The Maximum MacGuffin of Red Notice
It works, as long as you don’t take your movie watching any more seriously than Red Notice takes itself. Which, thankfully, it never does.
There is a movie being self-aware, and then there is Ryan Reynolds whistling The Raiders March while traipsing through a storehouse of Nazi loot to set up the line “Look for the one labeled MacGuffin” to further the plot. Thus is the undercurrent of Red Notice on Netflix.
But it works. It works as long as you don’t take your movie watching any more seriously than Red Notice takes itself. Thankfully, it never does.
The truth is the plot points are just an excuse to get Ryan Reynolds to play Ryan Reynolds opposite Dwayne Johnson, who aptly plays up being Dwayne Johnson, with the perfect counterpoint of Gal Godot who was brilliantly cast to fill the Gal Godot role. And a good time is had by all. Critics will hate it, and fans will love it and feel well served. There are some very funny moments, some great action sequences, and the whole movie is very well made technically speaking. The three stars have all worked together in various combinations before and it shows, as they all fit together in their roles of playing to type. It’s a lot of star power wattage. As long as you don’t look at the edges of the…
