★
After faking his death, a tech billionaire recruits a team of international operatives for a bold and bloody mission to take down a brutal dictator
Classification: 15
Bayhem unleashed.
That seems to be the selling point to Netflix's newest big-budget action thriller as their multimillion content creating apparatus hands the keys to the kingdom to cinema's resident expert on how to blow shit up. See it's not just Scorsese and Cuarón getting their passion projects greenlit as Netflix reaches across the aisle to let Michael Bay have at it with a script from Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, the successful screenwriters of action-comedy films such as Zombieland and Deadpool. However, the problem here is that the passion in 6 Underground is exclusively in the hands of the stunt teams, as explosions, gunplay, car chases, parkour, and you guessed it more explosions dominate the hectic editing of this film. Bay and his stunt teams are swinging for the goddamn fences as the force of this action can exceed even Bay's ludicrous standards, the "Bayhem" as it were but they're playing to an empty stadium as the film is flimsily put together by a flaccid premise and a tedious ensemble.
Riffing off a more modern action film premises such as The Expendables, Suicide Squad with a pinch of Fast and Furious, this Ryan Reynolds led team of questionable do-gooders is a pretty uninspired crew of tired clichés. Special operatives who have all faked their deaths to join Reynolds "One" on his righteous crusade against evil, nothing about Wernick or Reese's script makes these characters' jump out from their designated tropes. Each member of the team has a certain skill and numbered code name as if 6 Underground was the ill-advised live-action adaptation of Codename: Kids Next Door. The film gives each character brief backstories but they are all stereotypical from concept to execution, as if the bare minimum was done by the filmmakers intentionally so no one would have to think too hard while they catapult a few more sports cars into a wall. The performances don't fare better from this approach, as the entire cast is a victim to poor dialogue consisting of poorly executed jokes and false sentiments. Reynolds is supporting the entire film on his shoulders but even his patented brand of charm can't save him or the film from the tiresome characterisations as his quick wit yet "tragic" backstory never really mesh.
For a script by Wernick and Reese, nothing about the premise or characters are particularly funny or clever as the geopolitical elements to the plot feel copied and pasted from any other substandard B movie. It's clear 6 Underground taps into this fantasy of being able to actually make a difference in the world, exempt from government oversight or personal baggage but the actual mission is so by the numbers. All the material trying to give the film depth, by stating the whole world is corrupt and efforts to save it are futile, to make the characters sacrifices feel compelling is so threadbare. The overall impact of 6 Underground just feels like an obnoxious imitation of any other team-based action film as the filmmakers go for the most obvious targets to represent "corruption" a middle-eastern dictatorship and allow the western power fantasies to play out. There's nothing heroic about the actions of Reynolds team as Bay does not properly establish a believable and captivating threat as Lior Raz's performances as the dictator is nothing but a collection of rehashed ideas. The whole film is a cynical and tired exercise in "look cool while doing action" and its commentary of the corrupt nature of global politics is laughable. The scene of the "coup" accompanied by Bishop Briggs' song White Flag being horribly embarrassing in how disrespectful it shows the filmmakers understanding of the nature of regime change.
It may seem futile to complain about the tonal execution of this material as it is just a mindless action film but that is the main issue to 6 Underground is that it is so mindless. Bay's film outside of the atrocious headaches of the Transformers franchise while exuberant in thrills and action would still have something of note behind them. Granted it wasn't scholarly or groundbreaking but it was enough to get audiences invested in a story behind the action, you care about Nicholas Cage in The Rock, Bruce Willis in Armaggedon, you do not care for Ryan Reynolds in 6 Underground. There is nothing to latch on to with these characters or their premise, just a lot of depressing bravado that makes all these grandiose action setpieces feel like white noise. Despite crafting practically impressive sequences for the team to utilise their skills, it's all surface-level enjoyment as without the emotional connection to the storyline there is no tension or thrills to be had when everything goes to shit.
The action to 6 Underground is impressive, very much Bay unfiltered as with the opening action sequence alone, there are cars flipping and exploding, backseat surgeries, people getting skewered by rebar, bodies flying everywhere, Florence Italy becomes Bay's toybox as he unleashes escalating carnage and no stop on his globetrotting adventure is safe. It's disorientating and hurts your head as the three credited editors make viewing the film an obstacle course in itself, not to mention all the continuity errors. So many angles, cameras and styles to how Bay executes his madness, going from GoPro footage on a bike, to sweeping aerial shots, to the aggressive slow motion of bullets grotesquely penetrating bodies that its feels like Bay is overcompensating to his own reputation. Finesse isn't a word that could be used to describe Bay's directing style but my God there is no subtlety or grace to any of this and the audience can become overwhelmed in the worst ways as bigger is definitely not better in the case of this film. Without oversight from a producer like Jerry Bruckheimer and it would seem no creative input from Netflix, Bay is submitting to his worst impulses, burying the film in as much "Bayhem" as he possibly can. There are moments where the audience can see through the haze, the parkour sequences featuring Ben Hardy's character being the visual highlight of the film as Bay's commitment to practical stunt work can still create moments of awe.
That's the fault of 6 Underground, that despite all the flashy cars, women, and explosions it is obvious the entire product is just a vapid, soulless excuse for Bay to blow more shit up. Netflix's creative freedom is one of the draws for established filmmakers to take their projects to the service but Bay's creativity is solely focused on the stylish action aesthetic with no emotion to give to any of it. It's not the great start to a fresh new action franchise but another forgettable mishmash of actors and explosions that are not "awesome or cool" only derivative to Bay's earlier and more impressive work.
Director: #MichaelBay
Cast: #RyanReynolds, #MélanieLaurent, #ManuelGarciaRulfo, #AdriaArjona, #CoreyHawkins, #BenHardy, #DaveFranco
Release Date: December 13th 2019
Available exclusively on Netflix
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from Netflix
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