6 Underground (2019)

“6 Underground” stars Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Adria Arjona, Corey Hawkins, Ben Hardy, and Dave Franco.  Released on Netflix on December 13, 2019, the film has a former billionaire forming a vigilante squad after faking his death.

The film is directed by Michael Bay, who also directed films such as “Bad Boys”, “Armageddon”, “Transformers”, and “Pain & Gain”.  It ain’t the holiday season without some explosive fireworks, am I right?  After finally retiring from directing the live-action Transformers franchise (and making a bunch of picky fans act like grumpy babies who haven’t had their diapers changed in weeks), action fanatic Michael Bay is returning to play with the big boys.  This time, he’ll be helming a vigilante film for Netflix starring Mr. Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds.  These two people are the only reasons why I wanted to watch this film, plain and simple.  While I can easily admit that Michael Bay isn’t always the reliable choice for the action genre, I can at least say that he did well in providing some entertainment value when it comes to the high-octane action, stunts, and explosions.  I might get attacked for saying that, but I don’t care.  I’m just saying how I feel about him.  As for Reynolds, what more can I say about him other than the fact that he’s been one of my favorite entertainers since “Deadpool”?  Are they enough to make the film watchable?  Let’s find out.

The story follows an unnamed billionaire and philanthropist (Reynolds) who witnessed the horrific actions of a ruthless organization in Turgistan.  As a result, he decided to fake his own death, change his identity to “One”, and form an unknown team of vigilantes to kill certain criminals and terrorists, including a power-hungry dictator (Lior Raz), and yes, the members are named after numbers.  This is, without a single doubt in my mind, exactly what you would expect from a Michael Bay film: a chaotic experience filled with fast-paced action, explosions, gunfights, adult humor, filthy language, and lots of slow-mo scenes.  If you’re into that type of stuff, “6 Underground” will easily suit your needs.  However, if you’re expecting it to offer any surprises in its storyline and the characters, this film will become a massive headache for that big brain of yours.  Similar to some of Bay’s films like “Bad Boys” and “Transformers”, the film is just there to provide some mindless entertainment for people who needed a break from the awards season, including me.  I was unsurprisingly satisfied with how much fun it had with its concept, but that doesn’t mean it's an action masterpiece.  The two main elements that made the film work for me was the cast and the action sequences.  Ryan Reynolds was the main highlight as One in terms of his enjoyable performance and his laughable (in a good way) delivery of his lines.  Corey Hawkins was also decent in his role as Blaine, a former Delta Force sniper who’s recruited by One.  I liked the idea on what they’re trying to do with the character of Blaine, but because of the amount of “Bayhem” that was captured onscreen, that idea kind of got left out in the dust almost instantly.  Same goes to the other main characters.  The film did a pretty good job at letting us know who these characters are before they joined forces, but they weren’t enough to showcase them as more than just people who crack corny jokes and annoy each other every few minutes.  The action sequences were equivalent to the sequences from the other Bay films.  They’re loud, they’re insane, they’re explosive, and they’re really fun to watch.  They can be quite exhausting at times and the amount of incoherent editing and shaky-cam scenes may become a nuisance for some people, but the action scenes were able to overshadow those flaws long enough to impress certain fans of Bay’s works once again.  As for the plot itself, it’s pretty simple for an action blockbuster and it has plenty of idiotic moments that will likely tick off a lot of the strong-minded critics.  However, I enjoyed the fact that the film just rolled with it without taking itself seriously.  Sure, it’s dumb, but it knows that it’s dumb.  That’s what makes it entertaining for me.

Overall, “6 Underground” is easily not for the strong-minded, but it has enough “Bayhem” in its concept to impress most of the fans of Michael Bay’s explosive style.  On the one hand, you got a film that has an enjoyable cast and some entertaining action sequences.  On the other hand, you got a giant, preposterous spectacle that lacks any big surprises in its plot and suffers from its editing issues and simplistic characters.  If you’re expecting it to be the former, there’s a good chance you won’t be disappointed with this one.  If not, then don’t waste your time complaining about it.

C+