then there’s the script, which turns Reynolds into a cursed generator of lame quips. Listen closely and you might even hear notes of regret in his delivery.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

Want all of The Times? Subscribe .

an image, when javascript is unavailable

‘Red Notice’ Review: Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot Compete in an Elaborate Easter Egg Hunt

Rawson Marshall Thurber delivers a dumb-fun race between crooks and cops to locate three artifacts once belonging to Cleopatra.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

‘I Am: Celine Dion’ Review: The Canadian Diva Has Never Seemed Stronger Than She Does in Prime’s Revealing Doc 1 week ago
‘Flow’ Review: Latvian Animator Gints Zilbalodis Follows Mesmerizing ‘Away’ With an Endearing Cat’s Incredible Journey 1 week ago
‘Despicable Me 4’ Review: Illumination Adds a Baby and Five Mega Minions to Gru’s Already Overcrowded Family 2 weeks ago

Lifting its title from Interpol’s most-wanted list, “Dodgeball” director Rawson Marshall Thurber’s twisty treasure-hunt lark “ Red Notice ” blurs the lines between good guys and bad guys, and instead focuses on which of two notorious art thieves is better at breaking the law: sarcastic master forger Nolan Booth (a reliably whiny Ryan Reynolds ) or his upscale nemesis, known only as “the Bishop” (a more wine-and-diney Gal Gadot ).

Their goal is to collect three ornamental orbs — worth some $300 million, but only as a set — originally gifted from Anthony to Cleopatra, then scattered to the corners of the globe. While Booth and the Bishop ricochet around the world, engaging in what amounts to a high-stakes Easter egg hunt, criminal profiler John Hartley ( Dwayne Johnson ) tries to bring them in, making for a fun, fast-paced and frequently amusing divertissement. Released by Netflix first in theaters Nov. 5, then streaming for subscribers a week later, “Red Notice” works surprisingly well for what it is.

Popular on Variety

We’re squarely in ’80s and ’90s action-movie territory here, and Thurber (who took improbability to new heights with the Rock-starring “Skyscraper”) certainly knows how to deliver wild and well-choreographed fights, chases and other stunt-driven set-pieces. Take that first heist, when Booth runs through the museum, only to find himself cornered in a room with a giant metal scaffold, which he proceeds to unhook one pin at a time, until the whole thing comes crashing down. In so doing, Reynolds nimbly outwits his pursuers the way Jackie Chan might have back in the day.

The influence of Indiana Jones on Thurber’s splashy travelogue is undeniable. Also channeled are retro favorites like James Cameron’s “True Lies” (including a sexy tango in which a big lug in a tuxedo — Johnson, not Schwarzenegger, in this case — makes himself irresponsibly conspicuous while undercover). Even more fun than the retro action is the old-fashioned dynamic between these three frenemies, who must cautiously agree to work together in order to locate all of Cleopatra’s eggs. There’s an unmistakable screwball-comedy quality to the repartee, as unlikely partners Booth and Hartley bicker, or anytime the Bishop shows up and upstages the other two.

It’s been widely reported that on the “Deadpool” movies, Reynolds improvises (or otherwise comes prepared with) many of his jokes, and the snarky thief he plays here feels like an extension of irreverent cut-ups he’s embodied before. Naturally, that attitude ruptures whatever reality audiences are supposed to buy into, but it’s worth it, since his zingers so often land (e.g., describing a target’s always-watching, always-listening security as “kinda like Alexa with guns,” or tussling with Johnson, then dropping a perfectly timed, “This is such a confusing erection”).

Reynolds is one of the few contemporary leading men who can consistently get away with winking at the audience throughout a performance. Nearly everyone else in Hollywood is expected to act, or at least pretend to disappear into character. Along the same lines, no one buys Johnson as a mild-mannered FBI profiler (when Das tells him he doesn’t look the part, he responds with an appropriately weary “I get that a lot”), but it’s satisfying to suspend disbelief and see what the Rock will do with the role. Meanwhile, Gadot, who was propelled to A-list status by “Wonder Woman” just a few years ago, gets to demonstrate that she has a sense of humor, too, as the Bishop teases and torments the others.

Her nickname hails from chess, though watching “Red Notice” feels more like a really good game of checkers, where the players keep things lively by jumping several of their opponent’s pieces in a single turn. These three are constantly outsmarting one another, such that Cleopatra’s eggs change hands often, while cuffs frequently bind the wrong wrists. Booth and Hartley are stuck together enough that they have no choice but to try getting along, as the now-framed fed breaks countless laws in order to clear his name, while a bromance slowly builds between them.

Thurber has a peculiar take on the morality of all this art theft. The first heist takes place in a museum, but the next two are presented as essentially victimless crimes. The second egg belongs to a notorious arms dealer named Sotto Voce (Chris Diamantopoulos), while the third is stashed away in a secret Nazi bunker packed with stolen artifacts, so they’re essentially fair game. “Look for a box that says ‘MacGuffin,’” quips Reynolds, citing Hitchcock’s term for the otherwise-unimportant plot device that motivates a thriller. Once reunited, the three eggs don’t conjure some all-powerful laser beam from the sky (thank goodness, as that’s an even more tired cliché), but instead serve as the ultimate wedding present to a profligate billionaire’s spoiled daughter — and there’s a second surprise waiting to upstage the gift once the time comes.

It’s all reasonably clever, so long as you don’t scrutinize it too closely. “Red Notice” could be Thurber’s spin on “National Treasure,” with just as much DNA from the RKO classic “Gunga Din.” The writer-director proves plenty adept at coming up with excuses for these characters to infiltrate and escape elaborately protected locations, and though the movie relies a bit too much on cumbersome exposition (the film’s first minutes are some of the clunkiest the genre has ever seen), it moves quickly enough that most audiences won’t stumble into — or even stop to question — the plot’s many holes. Like a skilled con artist, the movie steals your time, but leaves you feeling like you got the more advantageous end of the deal.

Reviewed at Wilshire Screening Room, Los Angeles, Nov. 1, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 117 MIN.

Production: A Netflix release and presentation of a Seven Bucks, Flynn Picture Co., Bad Version production. Producers: Hiram Garcia, Dany Garcia, Rawson Marshall Thurber, Beau Flynn, Dwayne Johnson. Executive producers: Scott Sheldon, David B. Householter.
Crew: Director, writer: Rawson Marshall Thurber. Camera: Markus Förderer. Editors: Mike Sale, Julian Clarke. Music: Steve Jablonsky.
With: Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Rita Aryu, Chris Diamantopoulos.

More from Variety

‘ghost cat anzu’ review: made with rotoscope techniques, unusual anime plays like a sardonic relative to ‘spirited away’, price chart for leading subscription video streaming services: updated with new max prices, ‘julie keeps quiet’ review: a tight, poised belgian debut about the challenges of holding it together, ‘longing’ review: richard gere flounders as a businessman who discovers he fathered a son 19 years ago, peak tv: here’s how deep streamers cut originals output in 1h 2024, ‘bad actor: a hollywood ponzi scheme’ review: a dull documentary about a fascinating showbiz grifter, more from our brands, sixteen nobel prize-winning economists worried second trump term could ‘reignite’ inflation, michter’s is about to drop two new legacy series whiskeys for 2024, stanley cup final game 7 soars with 7.66 million viewers, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, the acolyte recap: the master’s identity revealed — plus, who died, verify it's you, please log in.

Netflix's Red Notice Review: A Slick And Funny Thriller That's Bursting At The Seams With Charisma

Rock, reynolds and gadot in movie-star mode..

Don’t feel bad for thinking you’ve seen Red Notice already. Hollywood churns out comedy-action hybrids of this ilk on a regular basis, oftentimes starring the three photogenic leads of this new Rawson Marshall Thurber film. Even the most discerning audience members can struggle to separate their Hitman’s Bodyguard films from their Central Intelligence , or their Keeping Up With the Joneses from the San Andreas . And don’t even get me started on the Fast & Furious spinoff, Hobbs & Shaw , which featured a Ryan Reynolds cameo in a Dwayne Johnson action joint. Worlds, colliding.

Slick and nimble Red Notice is the best version of those types of movies. Thurber wrote a globetrotting cops-and-robbers adventure that’s clever, sarcastic, and in-tune with his stylish direction, amplifying each joke to get their maximum effect. This movie is just legitimately cool. And when you see how cool it is, you recognize how many imitators try to capture the essence of all the things Red Notice is peddling, but fall woefully short.

Red Notice oozes high-octane charisma, from start to finish.

Red Notice plays like a good Michael Bay movie. (No, that’s not an oxymoron.) The story roars to life from its opening scenes, with Special Agent John Hartley ( The Rock ) racing to the scene of a possible crime where he hopes to prevent the world’s second-best art thief, Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) from obtaining an encrusted and highly lucrative Egg. There’s a nonsense back story involving Cleopatra, and the valuable heirloom given to her by Antony on their wedding day. It hardly matters, so long as the quest for the Egg keeps this bouncy story in perpetual motion. Thurber even writes in a sharp joke about the Egg being a MacGuffin, because Red Notice is keenly aware of its goals and expectations.

