The Rock and Ryan Reynolds are “Work Wives” in First Trailer for Netflix’s Red Notice

By Jim Vorel  |  September 2, 2021 | 9:56am
Photos via Netflix
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The Rock and Ryan Reynolds are “Work Wives” in First Trailer for Netflix’s Red Notice

From the “it’s actually not a Fast & Furious movie, no matter how much it looks like one” file, comes Netflix’s upcoming Red Notice, a would-be blockbuster with a soaring budget that has reportedly made it the most expensive Netflix production ever. For all that money (between $160-200 million), you’d expect some marquee names to go along with it, and the film doesn’t disappoint on that front: Red Notice stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot as a trio of sparring thieves/law enforcement who get caught up in a bigger scheme as they compete to out-do each other. As the official synopsis puts it:

An Interpol-issued red notice is a global alert to hunt and capture the world’s most wanted. But when a daring heist brings together the FBI’s top profiler (Johnson) and two rival criminals (Gadot, Reynolds), there’s no telling what will happen.

The film has had a rather messy pre-production and shooting process, which first saw it acquired from Universal by Netflix back in July of 2019. Production began in Jan. of 2020, but was then interrupted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy in particular, which forced various starts and stops to production throughout 2020, with shooting finally wrapping in November.

As for the trailer below, we’d be lying if all this didn’t feel extremely familiar. The whole thing could be pitched as a lost Hobbs & Shaw sequel, and both Johnson and Reynolds are playing extremely familiar character archetypes, clearly sticking with what they know. Gadot, meanwhile, is in exactly the sort of femme fatale role you’d expect the writer to place her in. Perhaps this kind of predictable action is precisely what the couchbound Netflix audience will prefer, however. Regardless, it strikes us as an inordinate amount of money to spend on a film that ultimately feels like one we’ve seen before, even if Red Notice isn’t part of an existing franchise.

The film hits Netflix on Nov. 12, 2021. Check out the first trailer below.

 
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