Lift
The worst thing is not that it is absurd. In a heist movie, you can accept plenty of nonsense if there is rhythm, charisma, ingenuity or at least that sense of play that makes logic stop mattering. The worst thing is that I found it so flat, so prefabricated and so lifeless that I even fell asleep in the middle of it. And that, in a film supposedly trying to be light, fast and fun, is almost the worst possible condemnation. It did not make me angry; it simply switched me off.
The premise could have made for decent entertainment: a group of sophisticated thieves, an impossible job, a plane in mid-flight, gold, technology, tricks, chases and Kevin Hart trying to place himself at the center of an international action comedy. On paper, nothing new was needed. The heist genre often works with familiar pieces, as long as the mechanism has charm. The problem is that here everything feels copied from other films, but without the charm, elegance or energy that justify the recycling.
From the beginning, there is that feeling of a platform product manufactured by algorithm. There are flashy locations, familiar faces, music trying to push scenes with no force, explanatory dialogue and a team of characters defined by one skill each. The pilot, the hacker, the disguise expert, the charming leader, the agent who had a past with him, the villain of the week. Everything is placed in its proper box, but almost nothing breathes. They do not feel like people, not even inside the artifice of the genre; they feel like functions waiting for their turn.
Kevin Hart is one of the major problems for me. I am not saying he cannot work in action or comedy, but here he does not sell either the aura of an elegant thief or the charisma of an irresistible leader. The film needs us to believe his character is brilliant, seductive, dangerous, ingenious and able to pull off a huge job without breaking a sweat. I almost never bought it. It also does not help that the humor is so weak. There is no real comic spark, no jokes that lift a scene, no chemistry strong enough to make the whole thing feel more likeable than it is.
The cast, in general, is wasted. There are actors with presence, but the film uses them as luxury decoration for a rather poor mechanism. Gugu Mbatha-Raw tries to bring some seriousness and romantic tension, but her character remains trapped between competent police officer and standard former love interest. Jean Reno appears as the villain, but without any real threat. Úrsula Corberó, Billy Magnussen, Sam Worthington and the rest come and go fulfilling labels rather than building characters. It is the kind of cast that should add flavor and ends up feeling like a list of ingredients without a dish.
The action does not save anything either. There is movement, flights, cars, technology, calculated hits and moments seeking spectacle, but almost everything feels impersonal. You can tell it wants to sound like a big modern heist, with a bit of cool team, a bit of luxury, a bit of danger and a bit of humor, but the mixture comes out surprisingly bland. Even when huge things happen, the film presents them with a desperate lack of tension.
The most serious problem is that there is no pleasure in the robbery. In good heist films, the viewer enjoys watching the pieces fit together, how one trap hides another, how an impossible solution becomes elegant. Here the plan moves forward because the script says it moves forward. The complications do not surprise, the solutions do not amaze and the twists do not produce that smile of “they got me”. Everything feels like a shiny but hollow model. Lots of polish, little real intelligence.
I understand that someone could see it as background entertainment, the kind you put on one night without asking for anything and forget the next day. But even for that, it seemed poor to me. It does not have enough charm to compensate for its clichés or enough spectacle to cover its emptiness. It is one of those films that want to be easy, but confuse ease with laziness. They want to be light, but end up irrelevant. They want to look expensive, but reveal a very obvious creative poverty.
In the end, I found it bad and boring, which is a hard combination to forgive in a product made precisely to entertain without complications. It is not a grotesque disaster or an outrageous film; in a way, it is worse: forgettable, soft, flat and so mechanical that even its absurdity is not fun. If a heist movie makes you fall asleep, something has failed at the root. It did not steal my gold, of course. It stole my time, my attention and my will to stay awake.
The premise could have made for decent entertainment: a group of sophisticated thieves, an impossible job, a plane in mid-flight, gold, technology, tricks, chases and Kevin Hart trying to place himself at the center of an international action comedy. On paper, nothing new was needed. The heist genre often works with familiar pieces, as long as the mechanism has charm. The problem is that here everything feels copied from other films, but without the charm, elegance or energy that justify the recycling.
From the beginning, there is that feeling of a platform product manufactured by algorithm. There are flashy locations, familiar faces, music trying to push scenes with no force, explanatory dialogue and a team of characters defined by one skill each. The pilot, the hacker, the disguise expert, the charming leader, the agent who had a past with him, the villain of the week. Everything is placed in its proper box, but almost nothing breathes. They do not feel like people, not even inside the artifice of the genre; they feel like functions waiting for their turn.
Kevin Hart is one of the major problems for me. I am not saying he cannot work in action or comedy, but here he does not sell either the aura of an elegant thief or the charisma of an irresistible leader. The film needs us to believe his character is brilliant, seductive, dangerous, ingenious and able to pull off a huge job without breaking a sweat. I almost never bought it. It also does not help that the humor is so weak. There is no real comic spark, no jokes that lift a scene, no chemistry strong enough to make the whole thing feel more likeable than it is.
The cast, in general, is wasted. There are actors with presence, but the film uses them as luxury decoration for a rather poor mechanism. Gugu Mbatha-Raw tries to bring some seriousness and romantic tension, but her character remains trapped between competent police officer and standard former love interest. Jean Reno appears as the villain, but without any real threat. Úrsula Corberó, Billy Magnussen, Sam Worthington and the rest come and go fulfilling labels rather than building characters. It is the kind of cast that should add flavor and ends up feeling like a list of ingredients without a dish.
The action does not save anything either. There is movement, flights, cars, technology, calculated hits and moments seeking spectacle, but almost everything feels impersonal. You can tell it wants to sound like a big modern heist, with a bit of cool team, a bit of luxury, a bit of danger and a bit of humor, but the mixture comes out surprisingly bland. Even when huge things happen, the film presents them with a desperate lack of tension.
The most serious problem is that there is no pleasure in the robbery. In good heist films, the viewer enjoys watching the pieces fit together, how one trap hides another, how an impossible solution becomes elegant. Here the plan moves forward because the script says it moves forward. The complications do not surprise, the solutions do not amaze and the twists do not produce that smile of “they got me”. Everything feels like a shiny but hollow model. Lots of polish, little real intelligence.
I understand that someone could see it as background entertainment, the kind you put on one night without asking for anything and forget the next day. But even for that, it seemed poor to me. It does not have enough charm to compensate for its clichés or enough spectacle to cover its emptiness. It is one of those films that want to be easy, but confuse ease with laziness. They want to be light, but end up irrelevant. They want to look expensive, but reveal a very obvious creative poverty.
In the end, I found it bad and boring, which is a hard combination to forgive in a product made precisely to entertain without complications. It is not a grotesque disaster or an outrageous film; in a way, it is worse: forgettable, soft, flat and so mechanical that even its absurdity is not fun. If a heist movie makes you fall asleep, something has failed at the root. It did not steal my gold, of course. It stole my time, my attention and my will to stay awake.
Mini Review: The worst thing is not that it is absurd. In a heist movie, you can accept plenty of nonsense if there is rhythm, charisma, ingenuity or at least that sense of play that makes logic stop mattering. The worst thing is that I found it so flat, so prefabricated and so lifeless that I even fell asleep in the middle of it. And that, in a film supposedly trying to be light, fast and fun, is almost the worst possible condemnation. It did not make me...