Red Notice amps up its star power a few more degree when it factors in a third leg of the charisma triangle. Gal Gadot , looking radiant as she tightens up her comedic timing, joins the fun as a mysterious thief known only as “The Bishop.” She, too, wants to abscond the Egg in question, and often finds herself both two steps ahead of Hartley and Booth, and two steps behind -- depending on where the script needs her to be.

Everything about Red Notice looks ridiculously good, starting with the cast. Reynolds, Johnson and Gadot are more than actors in this film. They are Movie Stars, polished to perfection and guided through a delightfully twisty and ridiculously fun treasure hunt that calls to mind the best elements of Natural Treasure , Jungle Cruise , and yes, the Indiana Jones franchise. Hallowed ground, without question, but Red Notice earns the right to stick its pin in the vicinity of Raiders of the Lost Ark on the massive map of Hollywood classics.

Red Notice is legitimately hilarious.

By now, you know Ryan Reynolds’ shtick. Whether he’s wearing his Deadpool costume, trying to stay alive alongside Samuel L. Jackson and Salma Hayek , or selling us Mint Mobile subscription plans, Reynolds has mastered his specific delivery. And when he clicks with the right on-screen partner, magic happens. The Rock becomes one of those partners in Red Notice , a sometimes stoic but equally fearless joke-spitter who -- like Reynolds -- knows exactly what he brings to a scene, and brings the best version of that every single time.

Even better, Rawson Marshall Thurber (as the writer and director) designs massive action set pieces for Red Notice that play directly into the types of personalities these three have refined over the course of their careers. The Rock sprints across a rope bridge that gets hit by a missile, sending him several feet into the air like a Looney Tunes character. Reynolds tries to break the glass on a weapons display, and fails, damaging his elbow. And Gadot, a veteran of DC Comics movies, is very much at home in all of the full-contact fight scenes that punctuate the extremely funny dialogue and surprising amounts of character development.

Red Notice cuts a few corners, preventing it from being a certified classic.

Red Notice ends up being far more fun and exciting than you might expect heading into it. It likely will generate the kind of passionate commitment that fans have to another stone-cold Rock classic, The Rundown , which is a gem in this genre. Red Notice would actually be a stone-cold classic if, like Steven Spielberg in his Indiana Jones days (a franchise Red Notice clearly adores), it went the extra mile to pull off its daring stunts practically instead of relying on inadequate green screen work in two or three of its most dramatic sequences. The fights are seamless. The chases are breakneck. But there are too many sequences where dodgy green-screen work (the bullfight…) distracts from the otherwise expertly choreographed action set pieces.

Thurber’s screenplay also suffers ever so slightly on an over-reliance on its empty MacGuffin, the three valuable “Eggs” that need to be stolen in order for our gorgeous leads to infiltrate… something or other. Poking fun at the predictability of the script helps reduce the sting, but Red Notice still relies on such cliche sequences as a prison fight, a sadistic torture scene, surprise backstabbing. The list goes on. Each one comes with a twist that keeps things interesting, and like I said, wildly entertaining. So Red Notice is’t perfect. But it gets a greenlight from me.

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.

Margot Robbie’s Following In George Clooney, The Rock And Ryan Reynolds’ Footsteps As She Dives Into The Alcohol Game: ‘It’s Easier Than Selling A Movie’

‘People Explode' In New Stephen King Movie. Why The Director Thinks The Film Is Made For ‘Kids And Parents’ Anyway

'Like Denzel Washington In Training Day': Wilmer Valderrama Already Has An Idea Planned For Nick Torres' NCIS Exit

Most Popular

Red Notice Review

05 Nov 2021

Ironically for a movie that’s all about twists, turns, cons and double-crosses, Rawson Marshall Thurber ’s Red Notice is rather lacking in surprises. And we mean that in the nicest possible way.

Story-wise it is a patchwork pastiche of To Catch A Thief , Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Bond, with a bit of National Treasure and Raiders Of The Lost Ark thrown in for good measure (Ryan Reynolds even whistles the Raiders theme at one point). Featuring a frantic museum foot-chase, a prison break from a mountain-top fortress, and a hi-tech heist at an überswanky villains’ masked ball, it hits all the spy/crime-caper/archaeological-adventure beats you’d expect.

Meanwhile, its main selling point is the charismasplosive double act of Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds , and neither deviates even a micron from his long-established and widely beloved on-screen persona. As the wrongfully accused art-crime-specialist fed, Johnson is steadfast and serious, hiding a big, warm heart beneath those bigger, hard pecs. Reynolds riffs and wisecracks as the glib thief, tossing around probably improv’d one-liners, often delivered at comedy-whisper level. Occasionally, they loosen the bromantic banter (served with an eye-rolling side-order of daddy-issue confiding) to make way for Gal Gadot as wily antagonist The Bishop. But while she’s always seemingly a step ahead of them and clearly more capable, Gadot remains a supporting player amid all the film’s globetrotting antics, only popping up every now and again to mess with their plans and join in a set-piece. This is firmly The Dwayne ’N’ Ryan Show.

Though flawed, *Red Notice* is a solid blast of lightweight fun.

So it’s very familiar territory, whether you’re a fan of the genre or the stars. Thanks to those stars’ incredible likeability, it’s comfort-viewing primarily, with Johnson and Reynolds bickering and battling in a variety of exotic locations, including Rome, Bali, Valencia, and a jungle (Johnson’s sixth now?) in Argentina. Despite reaching for Bond/Indy-like levels of international activity, however, the film suffers from a visually unexciting sense of being soundstage-bound and wrapped in green screens. It’s packed with visual effects and they really do show, from ersatz explosions to a few obvious digital doubles which have no truck with the laws of gravity. This creates a level of artificiality which significantly lowers the stakes, making it feel like less a world-spanning adventure than a knockabout in a really expensive playground.

Writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber is a better maker of comedies ( Dodgeball , We’re The Millers ) than he is action movies (the Johnson-fronted Skyscraper ), so it’s as a comedy that Red Notice works best. And given this is his third collaboration with The Rock (the first being another kinetic buddy pic, Central Intelligence ), he knows how to get the best out of his big leading man. Which is to just let him get on with doing what everyone loves him doing — while teaming him up with someone who’s also left to play to his strengths. Though flawed, Red Notice is at least a solid blast of lightweight fun. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Movies | 03 11 2021

‘Red Notice’ review: Netflix puts blockbuster budget on the small screen

The streamer's tentpole action movie boasts an all-star cast – but can it deliver the goods?

R umoured to be Netflix ’s most expensive Original to date, Red Notice is about as unoriginal as you can get – a cynical mash-up of National Treasure , Mission: Impossible , Indiana Jones and Rush Hour . It was clearly conceived in a boardroom by studio execs searching for the formula to a sure-fire hit – jamming Hollywood’s most bankable stars into an over-proven format that never really works. And yet… it’s also a whole lot of fun.

Built entirely out of video game action and cartoon logic, Red Notice is certainly derivative – but anyone who grew up on old-school buddy comedies will feel a pang of nostalgia for a time when all you really needed to make a hit was a couple of mismatched A-listers shooting things and dropping cheesy one-liners.

Dwayne Johnson is an FBI profiler specialising in fine art crime (don’t ask), forced to team up with the world’s second-best art thief (Ryan Reynolds) to stop the best, Gal Gadot, from stealing an ancient Egyptian egg. It’s a ridiculous set-up, but it’s all the film needs to pit the three stars against each other in Roman galleries, Russian prisons, Valencian bullrings and hidden Nazi bunkers amid a barrage of bullets, wise-cracks and car chases.

Johnson punches, Reynolds banters and Gadot charms – all exactly as they’ve done before in a dozen other movies on their own. Brought together here for the first time, the chemistry isn’t exactly explosive, but it’s just about fiery enough to sell the jokes, and all do a great job of handling the film’s rapid-fire set pieces as the plot ties itself up in con-artist knots. A handful of standout scenes look about as expensive as they definitely were, and the film’s big jungle mine chase and snowy prison break serve up chaotic thrills.

Writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber ( Dodgeball ) is clearly still in love with the movies of his youth, and he manages to fit practically all of them into one script. A late act pop-star cameo is completely unnecessary, but so is everything else in Red Notice – and that’s sort of the whole point. Filled with an excess of everything (including, weirdly, Paul Hollywood), and clearly terrified of taking even the smallest of risks, it’s a $200million blockbuster buffet aimed at anyone and everyone.

Obviously designed to kickstart a new franchise (otherwise what’s the point?), Red Notice has all the right ingredients – just not necessarily in the right order.

Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot
Release date: November 12 (Netflix)
Related Topics

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Netflix streaming
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

Inside Out 2 Link to Inside Out 2
The Bikeriders Link to The Bikeriders
Fancy Dance Link to Fancy Dance

New TV Tonight

The Bear: Season 3
That '90s Show: Season 2
My Lady Jane: Season 1
Orphan Black: Echoes: Season 1
Land of Women: Season 1
Savage Beauty: Season 2
WondLa: Season 1
Zombies: The Re-Animated Series: Season 1

Red Notice Reviews

The biggest surprise of 2021 for me… none of the trailers really grabbed my attention but damn does the movie work. With its charm, great humor, & excellent chase sequences that add some amazing adrenaline ! Give me more of The Rock, Gal, & Ryan!!

