MOVIE REVIEW – The sky may have been the limit for the creators of Lift in terms of action and comedy, but this action-comedy ends up being a mediocre addition to Netflix’s lineup. The movie, backed by a talented cast and an experienced creative team, is based on a concept that could be exciting: an art thief and his team attempt to steal $500 million worth of gold on a plane. Unfortunately, the story falls flat due to cliched characters and shallow humor that even the most talented actors get lost in. The end result is a movie that will quickly get lost in Netflix’s vast collection.

Netflix’s “Lift” went into its big adventure fully equipped: an experienced cast with Kevin Hart, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Vincent D’Onofrio, and a director in F. Gary Gray, who has proven his mettle in heist films with works such as “Set It Off” and the 2003 remake of “The Italian Job” and is also credited with a “Fast and Furious” film. The story – Cyrus Whitaker (Kevin Hart), an international art thief, and his technically advanced team of criminals plan to steal $500 million in gold on a passenger plane – promises thrills and laughs. Unfortunately, this does not save Lift from mediocrity.

Lifeless, clichéd characters

The biggest problem with Lift is that the mediocre direction fails to make the most of the actors’ talents. Most of the actors, while not necessarily bad, fail to bring their characters to life. Instead of portraying fully rounded, authentic people, their performances often fall flat, raising the question of whether this is due to a weak script or the actors’ performances themselves. This is especially true for Cyrus’ gang of criminals, whose dialogue hints at an interesting shared past, but the individual characters are merely dull caricatures of their job descriptions. Yun Jee Kim’s portrayal of Mi-Sun, the group’s skilled hacker, is noteworthy only in this respect. Viveik Kalra’s Luc becomes almost invisible once his engineering skills are no longer needed. Vincent D’Onofrio, who usually delivers brilliant performances, is sadly underused here as Denton, the master of disguise. Billy Magnussen’s portrayal of Magnus, while lively and energetic, only partially captures the jovial essence of the character, who is more than just a simple safecracker. The villains in Lift are similarly lackluster: Jean Reno gives his all as the diabolical investment banker Lars, but his limited role reduces him to a mere cameo in the script.

The femme fatale is fatale enough

As soon as Gugu Mbatha-Raw appears on screen as Abby Gladwell, the quality of the movie rises noticeably. As the Interpol agent and Cyrus’ potential love interest, Mbatha-Raw’s subtle emotional portrayal creates rare highlights in the movie. Her facial expressions reveal her character’s gradual loosening of her reservations about working with the thieves. On the other hand, Kevin Hart as Cyrus Whitaker, trying to embody the charming, charismatic leader, struggles to find his “old-school Hollywood gentleman” character as scripted. While Hart occasionally displays elegant restraint, which works particularly well in dangerous situations, he is less effective at portraying deeper emotions, a contrast to his usual prowess in comedic roles.

Weak sauce

“Lift” does not deliver the quality one would expect. The acting is sometimes mediocre, sometimes downright weak, while the heist scenes themselves are unexciting: the fistfights on the plane and the “hair-raising” boat chases are more likely to put the viewer to sleep. As for the humor, it falls into the forced category. This is all the more surprising in view of F. Gary Gray’s previous works like “The Italian Job” or “Fast and Furious”, which certainly weren’t boring in their action scenes.

All in all, “Lift” cannot be called a successful action-comedy. The skills of the talented cast are not fully utilized and the action scenes hardly live up to expectations. The humorous elements are not overly emphasized, only a few scattered jokes and unexpected misfires elicit a half-smile. As a result, this airplane action comedy is another nosedive that quickly sinks into the endless array of mediocre movies on Netflix.

-Gergely Herpai (BadSector)-