CinemaBlind’s Review – 70%
F. Gary Gray‘s latest Netflix heist film is coming tomorrow and for the people who are excited about film Lift, CinemaBlind is here to watch and judge the upcoming film in advance for you. Starring Kevin Hart in the leading role, the film revolves around a group of master thieves whom Interpol catches at the beginning of the film, but they are offered full immunity and in turn, they will have to pull off a seemingly impossible heist.
Lift is another one of Netflix’s blockbuster cinema like what they tried to do with Ryan Reynolds‘ 6 Underground and Red Notice, but the good thing here is that it is better than both of those films but it is also nowhere near the great heist film like Ocean’s Eleven or Gary Gray’s own The Italian Job.
Hart plays the team captain and his performance is convincing enough to do the job. Still, my real gripe with the film is that it doesn’t utilize Vincent D’Onofrio‘s character enough to leave an impact as he is one of the best actors in the entire ensemble. Other supporting actors also play their respective roles commendably including Úrsula Corberó as the Captain, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Interpol Agent Abby Gladwell, Billy Magnussen as the safecracker, and NS Yoon-G as the hacker.
The type of film Gary Gray was trying to make doesn’t need a very complex villain. However, Lift’s main baddie played by Jean Reno is still very ineffective, and his goons mainly Burn Gorman and Paul Anderson don’t get much to work with because they are both great actors. The film also stars Sam Worthington as an Interpol Agent who originally starts the whole thing but his role is to play the a**hole guy and he does that with enough conviction and a weird accent.
So, in the end, I would like to say that Lift has some great moments and the thrills of a heist film that fans will surely enjoy but it is nowhere good enough to make them want to come back for a rewatch, and in reality that’s the thing with almost all of the Netflix big-budget blockbusters.