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

If you want some substance to your fun that calls to memory Spielberg’s Indiana Jones films or even the weaker, but still engaging, National Treasure movies, then this isn’t your movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 26, 2022

Red Notice is an enjoyable action diversion.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 21, 2022

Red Notice is one of those absurd Abbas-Mustan-style campfests with so many random twists and double-crosses that only great actors or terrible actors can pull them off.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 25, 2022

Efficiently kills a couple of hours without stealing our hearts.

Full Review | Jun 23, 2022

Red Notice is vastly less than the sum of its parts, with the central trio saving it from mediocrity. It's a perfectly acceptable and decently entertaining 200 million action epic, but nothing more.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 28, 2022

The most expensive and successful Netflix original film yet, watching Red Notice is like watching the feature-length version of a fake movie inside another movie; its cliched, over-the-top, and plays out like a parody of itself.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Feb 28, 2022

This blatantly silly movie is the absolute best possible version of itself it's funny, has some exciting chase scenes, and is altogether the Platonic ideal of a 7/10 movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 24, 2022

The cheesy elements combined with the flat characters, that were brought to life by extraordinary talent, left Red Notice struggling from the very start.

Full Review | Feb 15, 2022

Theres a cold, almost algorithmic quality to the film and its performances, to the extent that calling Red Notice an original conceit feels disingenuous.

Full Review | Feb 9, 2022

it is definitely entertaining and hits a few high notes here and there, especially when Reynolds's banter runs headlong into Dwayne Johnson's straight-man stoicism

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 5, 2022

Red Notice delivers on its promise; good action, charm, absurd journey. A film worth watching for a goofy good time.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 2, 2022

As mindless entertainment built on silly jokes, a thin plot, visual effects and window dressing, Red Notice is a 117-minute distraction, easily forgotten in half that time.

Full Review | Dec 30, 2021

Red Notice is proof that one can hire the best talent and put them in a room, but the effort amounts to wasted potential without a good script or strong direction.

Full Review | Dec 27, 2021

...a relentlessly slick endeavor that's rarely, if ever, as engrossing or exciting as one might've anticipated...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 21, 2021

Escapist fun is rarely smart and doesn't carry much depth, but the nice thing here is that the humor outweighs the mindless action.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Dec 20, 2021

I also have already forgotten it, and I bet you do, too, ten minutes after seeing it.

Full Review | Dec 19, 2021

Rawson Marshall Thurber's clever script is a shell game of plot twists and head fakes which keeps daring you to notice, or care, that you're watching a scam, a forgery and a fiction. It

Full Review | Dec 11, 2021

Perfectly cast and perfectly balanced between comedy and thrills. Sign me up for the sequel.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 8, 2021

After about 30 minutes of this overblown, under-baked product, I decided that life's too short and hit the off button.

Full Review | Dec 4, 2021

Red Notice Video Review

Did you enjoy this video, in this video.

Voices from Inside the Encampment
A review of UCSD classrooms
Court orders for UAW strike to pause
The Social Security tax is almost certainly rigged against you
Reports of arrested students receive holds on their accounts, some concerned about Graduation
Statement from the UC San Diego writing community: “You wrote them in the cruelest way”
Letter from UC San Diego Faculty to the Students of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment
Submission: Silenced identities - a letter from a Jewish student
Violent responses to pro-Palestine encampments violate content neutrality
Senior Sendoff: Chaz Cepielik-Weeks

The Student News Site of University of California - San Diego

The UCSD Guardian

Arts & Entertainment

Film Review: “Red Notice”

Neither remarkable nor terrible, “Red Notice” is a typical action-comedy buoyed by its charismatic talent. “Red Notice,” Netflix’s newest action-comedy from writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber, has three things going for it: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and a $200 million budget. On paper, the film sounds like a surefire success — but then again, so did “Cats.” Luckily for fans of the leading actors and the action-comedy genre in general, “Red Notice” is no “Cats.” It’s not reaching the astronomical streaming numbers of “Squid Game” or creating much of a buzz on social media, but it’s not a horrific mess either. Fans of Johnson and Reynolds will be sure to enjoy “Red Notice,” if only to get their fix of both actors in between installments of their more well-known franchises. Johnson plays John Hartley, an intelligent FBI profiler who locks up famed art thief Nolan Booth (Reynolds) only to end up framed for the same crime and thrown in a prison cell with Booth. It turns out both of them have been played by the Bishop (Gal Gadot), a femme fatale art thief bent on stealing all three of Cleopatra’s mythic golden eggs to sell on the black market. The ensuing cat-and-mouse game leads the characters to exotic locales like Bali, Rome, and Argentina, though these backdrops are not explored by the characters or even shown much on-screen beyond title cards announcing the location. Like the premise of rival thieves chasing after a ‘MacGuffin,’ the international settings featured in the film are just another box checked off of the generic-action-film BINGO card. While the plot — reluctant partners teaming up to take down a common enemy — is nothing new, the chemistry and charisma of the film’s leading men make the tired setup feel fresh. In a particularly amusing scene, Reynolds loudly outs Johnson as a member of law enforcement in the middle of a Russian prison cafeteria, much to Johnson’s chagrin. After the two make a daring escape from prison, they’re grateful for a change of clothes — until Johnson finds out that all there is for him to wear is a sparkly sweater that says “Gotta Dance.” These and other moments where the two stars playfully antagonize each other are among the film’s more entertaining moments. Perhaps this should come as no surprise given Johnson’s past success playing the ‘straight man’ to an off-the-cuff partner. The same cannot be said of the scenes they share with Gadot, who delivers a performance almost as wooden as her acting in the ill-received “Wonder Woman: 1984.” Most of Gadot’s time on screen is spent kicking, tripping, and otherwise incapacitating the men of “Red Notice” to get what she wants. Her character is able to outwit Hartley and Booth with minimal effort, whether intercepting a phone call from an INTERPOL Inspector or pretending to be the warden of the gulag they’re locked up in. As fun as it is to watch a female antagonist go toe-to-toe against two action heroes, overall, her character suffers from a lack of development beyond being able to fight. Booth and Hartley both have backstories about how their fathers led them into their respective career paths. The most we learn of Gadot’s “Bishop” comes from a twist revealed in the final minutes of the film, and even that fails to give any real insight into her motivations. If anything, Gadot’s character is less developed than Inspector Das, a minor character played by “Umbrella Academy” alum Ritu Arya. Gadot’s performance aside, “Red Notice” is a passable film. Does it have complex characters? No. A compelling, original story? Not quite. Spectacular visuals? There are some decent shots, but nothing audiences haven’t seen before — and that’s fine. No one is watching “Red Notice” for the commentary on the human condition, the incredible plot, or the mind-blowing cinematography. They’re watching “Red Notice” to see their favorite actors play action-hero versions of themselves while delivering a few exhale-worthy jokes. Go in with that mindset, and you won’t be disappointed. Grade: B- Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot Release Date: November 5, 2021 (Theatrical) Rating: PG-13

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Rawson Marshall Thurber
Ryan Reynolds

Your donation will support the student journalists at University of California, San Diego. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment, keep printing our papers, and cover our annual website hosting costs.

The Student News Site of University of California - San Diego

Comments (0)

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

‘Red Notice’ Film Review: Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds Star in a Caper Far Too Pleased With Itself

A globe-trotting heist film that plays like a parody of itself can have appeal, but this one wears out its welcome

“Red Notice” plays like a parody of itself — a star-studded, globe-trotting heist caper replete with MacGuffins, twists, and double-crosses. And for much of its overstuffed two-hour runtime, it gets away with it; the idea of stars like Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds running around in glamorous evening wear and boosting valuable doodads from historic locales is one of the fundamental cornerstones of cinema.

Alas, writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber, who showed a surer touch with popcorn nonsense in his previous collaborations with Johnson (“Central Intelligence” and “Skyscraper”), just doesn’t know when to quit. The winks, the nudges, the stunts and the surprises come in such a barrage that at some point the charm leaks out of “Red Notice,” leaving only exhaustion behind.

It could be worse: Reynolds’ two “Hitman’s Bodyguard” movies represent the modern nadir of this kind of action-comedy and its rapid-fire joke machinery, and this film is head, shoulders and tiara above the punishment of those. But it turns out that even a movie built on excess should know when to say “when.”

We open in Rome, where FBI profiler John Hartley (Johnson) has received intel from shadowy art-world presence The Bishop (Gadot) that master thief Nolan Booth (Reynolds) will be stealing one of the three bejeweled eggs given by Julius Caesar to Cleopatra. Hartley catches Booth in the act, leading to one of the film’s best chases, with Booth’s parkour skills allowing him to scramble through small passages and up scaffolding where the brawny Hartley cannot easily follow.

