Lift

It's another disappointing action movie from Netflix, which has a very spotty record in this space.

It's a bore.

Any film that begins with an elaborate, broad daylight heist deserves viewers' attention. It's what comes between that intro and the film's adrenalin-pumping final hour that may give Netflix audiences reasons to take a refrigerator break.

Fine for what it is, featuring a heist designed for light escapism. Yet it’s also a prime example of the Netflix algorithm at work: using data to determine what subscribers like, then feeding that demand.

Perhaps aware of the limitations of the screenplay, director F Gary Gray deploys an irritating arsenal of flashy camera moves and sleight-of-hand edits, but these only serve to emphasise the emptiness of the spectacle.

The one saving grace of the many shenanigans in Lift is that everything is so confusing that we don’t get the chance to realize how punishingly implausible it all is.

Overall, Lift is a fun film with beautiful scenery, but you probably won’t get any frequent flyer miles or first-class upgrades out of any rewatches. Enjoy the smooth air and give the movie a try.



Kevin Hart plays it straight and it is a lot of fun.

Lift features a stacked cast, yet the script fails to make anyone memorable.

Feels like an algorithm-designed movie... It's all so by-the-book and listless throughout.