Review:
"6 Underground"
Release Date: Dec. 13, 2019
Rating: R Running Time: 128 minutes 6 Underground is what happens when Netflix gives Michael Bay a (presumably) blank check to do whatever the hell he wants. A 20-minute car chase through the streets of Florence? Got for it! Flood and destroy a Hong Kong penthouse apartment? No problem! Sink a luxury yacht owned by the bad guy? Perfect! Let Ryan Reynolds be the charming wiseass we know and love? Of course! The action comedy 6 Undergroundis pure and unfettered Bayhem. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing. The good? No one stages action set-pieces likes Bay. The bad? No director stages scenes set-pieces like Bay that are so frenetic in nature that they can and do often induce headaches and/or vomiting. When Bay slows things down, he regales us with chases and shootouts that leave us breathless with their ingenuity and apparent realism. Oh, after showing some restraint for the PG-13 Transformersfranchise, Bay soaks 6 Undergroundin blood. Take the aforementioned car chase in Florence that opens 6 Underground, which features backseat surgery, one dangling eyeball, and death by construction girder. Bay lets loose for a story that screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese pilfer from their script to Reynolds’ Deadpool 2. Essentially, Reynolds’ unnamed billionaire develops a conscience being surviving a massacre in the fictional Central Asian of Turgistan and fakes his own death so he can anonymously assemble and lead a team of mercenaries to remove Turgistan’s cruel dictator from power. The only difference between 6 Undergroundand Deadpool 2is that Reynolds’ team lives to undertake their first mission. And they are referred by number, no code name. Reynolds’ One is joined by Mélanie Laurent’s Two, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo’s Three, Ben Hardy’s Four, Adria Arjona’s Five, and Corey Hawkins’ Seven. (What happened to Six? That would be telling.) Each team member possesses their own particular set of skills, but it is the unexpectedly, hilariously stoic Laurent who turns out to be 6 Underground’s most lethal weapon. Of course, Reynolds sets the tone for 6 Underground’s humor with his trademark flippant asides. But Bay gets the best laugh thanks to his use of THX’s “Deep Note” sound. You know, the corporate sound effect with the power to burst your eardrums. Yes, Bay to weaponizes it without mercy. Whenever Bay lets his cast take a quicker breather, the small talk usually turns to the urgent need to ensure evil does not go unpunished. In Bay’s world, vigilante justice is the only option because it always results in big, loud explosions. “I am One, but not done,” Reynolds says at the end of a job well done. And, given Bay’s appetite for destruction, we know he not pass up the opportunity to get the band back together to wreak more havoc on a global scale. Robert Sims Aired: Dec. 12, 2019 Web site: https://www.netflix.com/title/81001887 |
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