Hartley and Interpol’s Inspector Das (Ritu Arya, “The Umbrella Academy”) track Booth to his Bali hideaway, but when the egg gets stolen again during the arrest, Das accuses Hartley of being in on the scam and ships him off to the same Russian gulag where Booth is already incarcerated. The enemies must reluctantly team up, first to escape and then to track down all three of the Cleopatra eggs, for which a billionaire has promised a fortune. They just have to find them before The Bishop does, even though she seems to be constantly two steps ahead of them.

The action pinballs from London, to Spain, to Argentina, with quips and costume changes galore. Cinematographer Markus Förderer (“The Colony”) provides the requisite sheen necessary for a film set mostly in mansions and museums, with costumer Mary E. Vogt (“Crazy Rich Asians”) and production designer Andy Nicholson (“Captain Marvel”) holding up their side of the bargain. These departments also earn gold stars for the elaborate South American mine (with appropriate adventuring outfits) featured in the film’s climax.

Much like Reynolds’ snarky, self-aware shtick — when they go into that mine, you just know he has to whistle the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” theme — a little of “Red Notice” goes a long way. The action scenes are, generally, lots of fun, and they provide an excuse for the stars to stop quipping quite so much. The throw down between Johnson and Gadot feels like a missed opportunity, though; you would expect hand-to-hand combat between Wonder Woman and the Rock to be one for the ages, but like so much contemporary movie choreography (be it in the service of dancing or fighting), excessively frantic editing reveals a lack of rehearsal time.

“Red Notice” is Netflix-bound, which makes perfect sense; it’s the sweat-and-bullets equivalent of a Hallmark Christmas movie , a film that works best if you’re paying only half-attention to it while folding laundry or paying the bills.

“Red Notice” opens in select theaters Nov. 5 and premieres on Netflix Nov. 12.

Cast & crew
User reviews

Metacritic reviews

60 Empire Dan Jolin Empire Dan Jolin Exactly what you’d expect from a crime-caper action-comedy pairing Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds. Nothing more, nothing less.
60 The Telegraph Tim Robey The Telegraph Tim Robey It has a certain clomping, smart-alecky entertainment value, wedded to the meta appeal of watching three A-listers juggle all the twists with ease, before walking off into the sunset with silly money. Did Netflix never twig that the real heist was on them?
60 The Hollywood Reporter David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter David Rooney You can’t argue with the muscular marquee value of headlining Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot in a slick, fast-paced action thriller laced with playful comedy, even if it’s an empty-calorie entertainment like Red Notice.
58 IndieWire David Ehrlich IndieWire David Ehrlich While the movie sometimes hides behind its own derivativeness in lieu of daring to play things straight — the references fly fast and furious long before a punchline is made at Vin Diesel’s expense — “Red Notice” never loses sight of the visual shorthand that comes with bonafide stardom, nor the simple joy of seeing very famous people make total fools of themselves for a laugh.
55 TheWrap Alonso Duralde TheWrap Alonso Duralde Red Notice plays like a parody of itself — a star-studded, globe-trotting heist caper replete with MacGuffins, twists, and double-crosses. And for much of its overstuffed two-hour runtime, it gets away with it.
50 IGN Tara Bennett IGN Tara Bennett Three A-listers globetrot and double-cross each other in Red Notice, a derivative action film that should be much smarter and sexier than it ends up being.
50 The A.V. Club Ignatiy Vishnevetsky The A.V. Club Ignatiy Vishnevetsky This is the stuff that reminds us that Hollywood movies are made with charts and committees; we don’t enjoy it, but we put up with it in exchange for a good time. Red Notice only has the time part down. The good, like the bejeweled egg, is frequently missing.
42 Uproxx Vince Mancini Uproxx Vince Mancini Red Notice is content to merely mimic the rhythms and pacing of a fun movie the same way Ryan Reynolds has become adept at delivering lines that have the tone and cadence of jokes without the comedic value.
38 Slant Magazine Keith Watson Slant Magazine Keith Watson A constant sense of motion can’t obscure how stale, secondhand, and spiritless this entire endeavor feels.
20 The Guardian Benjamin Lee The Guardian Benjamin Lee There’s something so soulless and ineffectual about the aggressively unnecessary Red Notice that it almost plays like a pastiche of a Hollywood blockbuster, like a bot consumed the last 20 years of studio fare and spat out a facsimile as an experiment.
See all 38 reviews on Metacritic.com
See all external reviews for Red Notice

Or browse by category:

Get the app
Movie Reviews
Best Movie Lists
Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best TV Lists
Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
Common Sense Selections for TV
Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

Book Reviews
Best Book Lists
Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Game Reviews
Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Podcast Reviews
Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

App Reviews
Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

YouTube Channel Reviews
YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

Kids' Mental Health Apps and Websites for Anxiety, Depression, Coping Skills, and Professional Support

Family Tech Planners
Digital Skills
All Articles
Latino Culture
Black Voices
Asian Stories
Native Narratives
LGBTQ+ Pride
Best of Diverse Representation List

Multicultural Books

YouTube Channels with Diverse Representations

Podcasts with Diverse Characters and Stories

Common sense media reviewers.

Language, violence in global cat-and-mouse caper.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Some loyalty and male bonding seen. Thieves use th

Everyone seems to have father issues in this film.

Characters are racially diverse and many have acce

Characters fight, kick, punch, hit. They get stran

Some jokes about penises and mention of "erection"

"F--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "bitch," "son of a bit

Porsche, FBI, Interpol, Instagram, Segway, Jenga,

Characters drink alcohol in moderation in various

Positive Messages

Some loyalty and male bonding seen. Thieves use their cunning and talents to escape situations.

Positive Role Models

Everyone seems to have father issues in this film. They explain away their own behavior based on the treatment (or lack of attention) they received from their dads. A female character outsmarts and outfights two men. Characters are driven by greed and/or pursuit of fame.

Diverse Representations

Characters are racially diverse and many have accents when speaking English. The film is set in countries around the world, including Egypt, Italy, Indonesia, Russia, England, Spain, Argentina, and France.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Characters fight, kick, punch, hit. They get strangled, tied up, electrocuted, chased and tossed by a bull, poisoned. They fall from great heights, get shot at, shoot at others, and are chased on foot, in cars, and by air. Bombs, explosions, fires, car crashes. A bridge collapses under a person. People are left wounded or unconscious. A man is said to have a penchant for strangling others ever since his dad tried to strangle him at 14; he later says he killed his dad by gunshot. Very brief mention of suicide and "black sites." Nazis and Nazi symbols play a role.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Some jokes about penises and mention of "erection" as well as other sexual innuendo. Two characters share a sexy dance. Men are seen from the waist up in a prison shower. Loaded mention of someone's browser history. A man says he could make a deepfake video of someone "mouth-sexing a goat."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "bitch," "son of a bitch," "ass," "a--hole," "penis," "d--khead," "dip-d--k," "piss off," "idiot," "stupid." "God" and "Jesus" used as exclamations. It appears that prison guards' shirts read "HOMO" backward.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Porsche, FBI, Interpol, Instagram, Segway, Jenga, Alexa.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink alcohol in moderation in various scenes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Red Notice is a globetrotting action-adventure starring Ryan Reynolds , Gal Gadot , and Dwayne Johnson . Expect lots of action violence: Characters fight, kick, punch, and hit, and they get strangled, tied up, electrocuted, chased and tossed by a bull, and poisoned. They fall from great heights, get shot at, shoot at others, and are chased on foot, in cars, and by air. There are bombs, explosions, fires, and car crashes. A bridge collapses under a person, and people are left wounded or unconscious. A character is said to have a penchant for strangling others ever since his dad tried to strangle him at 14; he later says he killed his dad by gunshot. There's very brief mention of suicide and "black sites." Nazis and Nazi symbols play a role. Language includes "f--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "bitch," "son of a bitch," "ass," "a--hole," "penis," "d--khead," and "dip-d--k." It appears that prison guards' shirts read HOMO backward. There are some jokes about penises and mention of an "erection," as well as other sexual innuendo. A man says he could make a deepfake video of someone "mouth-sexing a goat." Characters all seem to have father issues. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (11)
Kids say (65)

Based on 11 parent reviews

Fun action flick

What's the story.

In RED NOTICE, Nolan Booth ( Ryan Reynolds ) fashions himself as the world's greatest art thief, but he's continually shown up by a mystery thief who goes by the name The Bishop ( Gal Gadot ). When FBI agent John Hartley ( Dwayne Johnson ) teams up with Interpol agents, led by Inspector Das (Ritu Arya), to catch Booth, who is on Interpol's highest-level arrest warrant, The Bishop frames him in return, sending Booth and Hartley together first to prison and then on the lam. They and The Bishop are now all after a valuable antiquity -- Booth and Bishop for the million-dollar bounty, and Hartley to clear his name. But of course, nothing is as it appears, and the caper will take the players clear around the globe.

Is It Any Good?

