The Negotiator, The Italian Job, and Law Abiding Citizen are amongst my favourite films; the common link between all three is the director F. Gary Gray who does a commendable job in all three films and continues to do good afterwards. He not only had a knack for storytelling, but also managed to create memorable characters in his films which sometimes had an ensemble cast. However, his latest release Lift not only looks like a lackluster attempt to come up with a heist film, but also falls flat because of a cast that was anything but ensemble.
Why he chose to give the lead role to Kevin Hart is something only he can answer. The actor who has made a name for himself in comedy films, or buddy films as a sidekick, with a bigger star in a parallel role, is not the leading-man material, no matter how ‘hart’ he tries. He fails to take the film forward despite having a promising cast, and his act to look cool like Tom Cruise makes you wish you had never seen the film.
Kevin Hart’s miscasting is matched by a few things in the film, beginning from the absurdity of the plot, and ending with wasting talented actors in insignificant roles. Any actor would have loved to have Sam Worthington and Vincent D'Onofrio in the cast but here they are reduced to side characters who have nothing new to offer, which is an insult to both their talents and the audience’s expectations.
The Plot
Commander Huxley (Sam Worthington) of the Interpol blackmails renowned art thief and conman Cyrus (Kevin Hart) into helping them out with a case where their hands are tied. On the promise of a clean slate, Interpol wants Cyrus and his team of talented thieves to stop a shipment of gold that is being transported to Zurich so that it doesn't land in the hands of its owner Jorgenson (Jean Reno) who is an evil mastermind planning to destroy lives to increase his fortune.
The team, comprising of master of disguise Denton (Vincent D'Onofrio), pilot Camila (Úrsula Corberó), crazy safecracker Magnus (Billy Magnussen), hacker Mi-Sun (Kim Yoon-ji) and engineer Luke (Viveik Kalra), are joined by Cyrus’s ex, Agent Gladwell (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and they collectively decide that the only way to steal the gold is while the airliner is in mid-air. However, when one member of their team decides to back out at the last minute, and a trio of bad guys join them on the plane unexpectedly, things begin to go haywire, until Cyrus rescues them with his fists and wits.
The Good
The film begins in an impressive manner where every character is introduced and their idiosyncrasy is highlighted although it’s now a common element in heist films. The locations used are breathtakingly picturesque as the viewer is taken from Venice to London to Zurich in a space of 110 minutes. If you are a travel enthusiast, or someone who doesn’t want to use his brain cells while watching a movie, Lift is the film for you because here things happen no matter what the odds.
The best thing about the film is the way the action sequences have been shot; they remind the audience why F. Gary Gray is still regarded as one of the modern-day great action directors. He uses all his experience to take you on a frantic journey be it via air, water, or land, keeping you intrigued with the next big sequence. Despite not having the best actors in the business, he uses his resources well and makes the audience reminiscence his earlier work, which was far better. His last flick Men in Black: International might not have made a big mark at the box office, but before that, he gave continuous hits and raised the bar with his impressive action direction.
The Bad
First things first, Kevin Hart is not hero material and this film proves that. He might have been dressed to kill in the movie but making him sound serious was a mistake on the part of the director. With no jokes, no bad-mouthing, and no stupid remarks, he comes out as cold and uncomfortable. Although his character is paired with his ex-girlfriend, there seems to be zero chemistry between Kevin Hart and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who had previously impressed audiences in the TV series Loki as the main antagonist.
There is also nothing for the fans of Vincent D'Onofrio in this film who is wasted in the character of a man who is supposed to be a master of disguises. He hardly appears in three getups and has nothing to do because most of the story revolves around Kevin Hart. The same is the case with Avatar alumni Sam Worthington who is there for a handful of sequences, and it would have been better had the role been played by someone who wasn’t so famous.
Also, if the director was expecting a huge turnout by casting Úrsula Corberó aka Money Heist’s Tokyo, then he should have given it another thought. In the Spanish series, the actress speaks Spanish and is dubbed for other languages, whereas here she is just there to either fly a plane or navigate a motorboat, and nothing else. Yes, she has a couple of dialogues here and there but it’s nothing like Money Heist where her character’s death garnered worldwide attention.
Not only is the plot of the movie extremely dumb, but the rest of the cast has nothing to do and fails to make a mark because their characters are only developed on the outside and there is nothing that sets them apart. The way the script and the story are packaged seem rushed; the dialogues seem so predictable that you can mute the film and foretell what the characters might be talking about. The heist might have looked great on paper and would have impressed the makers of the Fast and Furious franchise, but with no big star in the cast, it might go unnoticed just like The Man from Toronto and The Gray Man to name a few.
The Verdict
Heist films have been very popular in Hollywood ever since the late 1990s and every leading actor — from Nicolas Cage, George Clooney, Robert DeNiro, and Mark Wahlberg — has led an ensemble cast in a flick, where robbing a bank, a casino, or a vault is shown easy if the team has the expertise. Sadly, Lift lacks in that part big time because first, Kevin Hart is not a leading man material and second, he doesn’t have an ensemble cast to support him. Instead, there are a bunch of very talented actors trying to give their best in a film that should have spent more money on its script rather than taking the audience on a Euro trip.
Just as Steven Segal can’t fit into a comedy role, Dwayne The Rock Johnson can’t be cast as a romantic lead or Samuel L. Jackson can’t be considered for a white man, Kevin Hart isn’t leading man material; had the director used someone else in his place, it might have lifted Lift. The trailer portrayed it as something from the Ocean’s Eleven universe but it came out as a childish attempt at a heist film, where the lack of chemistry between the leading pair is matched by the lack of teamwork, and lazy writing.
If you are a fan of the director, make sure you rewatch his old films instead of wasting time on this flick which is nowhere near his previous work. Yes, he adds his trademark joyful and, adventurous touch to the script, but with nothing extraordinary offered in the plot, all he can do is show his skills as a director and let the audience decide.
Had this film been released 20 years back, it would have done well at the box office but in a time when the audience has so many options to choose from, coming up with a half-baked heist film is not what the audience expected from Netflix. Productions like these give a bad name to the OTT platform which at one time gave tough competition to the cinema industry. Despite having a comedian as the main lead, the film has no humor, and the audience has to be content with witty lines placed in the script sporadically. All that gold, all that beauty, all the good-looking fellas and drop-dead gorgeous gals cannot save this movie from going down the drain where it will be forgotten in no time.
Omair Alavi is a freelance contributor who writes about film, television, and popular culture
All facts and information are the sole responsibility of the writer