Lift (2024): A heist comedy at higher altitude

This has been a trending for quite some time now and for me started on Netflix with "La Casa de Papel" or as many known it "Money Heist", heist movies. For me the classic in this genre of films is Ocean's Eleven, yes, it more than 20 years old and that is why for me its probably a classic plus that was just another era of movies, imagine seeing how a group of thieves agree to rob three casinos in Las Vegas simultaneously that's a thing that you only see in movies, that's why I decided to comment on the trailer for the movie “Lift” after I saw it, plus I think this is going to be funny with Kevin Hart in it but I would like it to have some adrenaline in it, it is directed by F. Gary Gray and written by Daniel Kunka, it premieres on January 12, Tomorrow on Netflix, the plot is focused in a daring robbery involving $100 million in gold.

A master robbery and her ex-boyfriend team up to carry out a daring robbery: a heist that takes place aboard a 777 passenger flight, on this mission they will have to deal with more than just law enforcement onboard, they also have to compete with another criminal team who is after the gold too, so its a race against the clock for who gets to it first. The cast in my opinion is very well rounded, I already mention Kevin Hart who is a guy that gives me confidence every time I have seen him on a project, on every interview and his stand ups he always mention how he gives more than 100% of himself on every project he works on and so far he have kept his word, other members of the cast are Gugu Mbatha-Raw from Loki, Vincent D’Onofrio aka Kingpin, Úrsula Corberó, Billy Magnussen, Jacob Batalon, Jean Reno fucking Leon The Professional on the plain and Sam Worthington, quite the cast of criminals, figurative speaking, some great actors playing a criminal role on other productions, enough to keep you awake.

For this film to reach the Netflix screen it had to go a long way, Daniel Kunka's script caught the attention of Netflix in March 2021, with major producers Simon Kinberg and Matt Reeves on board, F. Gary Gray, acclaimed for directing hits such as “The Italian Job,” “Straight Outta Compton” and “The Fate of the Furious,” he took the lead in September 2021, guiding principal filming on location in Italy and Northern Ireland. This trailer looks a lot like “The Italian Job,” another Venice bank gold robbery movie.

From what I could research online there are several reasons for audiences to be on the lookout for Lift: the story, the mix of action and comedy, and a great soundtrack expecting tracks from well known artists such as Teyana Taylor, Kanye West and Jay-Z. Curiously, with such a great cast this movie/comedy I hope to leave its own mark as many others where Kevin Hart was, I can still remember and watch Soul Plain (2004) a very silly comedy that have very low scores on IMDB and don't even show on Kevin's profile but he did great on that movie , part of this cast has already work together before and that could add to the success of this production.

This wont be a full blown comedy, from the trailer it looks like they taking it serious but hey cant avoid Kevin jokes neither, online there have been a mix response in anticipation and skepticism comparing it to other heist productions, I don't want to handy cap this movie but that seems a big unfair in my opinion or probably shooting too high comparing it to the OG "Money Heist" the one that started this trending and that's essentially how trending are killed, people keep looking for something that can top up the previous one until they don't and in the process everything changes turning into something totally different, most of the time change so much that the trend is killed, I would say just enjoy the movie for what it is and don't try to compare to any other heist movie if not then you will end up with concerns about originality and to be honest what has not been done so far on movies? yes it is a repeated concept of heist movie.

I would not expect more than an action movie with a good amount of comedy from some actors that I have seen before play a criminal role on other productions, the race against the clock between two criminal teams make it very interesting so if you would like to compare it to another type of movie I would suggest compare it to one of Fast and Furious movies, that is more of a fair fight where comedy and action mix, at the same time prepare for all that kind of stunts that only happen on movies and this time at a very high altitude, in a certain way this movie also reminds me of Tower Heist (2011) with Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller, another action/comedy movie where they had to steal a car from a very tall building so you can imagine how to they take the car down the building without anyone noticing probably same thing how do they take all this gold out of the plain against another team and having police onboard without them noticing? that's the question.