En plein vol

If you are frequently critical of things not making sense in movies, Lift is not for you. Me personally, if I'm not enjoying a movie, I become critical of all its flaws. But if the movie is entertaining me, I can overlook a lot.

And that's exactly what happened with Lift. I won't argue about how "good" it is. But I was thoroughly entertained. It's a fun movie with charming actors playing likeable characters. The action scenes are all enjoyable. And it has a solid musical score.

Lift was a pleasant surprise. I mostly hate straight-to-streaming movies. I just came off of an abysmal one with Amazon's Role Play. Luckily this was endlessly more enjoyable.

(1 viewing, 1/12/2024)

I recognize a cheap copycat of a heist movie when I see one and this is definitely one of them. I really do like Kevin Hart (THE reason I started watching this) in other movies, but this time around even he didnt make me laugh.

The bad: Kevin Hart tries to act seriously this time around and that basically is NOT his strength at all. Bummer. But what's worse though is that ALL the other actors are TOTAL NOBODIES.

More bad: supposedly a heist movie, but the heists are completely 100% STUPID AND SILLY LOOKING. This was suppose to excite me?

This looks and feels like yet another cheaply made Netflic movie, only made to fill up another time slot. To be avoided (if one can), especially by the Kevin Hart fans, of whom I am one.

Have we not seen this type of heist film a million times before? Bad guys catch a break from law enforcement only if they do the police's dirty work for them with a big heist or job. Only for the criminals to steal the prized, priceless artifact (or the loot) at the end and then they get away with it.

Lift is no different. If we were to combine Ocean's 11 with the Fast & Furious franchise, then Lift would be that end product. Only Kevin Hart isn't even as charming as George Clooney or as smooth as Brad Pitt. Dare I say even Vin Diesel is better casted in these types of roles than Kevin Hart. Was Hart terrible? No. But he certainly did not match the acting of his counterpart and love interest, Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha-Raw, who I feel was wasted in her by-the-numbers Interpol agent-turned criminal a la Brian O'Conner from F&F films. She looked stunning though as always.

Jean Reno plays the bad guy but, seriously, we're so used to seeing him in these types of films that his presence in the film holds no weight. He's a decent actor and he's typecasted for these types of roles because he plays them well. BUT, again, it just seemed like more of the same with him as the bad guy in a heist or espionage film now where I can't even get invested in the plot cause I'm so tired of seeing him in these roles.

Anyway, Lift itself was not that bad but it's biggest sin is we have seen this plot seems like 1,000,000 times before to the point where it just gets boring. I will probably forget all about this movie by the end of the week.

One bright spot is F Gary Gary did a great job shooting the film. For the most part, it looks great. The opening scenes of Venice were breathtaking and almost makes up for the rest of the film. But the plot to highjack a plane full of gold instead of doing it on the street is just so dumb and implausible that it makes the movie dead on arrival.

As usual, an expensive cast can't help with a poor script of less than B-grade quality. Kevin Hart is mis-cast and has zero charisma as the supposed leader of an elite team of art thieves. A few other names show up but have little to do.

Action is kind of feeble, except for the initial Venice boat chase which is just OK. The actual plot, such as it is, makes very little sense, and seems essentially random.

Even my wife, who is very tolerant for basic fun movies, was openly mocking the ridiculous and predictable script by the end.

Yes, it's another half-hearted by the numbers effort by Netflix. No, it's really not worth your time. I regretted watching it.

It's hard to see Kevin hart in a serious role, and here it was. But here's the thing. I actually feel he did well in this, sure his character had some usual hard manarisums but mostly he was pretty impressive. In this movie he plays Cyrus a leader of a group that like to steal paintings and we get introduced to them while in italy trying to get an nft. Cyrus old girlfriend is a Interpol agent and wants them to do the impossible. They have to steal gold from a plane so that leon the professional doesn't get it. Also on his team are. Bully Magnuson as original name Magnus his the safe expert. Usual corbelo from money heist and is a flight expert. Kim Yoon ji as hacker. Mi son and Vincent defanio as a not so good disguise expert. A good team that's made of two others also and I think this cast works and as a heist movie it was as entertaining as it needed to be and was a pretty fun watch.