Lift (2024)
Directed by F. Gary Gray
An international heist crew, led by Cyrus Whitaker, race to lift $500 million in gold from a passenger plane at 40,000 feet.
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What critics say influenced Lift
That deflating realization forced this critic to rewatch a classic (Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven remake) to remind herself that yes, this genre could be fun.
Lift rips off The Italian Job and Ocean’s Eleven (Clooney’s, not Sinatra’s), with a little bit of Fast & Furious’ platitudes about found family sprinkled on top as Hart does his best impression of Vin Diesel monotone.
I was expecting some thrilling moments, given F. Gary Gray’s experience in the action genre in the likes of The Italian Job and Fast & Furious 8 a.k.a. The Fate of the Furious.
Lift, which is helmed by F. Gary Gray (director of slick, atmospheric ’90s thrillers Set It Off and The Negotiator plus the slightly less slick and atmospheric remake of The Italian Job), is a by-the-numbers scallywag heist.
Director F. Gary Gray had a solid directing breakout with the wildly entertaining The Italian Job and showed he could handle decent comedic timing with Be Cool – not to mention the excellent Straight Outta Compton.
Gray’s influence, honed during heist movies like The Italian Job and the action film The Fate of the Furious, is really apparent in the best way with Lift’s visual style.
At least Lift is not the disaster Hart’s buddy, Dwayne Johnson, delivered for Netflix a couple years ago with Red Notice. Indeed, the color assigned to the Interpol notice on Cyrus and his crew is only “yellow.” Perhaps it passes as progress that Lift’s color indicates caution about breezy caper entertainment rather than a full, dead stop.