Lift (Crime, Comedy) (2024)
Director: F. Gary Gray
Writer: Daniel Kunka
Stars: Kevin Hart, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jean Reno, Sam Worthington
An international team of thieves is caught by an Interpol investigation into their latest heist. However, they're granted a chance to free themselves of any repercussions by undertaking an impossibly challenging heist for Interpol, with one of their agents tagging along to ensure their progress.
Having worked on music videos with artists like Ice Cube, Queen Latifah and Barry White in addition to high-budget feature films such as "Fate of the Furious" and "Men in Black: International". F. Gary Gray sees his next opportunity in a heist film with Kevin Hart and added cast portraying notorious thieves. As initial themes imply, "Lift" had its speculative script written in 2021 at the height of NFT popularity. Filming occurred across Italy and Northern Ireland, with additional parts filmed at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England. It's been produced by 6th & Idaho Motion Picture Company, Kinberg Genre Films and Hart's own company, Hartbeat while being distributed by Netflix.
After a daring auction heist, the infamous thieving crew led by Cyrus (Kevin Hart) is shanghaied into working for Interpol, who'd been closely monitoring the heist of an expensive NFT project created by prominent artist N8 (Jacob Batalon). Their task is to board a commercial airliner alongside Interpol agent Gladwell (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), which transports a batch of gold bars to be used in a stock exchange scam by the immensely dangerous criminal mastermind Lars Jorgenson (Jean Reno), ensuring his capture by Interpol.
Comparable to films within the "The Fast and the Furious" and "Mission Impossible" franchises. F. Gary Gray tries to impress with this over-the-top heist venture, hijinks that are scarcely meant to be believed and require audiences to go along with the mayhem unpretentiously.
With Hart's comedic penchant; portraying the cherished actor as a charismatic leader in Cyrus. "Lift" forms an all-star squad with the likes of Vincent D'Onofrio, Viveik Kalra and Úrsula Corberó of "Money Heist" fame in her second-ever English-spoken feature. Among these and several others, including love interest Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Abby Gladwell, they coordinate their elaborate scheme, each rising to the occasion with their own particular set of skills.
This scheming and coordination to deliver on this mammoth heist swallow up an extensive second act of "Lift". Each part of the plan is worked out meticulously, knowing enough about future events without spoiling the late-film con montage. It is straightforward with some typical beats, such as Cyrus and later Magnussen's Magnus providing their own hero moments, providing some diluted skits in between, especially with Hart. Relying on plenty of CGI, Gray's heist bonanza requires an open-minded audience that takes such spectacle with a grain of salt and sees through CGI trappings when they're deeply rooted within the contents of such an abundant film.
Each time a Netflix-exclusive releases there's much negative feedback from a vocal minority. As we know, a streaming service with constantly growing pricing wouldn't be able to exist without a loyal audience. "Lift" is most certainly a hit or miss; it's made for those either enjoying heist films but mostly with those fans of the franchises mentioned earlier, such as "The Fast and the Furious" and "Mission Impossible".
Verdict
Doesn't quite manage the lift-off.
6,0
