Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, and Dwayne Johnson are armed and smirking in the Red Notice trailer

Netflix's star-studded spy games heist comedy is “gonna steal Cleopatra’s eggs”

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  October 21, 2021 | 6:32pm
Aux News Red Notice
Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, and Dwayne Johnson are armed and smirking in the Red Notice trailer
Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds Photo: Netflix

Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot are ready to prove that movie stars are not extinct—they’re just on the hunt for Cleopatra’s eggs.

The new trailer for Netflix’s spy games action comedy Red Notice is here, and fortunately, it is more descriptive than the title. Deadpool Ryan Reynolds plays a world-class treasure hunter, who stumbles into a career as the world’s second most wanted art thief, despite being, by all accounts, inept. Obviously, this makes him the perfect foil for FBI agent Dwayne Johnson, who needs Reynolds’ help in apprehending competent cat burglar Gal Gadot before she steals Cleopatra’s eggs.

Red Notice comes to us (as the trailer loudly announces) from Rawson Marshall Thurber, one of The Rock’s go-to boys. Together, Thurber and Johnson have made Central Intelligence and Skyscraper. We assume Brad Peyton, director of previous Rock vehicles Journey 2 The Mysterious Island, San Andreas, and Rampage, was busy that weekend.

The dynamic among Red Notice’s three leads is the obvious sell.

The Rock is in a similar mode that he exhibits in his collaborations with Kevin Hart—exasperated by the necessary incompetence that surrounds him. Meanwhile, Reynolds does his Jim Carrey action hero thing, which is to say, he’s Deadpool, winking at the audience as he struggles to suavely grab a gun.

Gal Gadot is the real mystery here. As Reynolds points out, she “looks awful,” sure, but as the Carmen Sandiegoian thief, we don’t get a good sense of what she’s bringing to the table here—outside of being very elusive. Hopefully, the film fills out her character a little better than the trailer does.

Still, the movie looks like it delivers on the action, with a particularly Kill Bill-esque duel being among the more exciting and stylish set pieces teased. Ryan Reynolds’ incompetent James Bond, though? He might have some stiff competition from Tom Holland in the Uncharted trailer.

Red Notice hits select theaters on November 5 and Netflix on November 12.

 
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