This film would appear to have all the right ingredients for a franchise-ready adventure, yet something's notably off when the pieces are mixed together. Red Notice looks slick and boasts attractive A-list actors pulling fantastic stunts in gorgeous locations around the globe. It will find its audience. Gal Gadot is charmingly sadistic as the stunning and fierce Bishop, and she has a scene where she beats both her buff co-stars to a pulp. Dwayne Johnson plays straight man to Ryan Reynolds' tongue-in-cheek bad boy. But Reynolds' ironic one-liners come across as cloying, and his character grates on the nerves within minutes of the opening scene. There are a few very funny moments in the film, like a Russian guard liking a shirtless Putin pic on Instagram, or when Reynolds asks Johnson's character if he knows the back of his head looks like a giant male member, but mostly the banter is more obvious than amusing.

Why bother with so many international locations if the production is going to rely on stereotypes (e.g., bullfighting in Spain) and only the best-known landmarks (pyramids in Cairo, the Louvre in Paris)? Similarly, the script seems to have a constant need to overexplain things. Characters detail exactly what's just happened or is about to, in case you didn't quite get it. Gadot starts one such explanation with, "At the risk of stating the obvious," then goes on to do just that. Granted, in some cases they're lying, but it still slows (and dumbs) the action down in the moment. There's a scene where Reynolds is wearing an explorer's outfit and hat while he and Johnson crack into a Nazi crypt. The reference is obvious, but the direction still has Reynolds whistle the Indiana Jones theme song. It's as if the filmmakers don't trust us to get their references or their story points. But underestimating your audience can be insulting, and a few unanswered questions aren't always a bad thing.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the various locations in Red Notice . How does the story capitalize on its many locales? Would the story or film have changed much without so many settings? Why, or why not?

How would you describe each of the main characters? Did any remind you of characters from other films you've watched?

Was the story believable? Why, or why not? Does that make a difference in your enjoyment of it?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : November 12, 2021
Cast : Dwayne Johnson , Ryan Reynolds , Gal Gadot
Director : Rawson Marshall Thurber
Inclusion Information : Black actors, Polynesian/Pacific Islander actors, Female actors, Middle Eastern/North African actors
Studio : Netflix
Genre : Action/Adventure
Topics : Adventures , Friendship , History
Run time : 118 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : Violence and action, some sexual references, and strong language
Last updated : February 17, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

Jungle Cruise

Black Widow

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

No Time to Die

Best Action Movies for Kids

Excellent adventure movies for family fun, related topics.

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

‘Red Notice’ Review: Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson, and Gal Gadot Star in Netflix’s Breezy Mega-Budget Caper

David ehrlich.

Share on Facebook
Share to Flipboard
Share on LinkedIn
Show more sharing options
Submit to Reddit
Post to Tumblr
Print This Page
Share on WhatsApp

Historically speaking, “ Red Notice ” should be unwatchable. For starters, Netflix ’s previous fall blockbusters (e.g. “Bright,” “6 Underground”) have been very bad. Not just bad in the way that movies are bad, but bad in the way that war crimes are bad — they shouldn’t have been reviewed by critics so much as tried at the Hague. These are films so bad that Joe Rogan should have spent an episode of his podcast spreading batshit conspiracy theories about how they escaped from the Netflix content labs. These are films so bad that you half expect to see Forrest Gump stumbling through their crowd shots as part of his accidental journey through America’s defining crises.

But at least they were directed by people with strong artistic sensibilities. “Red Notice,” on the other hand, is the brainchild of Rawson Marshall Thurber , a once-promising comedy director (“DodgeBall,” “We’re the Millers”) who was more fun to resent for his what if Colin Jost and Henry Cavill went into that machine from “The Fly” together good looks than for his role in enabling Dwayne Johnson ‘s quixotic quest to simultaneously become the most charismatic and least interesting movie star of all time. Thurber may not be quite as complicit as “San Andreas” and “Rampage” auteur Brad Peyton, but “Central Intelligence” and “Skyscraper” are both summer blockbusters so bland they helped to deflate the entire tradition of such tentpoles. Whatever points they scored for “originality” were negated by their perverse determination to seem mass-produced.

That Thurber and Johnson’s latest collaboration is reportedly the most expensive movie Netflix has ever made would be reason enough to assume that “Red Notice” is just another high-concept spectacle in which the bravery of Johnson’s character is betrayed by the actor-producer’s life-threatening allergy to creative risk. Add Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot into the mix — two other A-list stars whose sense of range seems to end with their costumes — and you have such a perfect storm of modern Hollywood mediocrity that people might start hoarding toilet paper and canned goods before it reaches land.

Alas, you already know where this is going: Call it an early Hanukkah miracle (as one drop of inspiration somehow manages to power this movie for almost two full hours), but “Red Notice” is a lot of fun, if often in spite of itself. While in essence still the kind of flavorless slop that a peevish critic might have expected Netflix to produce from these ingredients, this globe-hopping tale of cops and robbers on the hunt for Nazi gold is glazed with enough panache, humor, and franchise-thirsty ambition to feel like it isn’t taking the audience for granted.

There’s precious little in “Red Notice” that people haven’t seen Johnson do before (with the possible exception of the part when his character name-checks 19th-century Scottish artist William Strang), but at least his latest attempt at a swashbuckling throwback is liberated from the sort of waterlogged mythology that sank Disney’s “Jungle Cruise.” Enjoyably cartoonish set pieces keep the movie light on its feet, a carousel of exotic locations make sure you never have to think about the MacGuffin, and Reynolds — in a rare display of discretion — only calls his co-star “baldilocks” once. In 2021, that counts as some kind of win.

At its best, “Red Notice” feels like a glam and glossy live-action riff on “Lupin the Third,” with a little “Uncharted” mixed in for good measure before the movie takes a late swerve into another genre altogether. Reynolds is Nolan Booth, the world’s greatest art thief and a general cad. Johnson is John Hartley, the boulder-sized FBI profiler who’s been tracking Booth around the world, and seems hellbent on stopping him from stealing all three of Cleopatra’s jewel-encrusted eggs (priceless treasures that an Egyptian billionaire hopes to give his daughter as a wedding present).

Gadot is the wild card between these two silly boys, playing the only person on the planet capable of beating Nolan at his own game; she’s known only as “The Bishop,” though it’s unclear why she chose that title, or what pieces the other characters might represent on her chess board. Unsurprisingly, the actress’ most important function in the movie is to wear slinky dresses for Reynolds and Johnson to drool on. The red number she wears to the villain’s “Eyes Wide Shut”-like masquerade party stands out for compelling a hyper-masculine Dwayne Johnson character to admit that sex exists and is something he might be interested in having one day. Needless to say, hearts will be stolen before everyone in this bizarre love triangle reveals their angle.

And it isn’t long before things go screwy and people begin to switch sides, as Inspector Urvashi Das (Ritu Arya) races to the conclusion that Hartley — her partner! — is actually behind the heist that unfolds during the opening sequence, a high-energy set piece that starts with one of the three Cleopatra eggs being nicked from a Rome museum in plain sight. Cut to: Hartley and Nolan bunking together in a black site prison that’s perched so high atop a snowy Russian peak that not even eagles would dare to break them free. The Bishop has one of the eggs, a Napoleonic arms dealer named Sotto Voce (Chris Diamantopoulos) has another, Nolan is the only person alive who knows where the third one might be, and the magnate willing to pay $300 million if someone brings him the ancient treasures by the night of his daughter’s nuptials won’t fork over a penny for anything short of a full set.

And so begins a wild goose chase that stretches from a Siberian gulag to a South American Nazi bunker and all points in between as friends become enemies, enemies become friends, everyone airs their daddy issues, and nobody actually gets hurt (including the various henchmen our heroes meet along the way). Nobody actually leaves Atlanta, either, as the pandemic cramped Thurber’s plans for an international shoot, and forced his team to fake a series of far-flung locations in a way that more closely reflects the Marvel approach to moviemaking than it does the old school adventures that “Red Notice” hopes to exhume.

Not unlike the hologram tech that Nolan uses to swipe priceless artifacts from museum showrooms, the illusion holds for just long enough to get the job done. That the Russian jail is such a ridiculous place helps to launder its non-reality, and Thurber grounds Hartley and Nolan’s big escape from it in bite-sized human details so that the more heightened beats to come feel like they stem from the same comic tone; the sight gag of a prison guard using a shirtless photo of Putin as his iPhone background helps butter you up to believe the huge stunt that follows a few minutes later, when Hartley turns a helicopter just in time for a rocket to pass through both of its open doors. Of course, that particular joke is an outlier in a politically and emotionally anodyne movie that keeps with Johnson’s soul-deadening refusal to spend his star capital on anything that might someday cost him a vote.

The first hour of “Red Notice” does such a fine job of threading the needle between hard-boiled action and comic absurdity that its ends justify their means and the film’s cast is free to lean on their respective brands as a crutch. Does it make sense that Nolan is a clumsy buffoon one minute, and the most gifted prop fighter since Jackie Chan the next? Absolutely not, but it’s fun to watch Reynolds use scaffolding to politely incapacitate some featured extras while Markus Förderer’s gravity-defying camera zooms around the well-choreographed chaos like a drunken mosquito. It’s also telling that Reynolds’ best moments are blocked, and not improvised; his quips are a bit sharper than usual (save for the occasional “dipdick” and other such dumbass retorts that sneak through just often enough to remind you to be grateful that it doesn’t happen more often), but his disaffected schtick is still mighty stale without a “Free Guy”-level concept to keep it fresh.

