lift horror movie review

“Lift” is as generic and forgettable as its title, the kind of glossy, empty action picture that Netflix just keeps pumping out, whether we need it or not. It’s not as aggressively glib as “ Red Notice ,” for example, but rather is more in line with “ The Gray Man ”: Competently made and star-studded, with a couple of intriguing ideas, but hollow. 

Veteran director F. Gary Gray has made better action movies in the past (“ Set It Off ,” “ The Italian Job ”) and will likely do so again. Like so many films before it, “Lift” is about an eclectic collection of con artists trying to pull off a seemingly impossible heist. That premise offers some pleasures, especially as the assignment becomes increasingly complicated. But there’s so little to the characters in the screenplay from Daniel Kunka that it’s difficult to care whether they get away with it, and the special effects look so detached from reality that it often feels like we’re playing a video game. 

A group of seasoned, high-tech thieves must steal a half billion dollars’ worth of gold bars from a commercial airliner flying from London to Zurich. Their leader is Kevin Hart ’s Cyrus, whom we see at the film’s start robbing a high-end art auction in Venice. This is the kind of movie that gooses its globetrotting with shiny aerial shots of European destinations: Venice, London, Brussels. They all kind of run together. Hart deviates from his fast-talking, flabbergasted persona here, which is welcome. But in positioning him as a roguish, romantic lead, “Lift” doesn’t give him anything interesting to do instead.  

Cyrus has some sort of past with the Interpol agent who’s tailing his crew, Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Abby Gladwell. The two share some awkward flirtation and not much chemistry. Upon orders from her boss (“ Avatar ” star Sam Worthington , who gets to be Australian for once), Abby reluctantly recruits Cyrus and his team to steal the gold, which wealthy bad-guy Jean Reno is transferring to a terrorist group to create disasters from which he can profit afterward. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense: The whole point is to set up a reason for these people to get together and do some elaborate mid-air stunts. Each person has a specific job—Camila ( Úrsula Corberó ) is the pilot, Mi-Sun (Yun Jee Kim) is the hacker, Denton (Vincent D’Onofrio) is the master of disguise, and so on—and that’s all there is to them. They sit around and make fun of each other in high-rise condos and warehouses where the bright, flat lighting is always the same and the banter strains to be enjoyably breezy. Billy Magnussen is the one exception as the safecracker, Magnus; he’s doing something delightfully goofy here that’s reminiscent of Brad Pitt in “ Burn After Reading .” It’s as if he’s in a totally different movie, and one that you’ll wish you were watching instead. 

<span class="s1" <the="" plan="" they="" come="" up="" with="" to="" steal="" the="" gold="" midflight="" is="" quite="" clever,="" so="" i="" won’t="" spoil="" it="" for="" you.="" watching="" these="" highly="" skilled="" criminals="" solve="" one="" problem="" after="" another="" offers="" some="" legitimately="" tense="" moments,="" especially="" when="" looks="" as="" if="" all="" might="" fall="" apart="" at="" 40,000="" feet.="" and="" plane="" borrow="" part="" of="" their="" scheme="" amusingly="" tacky="" features. 

But then so much of what constitutes the thrills and excitement of “Lift” are blandly zippy editing tricks: sped-up sequences, zooms and montages. After a while, we can only watch so many fistfights on airplanes. They grow repetitive and wearisome, as does the film as a whole. Then again, perhaps “Lift” is best enjoyed while you’re on a flight yourself, with nothing better to do and a need for something mindless to pass the time. 

On Netflix now.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series “Ebert Presents At the Movies” opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Kevin Hart as Cyrus Whitaker
• Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Abby Gladwell
• Vincent D’Onofrio as Denton
• Úrsula Corberó as Camila
• Billy Magnussen as Magnus
• Jacob Batalon as N8
• Jean Reno as Lars Jorgensen
• Sam Worthington as Dennis Huxley
• Viveik Kalra as Luke
• Kim Yun-jee as Mi-Sun
• Burn Gorman as Cormac
• Paul Anderson as Donal
• David Proud as Harry

Director of Photography

• Bernhard Jasper
• Daniel Kunka
• F. Gary Gray

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A usual working day turns unusual for Guru and Harini when they get trapped in their haunted office. A patterned game unlocks a mystery and a lift is their only way out. A usual working day turns unusual for Guru and Harini when they get trapped in their haunted office. A patterned game unlocks a mystery and a lift is their only way out. A usual working day turns unusual for Guru and Harini when they get trapped in their haunted office. A patterned game unlocks a mystery and a lift is their only way out.

