‘Lift’ Review (Netflix)
Stars: Kevin Hart, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sam Worthington, Jean Reno, Vincent D’Onofrio, Úrsula Corberó, Billy Magnussen, Yun Jee Kim, Viveik Kalra, Jacob Batalon | Written by Daniel Kunka | Directed by F. Gary Gray
After behind-the-scenes conflict marred the final cut of 2019’s Men In Black: International, director F. Gary Gray returns with a simpler premise for Lift. The story initially begins at an auction in Venice, where international thief Cyrus Whitaker (Kevin Hart) arrives to bid on an item. Keeping an eye on Cyrus is Interpol agent Abby Gladwell (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), although it becomes clear that this is part of the plan when Cyrus’ team evades the agents to simultaneously kidnap an NFT artist and steal a Van Gogh painting.
Under the orders of her boss (Sam Worthington), Abby offers a deal to Cyrus and his team for immunity. In exchange, they agree to steal the $500 million in gold that billionaire Lars Jorgensen (Jean Reno) is transporting to pay a terrorist group. To enact this, the plan becomes to steal the gold from a passenger plane at 40,000 feet.
Taking on the lead role of a Danny Ocean-style mastermind, Hart takes on a different role that steps away from the comedic elements which made him into a bankable star. Credit to him for trying something new although, unfortunately, he feels miscast in the role. While Clooney managed to deliver a suave charm in his role across the Ocean’s Trilogy, Hart’s performance reflects this film in how they miss a sense of fun in favour of something too self-serious. A history is shared between Cyrus and Abby, as their butting heads stems from a brief fling in Paris where they did not know each other’s identities. Opposites attract is the idea for this romance, yet it is a one-note idea that cannot rise above the lack of chemistry and little development.
Such issues are seen across the many characters that feel tooled to deliver the bare minimum for this kind of film. Take the heist crew, whose characterization is entirely in their described roles as Daniel Kunka’s screenplay offers the cast little to work with. They should be a group of law-breaking misfits that resemble a makeshift family, yet the lack of chemistry makes them instead feel like colleagues who struggle to remember each other’s surnames. The filmmakers still try to sell them as a fun bunch to be in their company of but, no matter how much they try to make fetch happen, it does not happen in such forced confines.
It is generous to describe Lift as by-the-numbers fare, as the film feels like an A.I. generated idea of a “cool heist film” that is designed to bulk up Netflix’s back-catalogue as people scroll through the app. It is also as soulless as that descripter sounds, with this unfunny feature never really taking off across the 107-minute runtime.
* 1/5
Lift is available to stream on Netflix now.