In fact, Thurber’s film is funniest when it functions as a featherlight commentary on its various screen personas. There’s a cutesy bit at the masquerade ball when Gadot pretends not to recognize all 23 square feet of Dwayne Johnson behind his eye mask, and that same in-on-the-joke energy flows through almost every minute of a breezy lark that offers a few pennies of fun on a $200 million budget… a budget that falls well short of whatever Thurber needed to sell the Atlanta of it all the whole way through, as the third act is such an embarrassing parade of TikTok-level green screen that it seems like the film was shot in sequence and we’re watching it run out of money in real time.

While the movie sometimes hides behind its own derivativeness in lieu of daring to play things straight — the references fly fast and furious long before a punchline is made at Vin Diesel’s expense — “Red Notice” never loses sight of the visual shorthand that comes with bonafide stardom, nor the simple joy of seeing very famous people make total fools of themselves for a laugh. Sometimes we even get to laugh along with them. Empty calories aren’t all created equal, and this is the first thing the Rock has cooked up in a long time that might actually leave you hungry for more.

“Red Notice” will open in select theaters on Friday, November 5. It will be available to stream on Netflix starting Friday, November 12.

Most Popular

UK Edition Change

UK Politics
News Videos
Paris 2024 Olympics
Rugby Union
Sport Videos
John Rentoul
Mary Dejevsky
Andrew Grice
Sean O’Grady
Photography
Theatre & Dance
Culture Videos
Fitness & Wellbeing
Food & Drink
Health & Families
Royal Family
Electric Vehicles
Car Insurance Deals
Lifestyle Videos
UK Hotel Reviews
News & Advice
Simon Calder
Australia & New Zealand
South America
C. America & Caribbean
Middle East
Politics Explained
News Analysis
Today’s Edition
Home & Garden
Broadband deals
Fashion & Beauty
Travel & Outdoors
Sports & Fitness
Sustainable Living
Climate Videos
Solar Panels
Behind The Headlines
On The Ground
Decomplicated
You Ask The Questions
Binge Watch
Travel Smart
Watch on your TV
Crosswords & Puzzles
Most Commented
Newsletters
Ask Me Anything
Virtual Events
Betting Sites
Online Casinos
Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

Red Notice on track to become Netflix’s most-watched movie despite scathing reviews

Within 10 days of release, film has logged 277.9 million hours, just 4.12 million away from ‘bird box’, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey

Get our the life cinematic email for free, thanks for signing up to the the life cinematic email.

Netflix ’s Red Notice is on track to become the streaming platform’s most-watched movie of all time.

Within 10 days of its release on the platform on 12 November, the action-comedy film that features Ryan Reynolds , Gal Gadot , and Dwayne “ The Rock ” Johnson has already logged 277.9 million hours, just 4.12 million away from Sandra Bullock ’s Bird Box .

The film has received such a turnout despite receiving scathing reviews from critics.

The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey gave the film a two-star review calling it “less a film than a collection of buzzwords.”

“Nothing about writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber’s story makes a lick of sense. Nor does it have the outright absurdity of his earlier comedies, such as Dodgeball or Central Intelligence,” she wrote.

In a two-star interview, Wendy Ide of The Guardian said Red Notice is so “concerned with knitting together a mess of double-crosses and false endings that it loses the propulsive drive and excitement of the films it imitates”.

“ Red Notice has some engaging characters, but the praise stops there as the film lacks in every other category,” wrote Deadline’s Valerie Complex.

However, earlier this month, Ryan Reynolds claimed that the newly-released blockbuster broke Netflix’s record for most views on the day of release , and he was right.

Reynolds wrote on Twitter: “WOW #RedNotice is @Netflix biggest ever opening day for a film. Congrats to this whole team!”

“Can’t wait for Red Notice (Taylor’s Version),” he joked, referring to Taylor Swift’s album Red (Taylor’s Version) , which was also released last week.

Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days

New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled

Red Notice focuses on an Interpol agent who attempts to hunt down and capture the world’s most wanted art thief.

With a reported budget of $200m (£145m), the film is thought to be Netflix’s most expensive ever.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Want an ad-free experience?

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

My Independent Premium
Account details
Help centre

Red Notice - Review

An okay action-adventure that copies better films..

Red Notice is in theaters for a limited release on Nov. 5 with digital streaming on Netflix Nov. 12, 2021.

On paper, Red Notice reads like a no-brainer crowd-pleaser. Rawson Marshall Thurber ( Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story ) directs the trifecta of attractive actors — Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot — in a slick, action-adventure romp. It’s got everything you need for the proverbial “good soup” of moviemaking, but unfortunately, Red Notice just takes sequences from far better films and mushes them all together into some bad goulash.

It starts well enough with an engaging opening that sets up the MacGuffins of the film, which are the three ornate eggs that Mark Antony supposedly gifted to Cleopatra on their wedding day. Two were recovered, with one in a museum in Rome and the other in the private collection of a wealthy arms dealer, while the third exists only in rumor. The Rome-based egg is targeted for thievery on the black market, which spurs FBI special profiler and art specialist John Hartley (Johnson) and Interpol Inspector Das (Ritu Arya) to confirm that it’s still secure. It is not, because famed art thief Nolan Booth (Reynolds) has already absconded with the priceless piece, creating the first of many, many chases involving the two men trying to outmaneuver one another physically, mentally, or, in Reynolds’ case, with an arsenal of “dad joke”-level quips.

The other player in this quest is Gadot’s Sarah Black, a slinky art thief who considers herself the greatest in the world, and makes it her life’s work to be just one step ahead of both Hartley and Booth as she’s pursuing the eggs for a buyer willing to pay $300 million for their collection and delivery.

In the first act, Thurber teases with a breezy and well-choreographed museum escape that he’s going to subvert the big, loud set pieces expected in these kinds of films with something different, and then he doesn’t deliver. As the players jump from Rome to Bali to London to Valencia and finally, Argentina, playing find the eggs, the less each scenario feels original or fresh. Several action sequences are framed like first-person video games with the camera inside cars during chases, or handheld during fistfights to put us inside the action, but it’s far from innovative or exhilarating. It just feels like gimmicky video game cut scenes that aren’t anything new to the choreography, framing, or even fun of the fights.

There’s also the issue of the audience ever buying that Reynolds is going to hold his own longer than a full-blown punch or two with Johnson in a fist fight. Then Gadot is added to the melee, easily holding her own, or just plain besting both of them. While I appreciate that Gadot’s Black at least gets to take her heels off for major fights, none of these people are superheroes, which means the only one brawling with any cred is Johnson, so there’s a lot of suspension of disbelief required.

And that’s carried through to Reynolds’ Booth, who is a test to the nerves with his constant, terrible running commentary of comebacks and snarkery about everythin g. Yes, it’s Reynolds’ signature schtick, but in Red Notice, he operates like an obnoxious talking doll with a broken pull string. In yet another suspension of disbelief, it’s unbelievable that neither Gadot or Johnson’s characters wouldn’t gag him with a sock by the second act, especially when Booth gets weirdly emotional with Hartley. Who needs bro bonding in a heist, relic, caper?

By the second and third act, every set piece feels derivative from another movie.

Thurber makes a lot of other odd choices in the film, like not letting Chris Diamantopoulos go full weird with his short-man-syndrome arms dealer, Sotto Voce (yes, that’s the character’s name.) Instead, he’s allowed to rasp his lines like he’s in dire need of a lozenge, but never ends up taking the space an intentional bad guy should have in a movie like this. In fact, there’s no real antagonist of note to hang the stakes of the film on at all, and that’s because Thurber is more interested in maintaining the moral liquidity of all the characters so you’re left guessing about their true intentions instead of feeling any sense of danger at any point. It’s just an endless race from museums to Russian prisons to bullfighting rings and jungles, which all blur together without giving anything time to breathe, as we wait for someone to double-cross someone because that’s all the whole movie keeps giving us.

Plus, by the second and third act, every set piece feels derivative from another movie. Ocean’s 11 , Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, National Treasure , The Mummy , and even Mr. and Mrs. Smith could all rightfully accuse Red Notice of stealing their scenes. What makes it even worse is the fact that this cast is up to doing something truly different. Gadot, when she appears, plays Black like she’s having a lot of fun. Reynolds is more than capable of not coming across like a human blooper reel, but that’s all he’s asked to do here. And Johnson does his best to bring a competent hotness to Hartley so he’s not just the muscle, which makes him the MVP here. But the dialogue and strange, forced bromance that Booth demands of Hartley, even if it’s a joke, is tiring and not as engaging as the filmmakers think it is.

Red Notice really needed a script with a much lighter touch all around. It should have been sexier and smarter, with less action, and more original storytelling. Instead, it’s a mindless diversion that’s blandly familiar, yet thinks it’s far cleverer than it really is.

