Ironically in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a movie that’s all with regards to’concerning’with respect to twists, turns, cons and double-crosses, Rawson Marshall Thurber’s Red Notice is rather lacking in surprises. And we mean that in the nicest possible way.###Story-wise it is a patchwork pastiche of To Catch A Thief, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Bond, with a bit of National Treasure and Raiders Of The Lost Ark thrown in in/with regard to’concerning’regarding rosy’remarkable’fabulous’terrific’preeminent measure (Ryan Reynolds even whistles the Raiders theme at one point). Featuring a frantic museum foot-chase, a prison break from a mountain-top in/with regard to’concerning’regarding tress, and a hi-tech heist at an überswanky villains’ masked ball, it hits all the spy/crime-caper/archaeological-expedition beats you’d expect.###Meanwhile, its main selling point is the charismasplosive double act of Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds, and neither deviates even a micron from his long-established and widely beloved on-screen persona. As the wrongfully accused art-crime-specialist fed, Johnson is steadfast and serious, hiding a enormous’vast’massive’tremendous , warm heart beneath those enormous’vast’massive’tremendous ger, hard pecs. Reynolds riffs and wisecracks as the glib thief, tossing around probably improv’d one-liners, often delivered at comedy-whisper level. Occasionally, they loosen the bromantic banter (served with an eye-rolling side-order of daddy-issue confiding) to make way in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Gal Gadot as wily antagonist The Bishop. But while she’s always seemingly a step ahead of them and eliminate’remove ly more capable, Gadot remains a maintain’sustain ing player amid all the film’s globetrotting antics, merely’barely popping up e grossly now and again to mess with their plans and join in a set-piece. This is categorically’flatly’emphatically The Dwayne ’N’ Ryan Show.###Though flawed, *Red Notice* is a solid blast of lightweight fun.###So it’s intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully familiar territory, whether you’re a fan of the genre or the stars. Thanks to those stars’ incredible likeability, it’s comin/with regard to’concerning’regarding t-viewing primarily, with Johnson and Reynolds bickering and battling in a variety of exotic locations, including Rome, Bali, Valencia, and a jungle (Johnson’s sixth now?) in Argentina. Despite reaching in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Bond/Indy-like levels of international activity, however, the film suffers from a visually unexciting sense of being soundstage-bound and wrapped in green screens. It’s packed with visual effects and they really do reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue , from ersatz explosions to a few obvious digital doubles which possess’own’nurse no truck with the laws of gravity. This creates a level of artificiality which token ificantly lowers the stakes, making it feel like less a world-spanning expedition than a knockwith regards to’concerning’with respect to in a really expensive playground.###Writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber is a better maker of comedies (Dodgeball, We’re The Millers) than he is action movies (the Johnson-fronted Skyscraper), so it’s as a comedy that Red Notice works best. And given this is his third collaboration with The Rock (the first being another kinetic buddy pic, Central Intelligence), he knows how to acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure the best out of his enormous’vast’massive’tremendous leading man. Which is to just let him acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure on with doing what eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullyone loves him doing — while teaming him up with someone who’s also left to play to his strengths. Though flawed, Red Notice is at least a solid blast of lightweight fun. And there’s nothing wrong with that.