• Vineeth Varaprasad
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Review: 'Lift' is a humdrum heist movie that steals time you'll never get back

Kevin Hart says he doesn’t want to be funny.

Kevin Hart says he doesn't want to be funny. At least not all the time. And he achieves his dubious goal in "Lift," a humdrum heist movie now on Netflix with a few jokes thrown in. Come on, legions of Hart fans would revolt if their favorite clown decided to deep dive into drama.

Don't panic. "Lift" is barely a baby step out of the shallows for Hart, not unlike his thespian duet with Bryan Cranston in 2019's "The Upside," a surprise hit given the sentimental setup of Hart as an ex-con playing caretaker to Cranston's quadriplegic billionaire.

MORE: The 10 best movies of 2023

Hart is too smart to toy with his hit-making mojo. It's more likely he's following the lead of his former costar Dwayne Johnson, who's made a pile in the action hero game. Hart is hardly The Rock. But Cyrus Whitaker, the suave thief he plays in "Lift," is dressed to wow as he puts the moves on gorgeous Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Interpol agent Abby Gladwell.

Sadly, the romantic chemistry between the two is less than zero. Hart fares better in motion as Cyrus organizes an art robbery at a Venice museum that sparks a speedboat chase with the law through the picturesque canals. With ace director F. Gary Gray ("Set It Off," "The Italian Job") at the helm, "Lift" initially shows promise as a globe-trotting caper flick.

Until it doesn't. Just when Cyrus plans a new scam with his crew, including Vincent D'Onofrio as Denton, a master of disguise, Úrsula Corberó as Camila the getaway driver and Billy Magnussen as Magnus the comic-relief safecracker, all bets are off.

MORE: Review: 'Judas and the Black Messiah' is a new movie classic

Things change when the Venice job goes sideways, and Abby -- still furious at Cyrus for lying about his criminal identity during their five-day fling in Paris -- prepares to haul off his entire team to the clink for their nefarious deeds.

That's when Abby's hardcase boss, Dennis Huxley -- a total waste of "Avatar" star Sam Worthington -- offers Cyrus a get-out-of-jail-free card if he pulls off one job for the alleged good guys. That means robbing $500 million worth of gold, weighing 10 tons, from a moving passenger jet en route from London to Zurich.

Sounds exciting, huh? Well it isn't, not for a minute. The actors in the air and on the ground basically wait around until a fight breaks out on the plane that is so clumsily shot and edited that you can't believe a director as skilled as Gray had anything to do with it.

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And the script by Daniel Kunka races from place to place without taking us anywhere we don't already know from the cliché handbook. The gold belongs to a terror group run by master villain Lars Jorgensen, a part that strands even the great Jean Reno in the land of the lame.

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How can Cyrus and his crew pull off this mission impossible? It's a movie, folks, and logic is the first thing to get sucked into the void. Hart, a notoriously rehearsal-phobic actor, claims he actually spent time preparing to portray Cyrus. You'd never know it. Either he's staring blankly into space looking vaguely miffed or wondering where he is, just like the audience.

They say that January is the month Hollywood uses to bury its blunders. "Lift," too lazy to even pass as throwaway fun, bears out that notion. You can still honestly call it heist movie since Hart and company steal one hour and 44 minutes of time you will never ever get back.

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Lift review: Kavin starrer is a refreshing horror movie on the corporate trap

Lift movie review: the most terrifying idea in lift is not the vengeful ghost in the office but the corporate office itself. vineeth wants to talk about a toxic work culture that treats employees like commodities and discards them after use..

Debutant director Vineeth Varaprasad’s movie Lift is not your usual jump-scare fest, filled with paranormal activities and screams that we have come to associate with Tamil movies. With its premise of a haunted lift and a deeper subtext, it aims to step past the low expectations we have from the genre. In a market that is overcrowded with uninspired and unoriginal horror-comedies , Lift feels like a breath of fresh air, mostly because it makes you feel claustrophobic a number of times.