The Verdict

Red Notice starts with a lot of energetic potential but then devolves into a pastiche of other, better films, cribbing scenes that feel like they were lifted straight from a myriad of films from Indiana Jones to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Of the three mega-star leads, Dwayne Johnson acquits himself the best to committing to his FBI profiler as more of a brainy hero rather than just brawn, and it works. Reynolds exists as a quip machine who gets tiresome quick, while Gadot feels like she’s barely in it. While this may be positioned as a new franchise, there’s nothing here that sets up any urgency or excitement to go on more adventures with this trio.

Red Notice Review

Win 30 Invitations To ‘World War Z’ Premiere

M. Night Shyamalan Answers Your Questions

Release Date Set for Expendables 3

Watch New Clips From This is The End

We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article.

Is Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot's movie Red Notice worth a watch?

It's coming to Netflix next week.

preview for Red Notice – teaser trailer (Netflix)

The movie is a winner on paper, bringing together three of the biggest movie stars in the world – Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot – in a high-concept action-comedy that sees the FBI's top profiler team up with an art thief to take down an even better thief.

Can't lose, right? Not quite. While we've no doubt that Red Notice will be a hit on Netflix given the sheer star power involved, the final product never quite lives up to that powerhouse trio. What should be a rollicking round-the-world adventure turns into a bit of a dull trudge.

dwayne johnson as fbi agent john hartley, ryan reynolds as art thief nolan booth, gal gadot as art thief the bishop, red notice

Things start off promisingly enough as John Hartley (Johnson) tracks Nolan Booth (Reynolds) to Rome in order to catch him in the act. Booth's target is the first of Cleopatra's eggs, fictional gifts from Mark Antony on their wedding day, but with Interpol backing up Hartley, Booth doesn't get away with his daring coup to replace the egg with a fake.

Hartley had been tipped off to Booth's location by "The Bishop" (Gadot) who is the most-wanted art thief in the world. Unfortunately for Hartley, The Bishop has double-crossed him (in the first of the movie's many double crosses) and Hartley finds himself in a Russian prison alongside Booth.

The unlikely duo have no choice but to team up to catch The Bishop and clear Hartley's name. As we mentioned above, it's a solid-enough concept, but Red Notice quickly becomes overly familiar. You're reminded of other movies – Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ocean's Eleven and more – and the problem is that it reminds you how superior they were.

This familiarity extends to the leading trio, who try to inject some fun into proceedings but are saddled with one-note roles reminiscent of their other work. Reynolds is Deadpool as an art thief, Johnson is his stoic lawman from the Fast & Furious series and Gadot is Gisele from the same franchise, able to make men do whatever she wants because she's attractive.

For some, this might be enough to make Red Notice an entertaining-enough watch. It likely just depends on your tolerance levels, really, but the disappointment is that the stars never get to develop their characters more. All we really get is that Hartley and Booth suffer with daddy issues and The Bishop likes The Great British Bake Off . (We do get to see that Freddie Mercury cake again though, so that's something.)

A late-stage revelation adds a neat twist to one of their characters that justifies the stereotypical approach. You've still got to get through most of the movie, however, with bland characters you've seen numerous times before, and there's not enough going on elsewhere to offset it.

The humour is extremely hit-and-miss, filled mostly with pop-culture references from Booth and ill-judged gay jokes that were best left in the 1990s. Reynolds and Johnson have the charisma to make their odd couple work, but they just aren't given anything to make the movie as funny as it thinks it is.

Red Notice fares a little better in its action sequences with an innovative scaffolding chase and a fight between the three stars as the pick of the bunch. You do have to suspend disbelief that these three people, despite not having any justification for their skills, can best anybody in a fight and barely get hurt even when falling from a building, though – and the less said about the bull fight, the better.

There's just something that feels old-fashioned about the movie, harking back to a time when blockbusters were sold on star power alone. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but when you don't do anything to modernise it or put a spin on it, you need the various elements to be flawless for it to not feel overfamiliar.

As Red Notice piles revelation upon revelation in its final act, it clearly wants to take you by surprise, only to end up convoluted. It's telling that you'll likely see some of them coming and that the biggest twist probably ends up being one of the most unexpected cameos of the year (not in a good way).

In true blockbuster fashion, the movie leaves itself open for Red Notice 2 with yet another revelation. We only hope that if a sequel does bring back Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot, it gives them something better to do next time around.

Red Notice is in select cinemas from November 5 and arrives on Netflix on November 12.

Marvel Welcome

20th Century Fox Deadpool Double Pack [Blu-ray]

Funko Pop! Deadpool Pride Funko Pop! figure

Marvel Deadpool Christmas jumper

Insight Editions Marvel Comics: Cooking with Deadpool

kidrobot Deadpool with unicorn plush toy

Funko Pop! Deadpool 30th anniversary cake Funko Pop! figure

Popgear Marvel Deadpool 'splat face' logo T-shirt

Funko Pop! Deadpool 30th anniversary Dinopool Funko Pop! figure

Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies , attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy , initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.

.css-15yqwdi:before{top:0;width:100%;height:0.25rem;content:'';position:absolute;background-image:linear-gradient(to right,#51B3E0,#51B3E0 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 5rem,#E5E54F 5rem,#E5E54F 7.5rem,black 7.5rem,black);} Netflix

The Secret is now available to watch on Netflix

Jessica Alba's Trigger Warning lands rough reviews

Paul Mescal's best movie Aftersun is on Netflix

eddie murphy, beverley hills cop axel foley

First reactions for Beverly Hills Cop 4

nicola coughlan as penelope featherington, luke newton as colin bridgerton, bridgerton season 3

Bridgerton star addresses deleted scene "rumour"

Trigger Warning ending explained on Netflix

Best movies on Netflix to watch now

elizabeth olsen, carrie coon, natasha lyonne, his three daughters

Elizabeth Olsen movie gets Netflix release date

madelyn cline as sarah cameron, chase stokes as john b, carlacia grant as cleo, jonathan daviss as pope in outer banks, season 3

Outer Banks cast share message as s4 filming wraps

shonda rhimes tv shows ellen pompeo in greys anatomy, india amarteifio in queen charlotte, kerry washington in scandal

Best Shonda Rhimes shows to watch after Bridgerton

Sofia Carson & Bridgerton star in Netflix movie

Screen Rant

Why red notice's reviews are so bad.

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

8 Recent Box Office Flops I Think Will Be Cult Classics In The Future

Where to watch horizon: an american saga - showtimes & streaming status, upcoming naruto live-action movie already has one major advantage over one piece.

Ahead of its Netflix release, the reviews for Red Notice have been decisively negative, with only a 44 percent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes . Though critical consensus doesn't always translate to a movie's box office or streaming success, this early response does not bode well for what is reportedly Netflix's most expensive original production. With a budget of over $160 million, Red Notice reviewers have largely been wondering what all of that money was actually spent on.

At first glance, the Red Notice film possesses many winning elements that should have worked. The Netflix blockbuster stars well-liked and big names in Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot, who all fight to be the first to locate bejeweled eggs that have been scattered around the world. However, while Red Notice was inspired by popular heist movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark and National Treasure , it ultimately lacks what made those films so successful.

Related: Why It Doesn't Matter For The Rock That Red Notice's Box Office Is So Bad

Many critics lament where Red Notice goes wrong, questioning how a movie with such popular actors and a tried and true formula could produce something so lifeless. It would likely have been better praised if it took more risks, since the final product simply repeats many of the story beats that have been done before. Here's what some of the Red Notice reviews are saying:

"Filled with an excess of everything (including, weirdly, Paul Hollywood), and clearly terrified of taking even the smallest of risks, it’s a $200 million blockbuster buffet aimed at anyone and everyone."

The Guardian :

"So concerned with knitting together a mess of double-crosses and false endings that it loses the propulsive drive and excitement of the films it imitates."

The Wrap :

"Alas, writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber … just doesn’t know when to quit. The winks, the nudges, the stunts and the surprises come in such a barrage that at some point the charm leaks out of 'Red Notice,' leaving only exhaustion behind."

Roger Ebert :

"Thurber’s direction seems to have been simply to put Reynolds, Johnson, and Gadot on camera and allow their screen presence and familiar techniques to carry the story, and one can literally see the weight of that on their shoulders."

The Independent :

"This action caper is less a film than a collection of buzzwords."

These Red Notice reviews make it clear that the film is far more concerned with dazzling audiences with more of everything—more humor, more fast-paced action, and more star power—than with creating a compelling narrative. Inspired by other heist films and buddy comedies, Red Notice does nothing to stand out from what it imitates. Director Thurber has created other action flicks with Johnson before, like Central Intelligence and the movie Skyscraper , but here he seems less sure of how much is too much. Johnson, Reynolds, and Gadot's charms oddly end up not working as well together on screen as they should have, despite how much the movie clearly depended on their chemistry. Either the plot is far too thin for even the leads' charisma to overcome, or the actors have simply grown tired of playing the same old roles. Yet, despite the negativity of most of the reviews, some do note areas in which Red Notice holds its own:

Screen Rant :

"Ultimately, anyone who enjoys star-driven action movies will find something to like about Red Notice ."

