Summary
- Kevin Hart’s newest film, Lift, is described as an adrenaline-infused rollercoaster with an international heist crew trying to steal $500 million in gold from a plane at 40,000 feet.
- Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars opposite Hart as the main female lead, and the film also features a talented supporting cast including Vincent D’Onofrio and Úrsula Corberó.
- Directed by F. Gary Gray, Lift promises to be a classic thrill ride with tense and dramatic moments as Hart’s character navigates a heist on a passenger flight to foil a terror attack.
Kevin Hart brought his heist movie Lift to Netflix, and despite the film receiving a fair amount of hate among critics, that hasn’t stopped it soaring to the top of the platform’s movie chart. Having started its limited theatrical release at the same time, it did not take long for the plane-bound action/comedy to take a nosedive in its Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score, but details revealed by Netflix have shown that this hasn’t hindered the movie’s viewership performance too much.
From its initial wave of reviews, Lift has scored just a 30% approval rating from critics, with the consensus that the film is made well enough but ultimately feels like someone has stolen its heart, soul and any kind of real plotline it may have had, leaving behind a “hollow” film that just doesn’t deliver anything new to the genre. It seems that a large portion of those who have tuned in to watch the movie have tended to agree, with the audience score sitting on 32% at time of writing.
While Hart is best known for his comedic roles, his latest offering is described as “an adrenaline-infused rollercoaster”, which sees an international heist crew, led by Cyrus Whitaker (Kevin Hart), race to lift $500 million in gold from a passenger plane at 40,000 feet. Check out the trailer below.
Lift Review: Kevin Hart Flexes Leading Man Muscles in Slick Heist Film
A master thief (Kevin Hart) and Interpol agent (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) try to steel $500 million dollars in gold from a plane.
Kevin Hart’s Lift Has Been a Surprise Hit on Netflix.
Despite the reviews, Netflix‘s data on Lift revealed that the film landed in the No. 1 spot on their global movie chart with 58.5 million hours viewed on its first two days of release, between January 12-14. While the movie’s long-term performance may not live up to this initial run of popularity, it has certainly given it a good head start.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars opposite Hart as the main female lead after most recently returning to screens in season 2 of Loki as Ravonna Renslayer. Lift also boasts an impressive supporting line-up including Vincent D’Onofrio, who will soon return to his role as Kingpin in Marvel’s Echo, Billy Magnussen of No Time To Die, and Úrsula Corberó of Snake Eyes.
Hart’s character, a master thief, is coaxed into a seemingly impossible heist by the FBI and his ex-girlfriend. However, to make things a little more difficult, the heist takes place onboard a 777-passenger flight traveling from London to Zurich. With the mission involving an attempt to foil a terror attack, things are going to get very tense and dramatic for Hart and the team, in what promises to be a classic thrill ride.
Behind the camera, F. Gary Gray, who helmed Friday and Men in Black: International, directs the action from a script by Dan Kunka. The film is produced by Simon Kinberg, known for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, in conjunction with Audrey Chon for Genre Pictures, Matt Reeves and Adam Kassan for 6th & Idaho, and Kevin Hart and Brian Smiley for HartBeat Productions. It’s like a symphony where each note is played by a virtuoso. You can see the poster below.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