We meet Guru (Kavin), a sharply-dressed young man, who walks into a multi-storey office building with just one elevator service. It is his first day at the company’s Chennai office. He has been transferred here from Bengaluru. The office HR is a single, good-looking girl named Harini. It is a perfect recipe for an office romance but one with an asterisk. Guru and Harini share a troubled history. The hero may have acted in a somewhat unkind and arrogant way when he met the heroine in the past. But, instead of finding him repulsive, Harini finds herself attracted to Guru. She even professes her feelings for him on the same day. If it seems she is running out of time, that is because she is.

Guru is asked by his company VP to go through a client’s file, which requires him to stay back in the office and work late. Everyone leaves, leaving just him in the office. What about the building security you ask? Vineeth takes care of them in the narrative.

Back to Guru. He is alone, finishing up his work. And things begin to happen and it gets a little bumpy. He packs up and leaves the office. He gets to the basement but can’t find his way out. Things start getting spooky. He soon realises that he forgot his phone on the desk. Ah, the wicked bait to reel him again into the building? You wish he would make a smart choice and decide to collect his phone tomorrow. But, you know what they say, “A day without a smartphone is a day wasted.” He goes back in and soon he realises he can never get out.

What’s more, Guru also finds Harini in the office. She fell unconscious in the document room and somebody locked her in it. At least there is a silver lining to Guru’s predicament now. Applying Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity to the situation, Guru’s night long stay in the office must seem shorter given that he’s sitting with a pretty girl. It would have been a rather enjoyable ordeal, if not for the ghost.

Guru and Harini are now being chased by the ghost across the floors. Will they get out of the building alive or end up in body bags?

The #Lift doors are now open, neenga ready a? #Lift now streaming only on #DisneyPlusHotstarMultiplex #LiftOnHotstar Watch it now :- https://t.co/1FCAilFzuZ pic.twitter.com/nPqVAUuBZx — Disney+ Hotstar (@DisneyPlusHS) September 30, 2021

The most terrifying idea in the movie is not the vengeful ghost in the office but the corporate office itself. Vineeth wants to talk about a toxic work culture that treats employees like commodities and discards them. The film points at a deep malaise in society. Unfortunately, the idea of corporate enslavement only feels like a footnote to a long prologue.

The film would have been more effective had Vineeth managed to blend the feeling of job trap into the narrative. The building as a metaphor for the corporate trap should have been established from the very beginning.

Nonetheless, Vineeth manages to fashion a tense atmosphere and keeps us hooked to the narrative with some clever ideas like “Penrose stairs.” The employees can run up and down forever but they can never rise above their allotted levels. Or no matter what number Guru or Harini press on the lift, it is the almighty lift (read company) that decides, which level they should go. Guru and Harini have no choice but to obey.

Vineeth also has a good visual style. Towards the climax, he creates a cool moment for Kavin to channel in his inner Vijay.

Lift is streaming on Disney Plus Hotstar.

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• Netflix’s Kevin Hart Vehicle <i>Lift</i> Is Absurd—But Still Kind of Fun

Netflix’s Kevin Hart Vehicle Lift Is Absurd—But Still Kind of Fun

T oo cold, too hot, too bright, or too dark to go outside? Still recovering from holiday excess? A throwaway heist movie—undemanding when it comes to brain power and requiring a minimal time investment—is the ultimate low-key early-new-year pleasure. Lift, on Netflix, directed by F. Gary Gray and starring Kevin Hart and Gugu Mbatha-Raw , is just that movie. The absurdity of its plot isn’t beside the point; it is the point. This is essentially a delivery vehicle for attractive performers and glamorous settings (including Venice, London and a verdant Northern Ireland), tailored to fit a small screen and lowish expectations. You can’t ask for more from a winter diversion—even if you wouldn’t wish for less.

Hart’s Cyrus is an ace international art thief who, with his crackerjack team of accomplices, has just pulled some fancy footwork, boosting a seemingly unboostable NFT. But almost before they can rush off with their invisible spoils, they’re apprehended by Mbatha-Raw’s Abby, an Interpol agent working the art-theft beat. There’s an additional complication in that Abby and Cyrus have a shaky romantic past—at one point these two enjoyed an ill-advised Paris fling while working under false identities. But Abby now needs Cyrus for professional reasons. An evil mastermind (played by a sleepily malevolent, lizard-eyed Jean Reno) is about to hatch a nefarious plot that involves transferring a kajillion dollars’ worth of gold bricks to an ace hacker, who will then wreak terror upon unsuspecting citizens. Instead of arresting Cyrus, Abby makes him an offer he can’t afford to refuse: he and his crew will go free if they can use their thievery skills to intercept that gold. The hitch is that they’ve got to steal it from the passenger plane on which it’s being transported—not on the ground, but at 40,000 feet.