Hollywood Reporter :

"You can’t argue with the muscular marquee value of headlining Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot in a slick, fast-paced action thriller laced with playful comedy, even if it’s an empty-calorie entertainment like Red Notice ."

"It’s all reasonably clever, so long as you don’t scrutinize it too closely."

Although many critics argued that Johnson, Reynolds, and Gadot were not given enough to make the Red Notice movie work, some did praise their efforts, claiming their chemistry was able to save the project. Even if it never quite shines, some of the comedy does land, and the action sufficiently draws in willing viewers. For those either not looking for something too serious, or satisfied with a movie that provides fun action sequences and little else, Red Notice is the ideal film.

Next: American Rust: Why The Reviews Are So Bad

SR Originals

IMAGES

FILM REVIEW: RED NOTICE
Red Notice (2021)
Red Notice movie review & film summary (2021)
Hollywood Movie Review
Red Notice (2021) Review
Red Notice review (2021)

VIDEO

RED NOTICE Movie
Red Notice Hollywood movie hindi dubbed
Guardian Movie Public Review
red notice movie #youtubeshorts
Red Notice Movie Scene 😳#shorts #story
Red Notice movie reaction

COMMENTS

The Guardian
We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us.
The Guardian
We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us.
Red Notice movie review & film summary (2021)
Worst of all, that "content" approach is pulling the life from stars who have shown so much of it in the past. When the poster for "Red Notice" was released, most people lamented its Photoshopped, bland nature. They didn't realize how honestly it captured the movie. Thurber, the director of " Central Intelligence " and ...
'Red Notice' Review: When the Stars Don't Shine
Uninterested in world building or creating any sense of stakes, "Red Notice" is merely an expensive brandishing of star power — only the stars haven't got it in them. Red Notice. Rated PG ...
'Red Notice' Review: Star Trio Competes in Elaborate Easter ...
Red Notice, Ryan Reynolds. 'Red Notice' Review: Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot Compete in an Elaborate Easter Egg Hunt. Reviewed at Wilshire Screening Room, Los Angeles, Nov. 1 ...
Netflix's Red Notice Review: A Slick And Funny Thriller That's Bursting
Red Notice plays like a good Michael Bay movie. (No, that's not an oxymoron.) The story roars to life from its opening scenes, with Special Agent John Hartley racing to the scene of a possible ...
Red Notice (2021)
Red Notice: Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber. With Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Ritu Arya. An Interpol agent successfully tracks down the world's most wanted art thief with help from a rival thief. But nothing is as it seems as a series of double-crosses ensues.
Red Notice
Rated: 2.5/4 Nov 26, 2022 Full Review M.N. Miller Ready Steady Cut Red Notice is an enjoyable action diversion. Rated: 3/5 Oct 21, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews Audience Reviews
Red Notice Review
Netflix Spotlight: November 2021. 12 Images. Red Notice really needed a script with a much lighter touch all around. It should have been sexier and smarter, with less action, and more original ...
Red Notice Review
05 Nov 2021. Original Title: Red Notice. Ironically for a movie that's all about twists, turns, cons and double-crosses, Rawson Marshall Thurber 's Red Notice is rather lacking in surprises ...
'Red Notice' review: blockbuster budget on the small screen
A late act pop-star cameo is completely unnecessary, but so is everything else in Red Notice - and that's sort of the whole point. Filled with an excess of everything (including, weirdly, Paul ...
'Red Notice' review: Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal ...
"Red Notice" has the polished feel of something concocted in a lab for maximum social-media attention (Dwayne Johnson! Ryan Reynolds! Gal Gadot!), then pieced together Frankenstein-style from ...
Red Notice
Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 28, 2022. Jennifer Heaton Alternative Lens. The most expensive and successful Netflix original film yet, watching Red Notice is like watching the feature ...
Red Notice Video Review
Red Notice debuts in theaters on Nov. 5 and on Netflix Nov. 12. Spoiler-free review by Tara Bennett. Red Notice starts with a lot of energetic potential but then devolves into a pastiche of other ...
Film Review: "Red Notice"
Film Review: "Red Notice". Neither remarkable nor terrible, "Red Notice" is a typical action-comedy buoyed by its charismatic talent. "Red Notice," Netflix's newest action-comedy from writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber, has three things going for it: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and a $200 million budget.
Red Notice Film Review: Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds
"Red Notice" plays like a parody of itself — a star-studded, globe-trotting heist caper replete with MacGuffins, twists, and double-crosses.
Red Notice (2021)
20. The Guardian Benjamin Lee. There's something so soulless and ineffectual about the aggressively unnecessary Red Notice that it almost plays like a pastiche of a Hollywood blockbuster, like a bot consumed the last 20 years of studio fare and spat out a facsimile as an experiment. See all 38 reviews on Metacritic.com.
Red Notice Movie Review
Parents say ( 11 ): Kids say ( 65 ): This film would appear to have all the right ingredients for a franchise-ready adventure, yet something's notably off when the pieces are mixed together. Red Notice looks slick and boasts attractive A-list actors pulling fantastic stunts in gorgeous locations around the globe.
Red Notice Review: A Breezy, Star-Studded, Mega-Budget ...
Netflix's biggest and most desperate bid to start its own blockbuster movie franchise is a breezy, globetrotting adventure that's more fun than it should be. Historically speaking, " Red Notice ...
Red Notice is on track to be Netflix's most-watched movie of all time
Red Notice on track to become Netflix's most-watched movie despite scathing reviews. Within 10 days of release, film has logged 277.9 million hours, just 4.12 million away from 'Bird Box'
Red Notice Review
Red Notice is in theaters for a limited release on Nov. 5 with digital streaming on Netflix Nov. 12, 2021. On paper, Red Notice reads like a no-brainer crowd-pleaser. Rawson Marshall Thurber (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) directs the trifecta of attractive actors — Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot — in a slick, action-adventure romp.
Red Notice review
In true blockbuster fashion, the movie leaves itself open for Red Notice 2 with yet another revelation. We only hope that if a sequel does bring back Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot ...
Why Red Notice's Reviews Are So Bad
Ahead of its Netflix release, the reviews for Red Notice have been decisively negative, with only a 44 percent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Though critical consensus doesn't always translate to a movie's box office or streaming success, this early response does not bode well for what is reportedly Netflix's most expensive original production.
'Red Notice' On Track To Be Netflix's Most Watched Movie Of All Time
Ten days after its release, Red Notice is Netflix's second most watched movie of all time with 277.9M hours clocked. The Dwayne Johnson-Gal Gadot-Ryan Reynolds $200M action heist movie is closely ...
Film Review
Red Notice (2021) accomplishes the remarkable feat of taking charismatic actors and draining all their charisma.Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot are bonafide movie stars who have each helmed blockbuster franchises. Yet here they are, galivanting about in an action comedy that is utterly bland and lifeless. Writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber does not give them anything to work ...

Red Notice review – raiders and the lost arc

Comments (…)

Movie Reviews

Brian Tallerico

Now playing

The Young Wife

Inside Out 2

Clint Worthington

In a Violent Nature

The Blue Angels

Back to Black

Red Notice (2021)

Cinematographer

Latest blog posts

Apple TV+'s Land of Women is Pretty and Pleasant

The Most Intriguing Festival Films Still Seeking U.S. Distribution

Suicide by Proxy: An Interview With the Filmmakers of The Devils' Bath

Furiosa Doesn't Feel Like Any Other Mad Max Film, and That's What's Wonderful About It

‘Red Notice’ Review: When the Stars Don’t Shine

‘Red Notice’ | Anatomy of a Scene

‘Red Notice’ Review: Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot Compete in an Elaborate Easter Egg Hunt

Peter Debruge

Related Stories

Popular on Variety

Reviewed at Wilshire Screening Room, Los Angeles, Nov. 1, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 117 MIN.

More from Variety

Netflix's Red Notice Review: A Slick And Funny Thriller That's Bursting At The Seams With Charisma

Red Notice oozes high-octane charisma, from start to finish.

Red Notice is legitimately hilarious.

Red Notice cuts a few corners, preventing it from being a certified classic.

Most Popular

Red Notice Review

Related Articles

‘Red Notice’ review: Netflix puts blockbuster budget on the small screen

More Stories

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Movies / TV

Red Notice Reviews

Red Notice Video Review

The UCSD Guardian

Film Review: “Red Notice”

Comments (0)

‘Red Notice’ Film Review: Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds Star in a Caper Far Too Pleased With Itself

Metacritic reviews

More from this title

Or browse by category:

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Common Sense Selections for Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

Kids' Mental Health Apps and Websites for Anxiety, Depression, Coping Skills, and Professional Support

Multicultural Books

YouTube Channels with Diverse Representations

Podcasts with Diverse Characters and Stories

A Lot or a Little?

Positive Messages

Positive Role Models

Diverse Representations

Violence & Scariness

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Products & Purchases

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Parents Need to Know

Where to Watch

Community Reviews

Fun action flick

Is It Any Good?