Red Notice: You Will Probably Guess What Comes Next

A red notice, for the uninitiated or unaware, is “a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending legal action,” as all viewers are made aware at the very beginning of Red Notice, a thriller-mystery-adventure movie released recently on Netflix.

That semi-interesting, semi-token mostly family-friendly spy film nature characterizes the entire film. It is not meant to be realistic; it is not meant to be hyper-analyzed – it is meant to entertain for an evening, and that’s all. That job it does well. Words like Interpol and FBI are thrown around.

It plays on all the classic tropes of the spy-robber-flick, depicting the main characters traveling picturesquely stereotypical environments: the dense, lively jungle (complete with waterfall), the icy, stark Siberian landscape, fashionable situation-appropriate attire at all times (even if the characters broke out of a prison before immediately flying to a costume party in classy, lovely Rome).

I prefer movies where the characters are casted to fit the role perfectly, whether they’re famous or unknown – icons like the Christian Bale Batman, Gregory Mann Pinocchio, Carrie Fisher Princess Leia, Mark Hamill Luke, or Harrison Ford Han Solo. This movie is a basic action movie, checking all the basic spy flick boxes – and by embracing the basicness, it manages to be fun.