With the exam period lurking over us, I am quite sure most of us have lost touch with the Hollywood universe for obvious reasons. While studying hard is important, it is equally as important to take breaks occasionally to relax your mind. As the weather does not entice us to go outside, what better way to spend your relaxing time than to catch up on a movie. If you are anything like me then you know how much time it takes to get a good movie. Sometimes you are on Netflix scrolling for as much as 40 minutes trying to find the perfect movie that goes with your food. 

*Spoiler alert*

Red Notice is the perfect movie to unwind with. For one, the casting of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as John Hartley, Ryan Reynolds as Nolan Booth, and Gal Gadot as Sarah Black, alias The Bishop, should grab your attention because you know the movie is going to be interesting. An important point I should make is that this review contains spoilers so if you have not watched the movie, keep scrolling. 

The film’s plot is centered around three coveted eggs which once belonged to the Egyptian queen Cleopatra.

Over time the eggs are lost until several hundred years later two eggs are found and only one is left. Needless to say, the eggs are the target of art thieves all over the world. In one of the first scenes of the movie Booth is caught by Hartley trying to steal one of the eggs. In an entertaining scene, Booth manages to escape and heads to his home in Bali and finds Hartley waiting for him along with the entire Interpol team that has been hunting him.

While he is being taken to jail, the egg he had stolen conveniently disappears while in the hands of the authorities, and Hartley gets framed for it and now our movie’s plot gets thicker than Nutella.

Hartley gets put in the same jail as Booth and the film is now the good old comedy classic- the badass muscle guy and the not so muscular smart and funny dude. 

Source: port.hu

While in jail they get a visit from Black who proposes that they all work together to find the third egg and split the proceeds. Booth declines and suggests that he and Hartley can beat Black to the loot. In another display of brains, the pair escapes from jail and embark on a mission to steal the eggs.

The second egg is in Valencia in the arms of an arms dealer (see what I did there) called Sotto Voce who loves to strangle people shirtless.

Sotto Voce was hosting an eyes wide shut style masquerade ball and this was the perfect place to steal the egg. Our comedic duo arrives and finds Black already at the scene and they are all working against time to out steal each other. According to me, this is the peak moment of the movie with some of the most intensive and funny scenes. One can’t help but hold their breath as we see how the duo avoids the security guards and breaks into the vault to steal the egg. While in the vault they are caught, and it is revealed that Black is working together with Sotto Voce. 

The duo is tortured to reveal the location of the third egg and after Black finds out, she double-crosses Sotto Voce, the shirtless strangler.

At this point, you just might get tempted to sing along to Chris Brown’s lyrics ‘ These women ain’t loyal’ because that was a twist I was not expecting. 

The duo escapes yet again from Sotto Voce’s place and heads to Argentina to get the third egg. Black appears after we were made to believe that she went to Egypt because Booth had given her the wrong location. The police then appear and the three of them are forced to work together and escape. 

All this time we have already fallen in love with Hartley and Booth’s duo and it is the most heartbreaking scene when after they have escaped and Booth gloats to Black that he is currently the number one art thief in the world, Hartley goes to Black and kisses her revealing that they have been partners the whole time.

We now know that just like the game of chess, The Bishop is not one but two people; Hartley and Black.

They tie Booth to a tree and head to Egypt to give the eggs to a Billionaire buyer who gives them to his daughter at her wedding, like Marc Anthony’s original gift to Cleopatra. However, the bride is more excited to see Ed Sheeran, who is shortly arrested for trying to fight police officers who raid the wedding and arrest the billionaire. 

Six months later, Booth tracks Hartley and Black and strong arms them into working with him on a different heist.

The authorities place a red notice on them which is the highest level of wanted a criminal can achieve. The film ends with the three of them about to pull off a heist at the Louvre in Paris setting up a potential sequel. The sequel will have everyone at the edge of their seats as we follow our iconic trio to pull the biggest heist. Will they be successful? Will they double cross each other as before? For now we wait? 

Written by Fidel Gatimu