"The Red Sea Diving Resort" is a Dangerously Dull Thriller
By: Keaton Marcus
DISCLAIMER: IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 15, YOU MUST ASK YOUR PARENTS IF YOU ARE ALLOWED, IF THEY SAY NO…IT MEANS NO!
35/100 “sour”
Ever wanted another oversimplified and tired biopic, well here you got one fresh out of the barrel and produced by Netflix. Dubbed "The Red Sea Diving Resort", this sanitized thriller brings in good intentions, a talented cast and beautiful locations to shoot. However, the picture just undermines the positives with thinly written characters and a disappointing tendency to use genre stereotypes. The film is helmed by Gideon Raff, whose first feature happens to be a buffoonish, overlong snoozefest that suffers from tired direction and a horrific screenplay. "The Red Sea" does have its moments, including the action sequences, and a bold performance by Marvel star Chris Evans, but generally, the few ups are watered down by its many, many flaws. The premise is certainly interesting and could've made a wonderful movie, but without the intelligence in the execution, it is just another predictable, dull thriller bereft of almost anything of solid material.
The premise comes from an amazing true story but having it swim in these troubled waters of a film, it's just begging to get out of the ocean. Ari (Chris Evans) is a husky American whose job happens to be illegally smuggling Ethiopian refugees out of a war-tortured 80's Sudan. However, Ari realizes their not evacuating enough refugees to help the cause, and proposes a plan to intelligence officer Ethan Levi (Ben Kingsley). Ari and his team are to use a worn-down tourist attraction called The Red Sea Diving Resort to use as their cover to smuggle the refugees to get them out of Sudan at a much quicker rate. As the importation missions become more and more successful, actual tourists begin to arrive at the resort, and it becomes a business. Despite this, their victories come to slight halt when Colonel Abdel Ahmed learns of the operations, jeopardizing their entire task. Imagine that mixed with all the issues in the movie. Then you get the undercooked "Red Sea Diving Resort".
The predictably almost all-white cast is led by muscle-laden hunk Chris Evans, who is mainly known for portraying Captain America in the MCU. While Evans certainly tries to make an effort on the intriguing role of Ari, the flaw-laden picture drags the un-mistakingly well-matched lead with under the waves with intensely poor screenwriting and embarrassing character development. Furthermore, a single positive in a sea of negatives is how well Chris Evans fits with his chosen role, having the hero-type qualities of the real-life person. He's got it all, the handsome locks, the brawn, and the assuring face. If only director Gideon Raff injected anything on the inside. The conclusion would be for Evans to stick to superheroes.
Although it's marginally beneficial that Evans has the qualities for the position, the whole set-up is conspicuously stereotypical. Yep, its the whole shenanigan, the white main character is a messiah to all the "empty", and almost "dysfunctional" Ethiopians. All the main characters have the same ethnicity which is forced because of the real-life story, but that's still no excuse for the portrayal of the opposite race. The two black supporting/main characters are the Colonel, who is hell-bent on killing refugees. The other is Ari's assistant Kebede whose part barely extends over seconding the main roles. My point is there are no role models of the opposite race, nobody to look up to but Ari. This becomes a major predicament throughout the flick.
The final opinion is: "The Red Sea Diving Resort" is shot beautifully, but the interesting premise and the talented cast are undermined by an overreliance on the insufficient depiction of supporting roles, a lack of character development and shameful direction...$KIP IT
By: Keaton Marcus
There is no box office info because the film provided is produced by Netflix, released for streaming only.
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