6 Underground (2019)
They Say No One Can Save The World. Meet No One.
Do you like Michael Bay? It’s pretty straight forward to classify tonight’s movie with just asking that question - or is it? A lot of people scoff at Bay movies, but who didn’t enjoy Bad Boys, or at least one of the large number of movies in his decent portfolio? Still, let’s suffice it to say that even with his ups and downs it’s still very much a Bay flick. Let’s find out what this one’s all about, and just what is 6 Underground.
The best way I can some this up is with a video game analogy. Most people imagine playing something like a Tom Clancy game as something like a real military action. Most people actually playing a Tom Clancy game in a matter like this movie - it doesn’t always go right, and it’s usually filled with a lot of things exploding and flipping about. Now, as an action movie these are great - Bay has a way of blending effects around and making some really impressive stuff, specifically with things exploding, flipping, and tearing about. Car chases - specifically the opening scene - are an absolute feast of fun, and the gunfights also don’t tend to drop too far from being enjoyable in that normal Bay fashion - complete with slow down shots, spinning shots, and most other tropes expected. This has it’s ups (obviously action and effects), but also it’s downs (like plot and characters).
When it comes to plot, action movies don’t all have the most elaborate plots. This is one of those movies - it’s your basic “somebody needs to take out the bad guys to make the world better” sort of thing. It’s greatest offense is it’s somewhat jagged way of timeline placement - frequently having flashbacks cut in with a small amount of warning to indicate that it is a flashback. You get used to it, but it can be a bit unstable for people who won’t be paying attention at max level, and bears pointing out given that at least once I hadn’t realized that it had become a flashback while paying attention until after the fact when it threw “present” on the screen - which again, you do get used to so at least for me it isn’t a repeat offense of getting lost. The fact the plot is simple does still provide plenty of set pieces to confine it’s action and story in though, which is why (especially in action movies) I generally don’t mind that it happens to be pretty simple. I guess you could say that it has a tad of mystery in it, in that you could try and figure out the mystery behind the characters, but it’s not really enough of a sticking point that I’d wager it’s even worth mentioning outside of it perhaps annoying people who get real stuck details not being spelled out entirely.
The larger thing that might annoy folks is that the characters are as generic as can be. Some don’t even really get much of a backstory - such as the doctor - while others get about as basic a story as possible. You could say that there is some form of growth towards the main, but at the same time it’s pretty much little character shells with their quirks going about doing a thing they intend to do. Some of it might be the actors, but I’d wager that it’s certainly the writing. To be honest, does it matter for this movie? Not if you go in just wanting fun action. Actors do a decent job with what they have, although what they have isn’t exactly winning people awards. You see Reynolds, you know exactly how hes going to act. Surprise, he acts just like that. That said, nobody really does a bad job of acting here even if there are weak moments in the script, and sometimes character chemistry is actually pretty good.
Bay on parade.
Now, the real star here is the action. As mentioned, the opening car chase has plenty of slick car moves, vehicular carnage, unnecessary explosions and absolute screen chaos going on. It’s long, and it feels good to watch - although I will also point out it’s full of plenty of other Bay elements that may or may not rub people the wrong way - crude jokes, cursing, slow motion, and cuts. Free running makes an appearance in here, with a few (very few, and short) moments of some GoPro style shots during the process of it. Gun fights involve all sorts of levels of tactics or martial arts - but not always both or either. Those looking for some realistically styled John Wick action won’t find it here, but it is still slightly above something like the old 80’s rocket launcher fights. It’s good enough, would be the best way I can put it. There is a tendency of slamming in comedy throughout, which isn’t exactly outside of the norm for Bay or movies staring Reynolds. Most would probably figure it worth a watch for the fine amounts of Bay action on display if nothing else.
Now, it’s not all great of course - sometimes it can get a bit cut-y. Most the time it’s not bad, or at least a sensible method of cuts or shake, but sometimes it does get a tad overboard for my tastes. There’s also going to be some stuff that certain folks aren’t fond of - like the old “male gaze” shots. As a dude, I can enjoy these shots - but don’t get me wrong, when the same things happened in stuff like 300, I was still impressed (just for different reasons). Most the “male gaze” shots here are much less the lingering “hehheh, boobs!” variety and more just the “throw a low angle on this” kind of thing - relatively tame and not harmful in my opinion, but to the audience that would complain about a bikini-clad gal showing up in a movie for more than 10 seconds, they’d get annoyed. Worse so than that for them, there’s also a few lingerie-clad ladies and sexy scenes - although there’s never any actual direct nudity on display at all. Again- nothing that really bothered me at all - but worth pointing out.
Comedy is also always a subjective thing. There’s moments where I found it funny, there are moments when it wasn’t. Nuns flipping the bird - not really needed, but also not really all that harmful (at least in my opinion). I’ll be honest, most the jokes didn’t have me laughing at all, but none of them really made me groan or hate what I was watching - nor did they feel any worse then some of the other stuff I’ve watched with Reynolds in it, and probably better than some of the stuff I’ve seen in Bay’s other entries as well. Still, it’s mixed in there a bunch - during serious moments, during not serious moments, during action scenes - and sometimes it happens in a manner that’s playing off a character (a sniper mishap later on in the movie) and sometimes it’s just there (Italian art penis joke).
Sometimes you need to relax.
When it comes down to it, most Netflix Original movies (or “Netflix Presents”, as I feel they should have called it) haven’t lead me wrong. Although the majority of them haven’t made their way here for review, a good number can be seen in the back chapters of the site. Most of these movies are pretty three of five in my book - I watched it, it wasn’t bad, but I don’t see myself coming back to it. Occasionally I’ll get something like Spectral that I really enjoyed and keep going back to. 6 Underground is a bit of a weird spread - I can see myself wanting to come back and watch the action again, as it is quite visually appealing, and some of the music was pretty good as well but I don’t think most the inbetween moments really make me care much. It’s no Terminator 2 where I enjoy the not-action as much as the rest, but it’s also not overly boring or bad in quality either. I’d say it’s worth checking out for the action for those whose sensibilities it fits (Mind you, it is rated R) or for fans of Michael Bay films (it’s actually a pretty good one in that regards).