For a while superhero movies were all the rage.  Now I think it is a toss-up between creepy horror stories and shiny, slick caper movies like Lift.  It seems everyone is making them these days, all attempting to find the coolest ways of stealing cash, art, securities and even people.  Someone gets an idea, builds a team to make the heist and then tries to get away with the loot before the authorities close in.  It’s an age-old premise, especially popular since the 1950s when the anti-hero character became de rigueur.  This one is no better or worse than any of the other recent spate.

F. Gary Gray’s film takes place in the European art world, but involves a terrorist group and a murderous billionaire, just to up the ante.  Interpol agent Abby Gladwell (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is ordered to force brainiac thief Cyrus (Kevin Hart) and his team to steal a half-billion dollars worth of gold bullion before the billionaire (Jean Reno) can transfer it to a terrorist cell to fund their next European attack.  The heist involves a crazy plane and a lot of misdirection, some of which seems overly complex.

Heist and caper films are fun because they are usually smart, featuring very intelligent people going to great lengths to obtain really cool stuff.  Done right they can be classic.  But so many of them are made now that the shine has long since worn off this genre.  Aside from the problem that we never really get to know the individual characters, the film also forces the all-too-familiar scheming, heartless government official trope right down the audience’s throat.  This time it’s Sam Worthington who is stuck with the thankless role.  Hopefully he can get back to better days in the next Avatar adventure, for this does nothing for his career.  I did enjoy Kevin Hart’s restrained, smart performance, which is the polar opposite from the obnoxious credit card commercials he makes his living perpetrating on the public.  Lift is a fair diversion, nothing more.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  30 January 2024.