Movie Review: 6 Underground

 Directed by: Michael Bay (Transformers and Bad Boys)

Written By: Paul Wernick, Rhett Resse.                                

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Melanie Laurent, Corey Hawkins, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Adria Arjona, Payman Maadi, Ben Hardy, Dave Franco.

Budget: $150 million

Genre: Thriller/Action

Can we start with the bad things?

Let me tell you what other critics might shy from talking about in the opening lines of their review of this film: THIS IS AN AMERICAN REMAKE OF MONEY HEIST. I don’t care how long it has been in the works; that’s all I can see in the first 20 minutes of the film. Now that we got that out of the way, wait… before we get it totally out of the way, let’s talk about the uncanny similarities between 6 Underground and the also ambitious Netflix-distributed Money Heist in one sentence: a band of misfits who are infectiously intelligent and criminally wired, having each member handpicked by a nebulous leader imbued with a strong sense of noblesse oblige, become modern day daytime vigilantes, clad in questionable costumes & masks, with a goal to get the mission done, retreat to a nondescript boat because the police never searches the sea, and not know or call each other by their real names in order to suffocate every attempt at connection and wipe the word family out of their respective dictionaries which inevitably proves futile because at the end of the day, team members want to introduce themselves to each other’s mothers. Ew.

We can’t move on without passing judgment on the very contentious first 20 minutes. I’ll have you know it is extremely flashy, transformerly destructive and missed a lot attempts at recreating Baby Driver, the Mission Impossible franchise and any Jason Statham movie.

Now, can we talk about the good/best parts?

It is riotously funny… oh my God it is funny. As much as Ryan Reynolds’ quipppings are enjoyable, so are the action scenes. The world owes Michael Bay (director) a debt. Never have I seen sooo many cars destroyed and people dying in adroitly coordinated sequences that sucks the air out of you but sprinkled with OMG moments to let you breath. Oh wait, I saw Mad Max: Fury Road. Sorryyy.

One of the film’s ticked boxes is to pick out the numerous action tropes in the movies it hopes to surmount and throw them at the wall. Who better to do that than the a-hole with a mouth Reynolds? Just that the movie forgets itself sometimes and perpetrates the same evil it criticizes. I mean, why must there always be a kid standing in the middle of a war zone, not running or hiding, just standing there like a fudging statue and needs to be saved by the protagonist who will then proceed to have a wider perspective on war and its shenanigans?

In similar Money Heist fashion (Okay… I’m sorry, this is the last time), one team member wants to know what drives the leader and who he is. Well, he is a billionaire, allegedly. And the rest of his history is up for interpretation by viewers, just like every other member’s. The film doesn’t even try to establish believable backstories, but since it spends all of it energy (and budget) in making that first 20 minutes look like 10 other films, who cares? The brain likes patterns.

So how was it, you ask? Was it enjoyable? Ab-so-lutely.

7/10.

 
This is a first of many random but longer film and TV reviews hitting this platform. Leave a comment on anything relating to this (views, suggestions and additional criticism) and follow me for updates. It’s about to get hot in here. Stay Blessed.