Kevin Hart’s new Netflix movie debuts to shocking Rotten Tomatoes score

Kevin Hart is leading the cast in a brand new Netflix movie – but the film has debuted to a very disappointing Rotten Tomatoes score. 

Viewership figures on Netflix don’t always spell critical acclaim and vice-versa. Time and again we’ve seen movies and shows with terrible Rotten Tomatoes scores – and often poor box office results – climb the top 10 chart and hold their position for weeks on end. 

Taylor Sheridan’s Those Who Wish Me Dead, the “worst” Suicide Squad movie, Killers starring Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl, the Bill Burr comedy Old Dads, and Lakeview Terrace with Samuel L. Jackson are just a few of the recent examples. 

Given a new film starring Kevin Hart in an impeccable ensemble cast has just landed on Netflix, it will likely hit the chart in the coming days – but that doesn’t always translate into good reviews. 

Kevin Hart’s new Netflix movie debuts to shocking Rotten Tomatoes score

Lift, a new Netflix heist movie directed by F. Gary Gray and starring Kevin Hart, has debuted to a rather measly 36% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer. 

As for why the critics aren’t satisfied with Lift, IGN’s Kenneth Seward Jr wrote: “Lift is dragged down by a general half-heartedness. It goes beyond the actors and into the heists themselves: Fist fights on a plane and high-speed boat chases shouldn’t be this dull or by-the-numbers. Even the attempts at physical comedy fall flat.”

Elsewhere, Collider’s Erick Massoto said: “At the end of the journey, Lift ends up as a double disappointment. It doesn’t work as a comedy, it doesn’t work as an action film, and its claim to the heist movie subgenre is tenuous at best. We’re neither compelled nor entertained as we just watch the scenes play out knowing fully well that everything will turn out okay and there will be no major curveballs thrown along the way.”

In Dexerto’s review, we commented on the “formulaic approach,” writing: “For the most part, what you see is what you get when it comes to Lift. It’s an action-heist we’ve seen done better a million times before with genuine laugh-out-loud moments far and few between.”

Not everyone agrees, however, with The Gate’s Andrew Parker stating: “If originality is the primary thing you look for in a film, Lift won’t be to your taste, but if you’re willing to go along with something that’s unwaveringly familiar out of the gate, it’s a passably pleasant time.”

If you’re wondering what Lift is all about, the official synopsis reads: “In the new film from director F. Gary Gray, a band of expert criminals led by Cyrus Whitaker (Kevin Hart) is recruited to do what they do best – lift $500 million in gold from a passenger plane – but they must do it mid-flight at 40,000 feet!”