Spoiler alert: This article contains commentary about key details of “Lift’s” plot.
“Lift”, an action-comedy exclusive from Netflix, follows Cyrus Whitaker (Kevin Hart), a master thief, and his crew of professional criminals as they attempt to steal $500 Million in gold bullion from a plane in mid-flight.
Forced into a deal with Interpol, Whitaker’s team of good-hearted thieves raced to steal the gold in order to avoid imprisonment, stop evil criminal Lars Jorgenson’s plans to stage a massive catastrophe in Europe and, ultimately, “save lives”.
So is it worth the popcorn? I would say, “Absolutely not.”
After about 20 minutes, the movie flatlined and never got back up from the operating table.
Between a completely predictable plot and cheese-bomb attempts to create a sense of urgency, it was all too familiar and, honestly, very slow.
Several attempts were made to spice up the dullness with scenes of fancy speedboats, safe-cracking laser beams, and a very neat futuristic jet plane; however, this just wasn’t enough to give the plot a solid heartbeat.
Instead, the bad guy wasn’t really bad enough to be afraid of, and the entire movie felt like a failed attempt to recreate the same vibe a dozen or so other successful heist movies had gone for.
Additionally, the efforts at comedy were often crude, placed at the wrong time, and honestly, not that funny. I found some of the scenes meant to be serious almost as laughable as the so-called funny ones.
The action scenes were often rushed and very unrealistic. The scene where the door of the plane opens mid flight to suck out one of the assassins would have realistically sucked everyone and everything out of the cabin.
On the bright side, the cinematography was well done. The opening scenes in Venice and the closing landscapes were superb.
The special effects and acting weren’t terrible, but they weren’t spectacular, either. Each character played their role decently, but not well enough for watchers to feel as though they were completely rooted in their characters.
At times the dialogue felt slightly forced, and in some places if felt like the actors were acting. In a good movie the characters should appear natural and it should feel unforced.
Overall, “Lift” will be a yet another movie that will be quickly forgotten and put on the shelf.
