The Unfettered Critic – June 2024

JUST THE OTHER DAY, one of us was saying that he’d like to see a good caper movie, like The Sting, or Ocean’s Eleven. Something with a lot of action that raises adrenalin levels and makes you think. Coincidentally, Netflix sent us an ad boasting about a bunch of “action-packed capers” they just happened to have waiting for us.

We briefly wondered whether Netflix had planted some listening devices in our home, yet we were intrigued by the potential for engaging evening entertainment. We picked several titles from their candidates that sounded closest to our needs, and settled in to watch (and, of course, review, because we may as well kill two birds with one view) (looking at you, Mr. Publisher Parker, sir).

Alas, although Netflix’s suggestions included plenty of slam-bang action, we found very little “capering,” as you shall soon see.

Lift (2024)—Actor Kevin Hart appears as an art thief contacted by his ex—an Interpol agent—who offers him a deal: steal a huge consignment of gold being flown from London to Zurich. In return, he and his team will receive immunity for this and a variety of past crimes. He says yes.

Sounds like just the ticket, right?

Sadly, we couldn’t sit through more than fifteen minutes of this predictable retread of sooooooo many better movies and TV shows (Leverage comes immediately to mind). A great aspect of streaming is that you can turn something off midstream without feeling guilty.

Triple Frontier (2019)—The cast of this action-packed heist movie attracted us—but we soon learned that good actors aren’t everything. Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, and Pedro Pascal are former members of a band of “special forces operatives” whose glory days are in the past. Isaac gets the band back together to take down a South American drug lord and steal his ill-gotten booty. It goes without saying that things don’t go as planned, and what started as a kind of gritty Ocean’s Eleven devolves into a pastiche of the more depressing scenes from Deliverance and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Dark and downbeat, we stuck with it to the end, but didn’t exactly feel charged with positive feelings when it was over. On the positive side, not everyone dies.

(Have we said too much?)

The Gray Man (2022)—Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, known for their blockbusters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, these guys know how to helm movies that monopolize the box office (we’re talking billions). Superstar (and deserving of the title) Ryan Gosling plays “the Gray Man,” an assassin who works for “the good guys” (i.e., the CIA…assuming you consider them the good guys). Playing against type, former Captain America star Chris Evans portrays the sociopathic ex-CIA agent attempting to assassinate the assassin. The movie was made before Gosling was announced as the male lead in 2023’s Barbie, yet at one point, Evans’ character offers “ten million to the first guy who puts a bullet in this Ken Doll’s brain.” It’s a throwaway line, but a nice example of the subtle humor permeating this exhilarating but very violent film.

Your Unfettered Critics suffered a split opinion on The Gray Man; one of us would have turned it off after the umpteenth blood-spattered sequence. The other hung in there for the occasional quips. And maybe for the Ken Doll. Apparently, more than a few others were drawn to the flick. Netflix reports that during its first three days of streaming, this movie was seen by 43.5 million viewers—and was the most-watched film in eighty-four countries.

Now that’s a caper!