Netflix‘s star-studded January blockbuster may have been absolutely torn apart by critics but that didn’t stop it from becoming the platform’s second most-watched film of 2024 so far.
Kevin Hart gave James Bond a run for his money in tense heist thriller Lift, which premiered at the beginning of the year, with Billy Magnussen, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Vincent D’Onofrio also in the line-up.
The 45-year-old served as producer and starred as master thief Cyrus Whitaker, who attempted to do the impossible and ‘lift’ gold bars from a plane at 40,000 feet.
The movie currently has a critics score of just 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to an audience rating of 33%, with many left unimpressed by the flick.
However, the sea of negative reviews clearly did nothing to halt fans from pressing play as Lift has raked up a whopping 129,400,000 views between January and June, with 238,800,000 hours watched.
It beat out stiff competition from Society of the Snow, Under Paris, the Super Mario Brothers Movie and Mother of the Bride to claim the runner-up spot in the six-month chart.
Only Millie Bobby Brown’s Damsel has been watched more times, coming in at the top of the list with a staggering 143,800,000 views, and 263,700,000 hours watched.
While Lift may have commanded a huge audience on Netflix, viewers couldn’t help but slate the action film on Rotten Tomatoes, branding it ‘laughably bad’.
Hussain wrote: ‘One of the worst films I’ve ever seen.’
‘It was a laughably bad movie. Bad storyline, cringe and predictable,’ Charlie agreed.
Omar A fumed: ‘I love KH, but this movie was very disappointing. It’s probably the worse film he’s ever done.
‘The story, the acting, the character, and the lines are poor. We couldn’t finish half of the movie. Don’t waste your time.’
Anton penned: ‘Even for a fan of Kevin Hart movies, this is unwatchable.’
As Arrows_O added: ‘This was without a doubt one of the worst action movies I have seen. Nonsensical and silly, and yet without anything truly unique to it. Truly awful.’
In the flick, Kevin was seen in a role he had never portrayed before, giving Tom Cruise, Jason Statham and Mark Wahlberg a run for their money in the action stakes.
The Jumanji actor is well-known for his comedic side and has spent much of his time in the spotlight making us laugh, thanks to stints comedies including Central Intelligence, Ride Along and Me Time.
However, with Lift, he ignored the giggles and went straight into his villain era, and clearly relished the opportunity to be slightly more serious.
‘It’s not really villain,’ he told Metro.co.uk ahead of the release. ‘What it is, it’s con. It’s a guy who’s not necessarily doing the right thing – it’s the wrong thing – but because it’s con, and its charm, you feel like he’s doing the right thing.
‘His ability to make you feel like you’re at ease, and like you’re a part of good, it’s all based off of what he does well. That, for me, is a lot of fun to play because it’s a place that I can play in that’s real, that’s grounded, and that isn’t farfetched to see me in.
‘That’s what I think was the most interesting thing about Cyrus. You didn’t throw me into an atmosphere where people go, ” What? No!” You get it. It’s like, “Oh, I do see him being that, and I get why he’s able to do that well.”
‘Then I like the romance side of it. It wasn’t overstated, it was understated, and then you find yourself invested.’
Lift is available to stream on Netflix now.
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