Kevin Hart's latest, Lift, hit Netflix on the 12th of January, and it's safe to say the critical reception has been...mixed.
While some appreciate Hart's attempt at a more serious role, others feel it misses the mark, leaving audiences wanting more from both the action and the humor.
The story in Lift is a well-worn heist movie trope. Cyrus (Hart) and his crew steal priceless art pieces from auctions and galleries, and Interpol, led by Agent Gladwell (Gugu Mbathe-Raw), tries many times to catch him.
They'll fail every time, of course, right until the one time the police need some thieves to steal something for them conveniently. So now the bad guys are the good guys.
Sound familiar?
Yeah, that's because you've seen it on screen several times before.
While predictability isn't inherently wrong, it needs to be executed with enough flair and originality to keep viewers engaged. The only difference this time is in the third act: they're going to steal a passenger plane. The whole plane.
I mean, "It's kinda hard to steal half a plane" - Cyrus.
Kevin Hart finally wants to be taken seriously as an actor, and this is both bad and good news. Good news because we know he can do it, he has done it before after all (See Fatherhood), bad news because we'll miss Silly Kev.
Anyway, we're here for it, or at least everyone was curious about what that was going to look like when the Netflix trailer dropped.
He plays "Cyrus," a master thief with a Robin Hood complex. Unfortunately, the script doesn't give him much to work with. The dialogue is often clunky, and the character's motivations feel underdeveloped.
The same goes for every other character.
The Lift movie is deemed "Action/Comedy," but believe me when I say none of the comedy is coming from our professional comedian Kevin (even though this was the perfect movie for it), and frankly, neither is much of the action. The funniest person in this thing is that guy in the wheelchair.
In the second half, where they start to execute the grand heist, the pace picks up dramatically, and it is actually quite interesting to watch, even though it ends precisely the way you think it would.
"Need a lift?" Cyrus asks Agent Gladwell in one of the last scenes. Get it? Because… the name of the movie is Lift.
Sigh.
