A One Mann’s Movies Film Review of “Lift” (2024).

“Lift” is on Netflix. And it’s a case of Netflix throwing a case load of money at a weak, generic action script to create some content to fill their front page. Sigh.

Bob the Movie Man Rating:

Plot Summary:

Art thief Cyrus (Kevin Hart) and his gang are recruited by Interpol agent and ex-girlfriend Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) to pull off an audacious heist to foil the plans of international terrorists.

Certification:

UK: 12; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC web site: “Injury detail, sex references, language, threat, violence”).

Talent:

Starring: Kevin Hart, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sam Worthington, Vincent D’Onofrio, Úrsula Corberó, Billy Magnussen, Yun Jee Kim, Viveik Kalra, Jean Reno, Jacob Batalon.

Directed by: F. Gary Gray.

Written by: Daniel Kunka.

Twitter Handle: #LiftMovie.

Running Time: 1h 47m.


Mbatha-Raw and D’Onofrio… what are you doing in such a nasty place? (Source: Netflix)

“Lift” Film Review:

Positives:

  • As is normal in these ‘throw money at the wall’ Netflix movies, there are some exotic locations and some glossy production values.
  • There’s some nice speedy zoom/drone shots, typical for this type of movie.

Negatives:

  • This is a script that feels like it could easily have been written by AI as a joke. Except you’d like to think an AI would have some sort of logic to avoid some of the “WTF” moments that this film generates. For example:
    • the beginning of the film involves the theft of an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) from a gallery in Paris which, as a ‘distraction’, also involves the theft of Van Gogh’s “The Sunflowers” from a gallery in London. Except this theft doesn’t seem to have ANY relevance to the events in Paris at all! Sorry, what??
    • (Slight spoiler)… the airbourne heist plan seems to go horribly awry when team-member Luke (Viveik Kalra) bails on getting on the plane. It turns out that this was a part of the plan all along (Ta-dah!) But the heist is made all the more difficult because Luke was supposed to be carrying a key part of the device assembled on the plane. None of this makes ANY sense if this was a plan!!!
    • By pure chance, a crashing plane falls out of the sky and crash lands directly onto the villain’s estate!
  • The plot relies on you believing that Kevin Hart can be an action hero. At 5’2″ this is (excuse the pun) a bit of a stretch. I don’t wish to be ‘shortist’, but even Tom Cruise is 5’7″! Scenes involving a fist fight on a plane with Cyrus (Hart) and Abby (Mbatha-Raw, only 2″ taller than Hart) fighting professional Bond-style baddies really defy belief. At one point, I swear Abby was picked up by the feet and her head swung against a metal dance pole like a pinana… but she gets up with neither a broken neck or concussion and carries on the fight.
  • It is such a waste of talent: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jean Reno… they are all better than this nonsense. And could Billy Magnussen’s character BE more annoying? I don’t think so.

Kevin Hart… action hero. No, I don’t think so. (Source: Netflix)

Summary Thoughts on “Lift”

I watched this lightweight piece of fluff while doing the ironing. But, imho, it is hardly worthy of being an ‘ironing film’, let alone a sit down and watch film. As my colleague Dan Cook on the Flickering Dreams podcast ranted about on last week’s show, this is nothing more than a “content movie”: lacking any sort of artistic value whatsoever. It’s a depressing state of affairs.  

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Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)

Trailer for “Lift”:

The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2L-Sa_6MU0.

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By bobwp

Dr Bob Mann lives in Hampshire in the UK. Now retired from his job as an IT professional, he is owner of One Mann's Movies and an enthusiastic reviewer of movies as "Bob the Movie Man". Bob is also a regular film reviewer on BBC Radio Solent.

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