‘Red Notice’: Dwayne Johnson And Ryan Reynolds Are No Match For Gal Gadot In Netflix’s Globetrotting Action-Comedy

Netflix has plenty of movies with star power, but none come packing more wattage than Red Notice. The globetrotting heist movie stars Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot, all somehow Fast & Furious vets who’ve never shared the screen together. Well, that changes now in what looks like a cross between The Thomas Crown Affair and The Hitman’s Bodyguard.

Written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, the film gets its title from Interpol’s highest global alert, and finds Johnson as an FBI agent who teams with the world’s greatest art thief, played by Reynolds. Together, this mismatched duo are made to look like fools at the hands of Gadot, who plays the world’s most wanted art thief.

While this may look like a sure thing that any studio would want, there were a couple of swerves along the way. Johnson and Thurber, having worked together on blockbusters Central Intelligence and Skyscraper, developed Red Notice to be a studio movie that would launch a bidding war. They were right. Universal spent big to acquire it, but backed out when they saw the $150M budget. Netflix, on the other hand, was like “Give us that shit!!!” And so here we are.

Red Notice opens in select theaters on November 5th, followed by Netflix a week later.

When an Interpol-issued Red Notice — the highest level warrant to hunt and capture the world’s most wanted— goes out, the FBI’s top profiler John Hartley is on the case. His global pursuit finds him smack dab in the middle of a daring heist where he’s forced to partner with the world’s greatest art thief Nolan Booth in order to catch the world’s most wanted art thief, “The Bishop.” The high-flying adventure that ensues takes the trio around the world, across the dance floor, trapped in a secluded prison, into the jungle, and, worst of all for them, constantly into each other’s company.

 

Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.