Film Review

Red Notice (2021) • Netflix

An Interpol agent tracks the world’s most wanted art thief.

Netflix-produced movies usually hire major Hollywood talent for minor results, and that’s doubly true of the movies they merely acquire the distribution rights to. was set to be released by Universal Pictures into cinemas, so you almost know it’s going to be average (at best) once Netflix swoop in to stream it instead. You think Universal are happy to wave goodbye to the small fortune they’d have made with this? No, they likely realised it was best to cut their losses and just guarantee some sort of return on their investment through Netflix. Red Notice did receive a week-long theatrical run (where it grossed a reported $1.5M), and even allowing for savvy audience knowing to wait for Netflix’s release that’s a disastrously low sum.

Red Notice cost $200M to make — about the same as a major Marvel superhero film — although it’s been confirmed that Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman 1984) got paid $20M each for this, so presumably Ryan Reynolds’ asking price was on par with his co-stars, so a huge $60M was set aside just for casting the leads! The project…