6 Underground
I feel like I’ve hit a wall with Michael Bay. Even sequences of his I genuinely enjoy, I just can’t get excited about them beyond spectacle. Part of it has to do with Bay’s lack of interest in layered character development and narrative, but it seems like my appetite for his empty thrills has dissipated. It’s actually a shame, but this has some of the director’s most wild, intricately-directed set pieces in at least a decade. A blank check, and free reign, from Netflix suits him well.
Part of why “6 Underground” works is because the convergence of Bay, star Ryan Reynolds (essentially playing a character like he has every other character) and writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (the “Deadpool” and “Zombieland” films)- they all feel like they’re on the same wacky wavelength when it comes to ridiculous action movie ideas, as Reynolds’s billionaire fakes his own death, then creates a team to actually help the world through things like coups and removing bad faith leaders. These four are actually well-suited for such nonsense, with Bay the orchestrator as Reynolds and his team- played by Mélanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ben Hardy, Adria Arjona, Dave Franco and Corey Hawkins- are on the hunt for an imprisoned brother of an Middle Eastern country’s dictator to try and hand over more power to the people. What authority do they have to do so? Umm…Reynolds’s character is rich, and a philanthropist?
The open 20 minutes is probably Michael Bay’s finest moment of the past 15 years- a ridiculous, propulsive and bonkers car chase through Italy where we start to meet the main team. Maybe it goes on a bit too long, but there are moments that make that longevity worth while. The set pieces, in particular, are where Bay shines in this movie, even if neither of the later ones have the same wild juice of that opening one. As the film moves through its narrative, the film’s energy is sapped- you almost wish Bay had either cut some of the fat, or a better storyteller were in charge. Reynolds and the cast helps, to a certain extent, but Reynolds’s smartass nature can only deliver us so far as the movie races to a predictable, if nonsensical, conclusion. At this point, however, there’s not much I can say about Michael Bay’s movies that I haven’t said before. I’m not sure if I need another one, though.