Read more: The 100 Best Movies of the Past 10 Decades

Sound dumb, not to mention aeronautically implausible? You bet. But Gray, working from a script by Daniel Kunka, knows just how much he can get away with. Gray is a smart, versatile director: his 2003 version of The Italian Job (also set and shot partly in Venice), was less a remake of the much-loved 1969 original than a jaunty reimagining; it had a joyful, adventurous spirit. He also knows his way around a biopic: his 2015 Straight Outta Compton dramatized the emergence and the shattering of N.W.A. in a way that felt bracing and vital.

Lift is more modestly scaled than either of those films; even its grand action sequences feel a little restrained. The plot involves the heistmasters’ flying a smaller jet directly beneath the larger one carrying the precious cargo—it has first been covered with panels of something-or-other as a means of evading radar detection. The safecracking, and thus the procurement of the gold, must occur when the second jet has reached a precise position in the air—at this point, the message “Ready to link” flashes helpfully on the plane's control panel. This is useful information, in case you, dear viewer at home, have no idea what’s going on, which is likely.

Does the heist go off exactly as planned? Of course not, because the mishaps along the way are part of the game. In this context, even Hart, a gregarious performer if ever there were one, almost comes off as muted—almost. This is an unusual role for him. Rather than playing a regular guy, as he so often does, he’s a suave crook with certain principles. He loves art, and sees his job as a civic responsibility: “We rescue works of art from undeserving owners,” he tells Abby earnestly, so earnestly that she almost seems to buy it.

Cyrus’s team of adept accomplices, devoted both to their jobs and to him, include an elegant pilot with nerves of titanium (Úrsula Corberó), an enthusiastic frat boy of a safecracker (Billy Magnussen), a brainy but shy engineer (Viveik Kalra) and a tech whiz who’s unruffled by the glitchiest glitches (Yun Jee Kim). There’s also a dubiously skilled master of disguise played by Vincent D’Onofrio. Lift isn’t exactly a showcase for actors, but both D’Onofrio and Mbatha-Raw—marvelous performers who have proven the subtlety of their skills time and again over the years—acknowledge the spirit of this project and bring their best to it.

Mbatha-Raw, cast in the role of the authority figure—that is, the stick in the mud—maintains both her dignity and her charm throughout the proceedings. And D’Onofrio seems to be having a great time. His character, Denton, at one point poses as a regular-dude plane passenger unable to work the entertainment system; he politely asks the attendant for help, and she happily assists, not realizing, of course, that her attention is being diverted from something Denton doesn’t want her to see. After she’s showed him how the buttons work, he thanks her profusely. He's now able to experience one of the wonders of commercial air travel: “This is wonderful! I think I’ll watch me a movie or somethin’.” His delight feels 100 percent genuine. Now that’s acting.

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Lift Review: A Solid Psychological Horror Film

I am not the biggest advocate of watching horror films over OTT. I love the atmosphere of the cinema hall as the darkness sets in with just the dim red exit light showing you the way out in case the film gets too overwhelming. I love the big screen experience with a rambunctious crowd making jokes at the worst possible times to ease the tension. And then there is the sound mixing that envelops you in truly remarkable horror films like Krasinksi’s A Quiet Place or Jordan Peele’s Us . So when I started to watch Vineeth Varaprasad’s Lift – fully prepared with noise cancelling headphones – I was pleasantly surprised to find I did not miss the big screen experience for most of the film’s two-hour runtime.

Lift starts off with Kavin ‘s Guru joining an IT company as a team lead. There, he meets Amritha ‘s Harini, an HR person in the company, with whom Guru has a not-so-cute history. This lightness at the start with these two is not so over the top that it takes away from the horror portion that the film slowly, but neatly segues into after the first 20 minutes.

Writer-director Vineeth Varaprasad ‘s ability to hold our attention from the first time Guru recognises there is a supernatural presence in the mix, through his attempts to escape that presence over the next 60 minutes, is extremely commendable. The first hour of Lift is hands down one of the best horror experiences in Tamil cinema. In this stretch, the cinematography, sound mixing, editing, and just the sheer ability to keep different horror tropes running extremely seamlessly, are all on point. The director’s ability to keep us engaged with different storytelling mechanisms is something that I have not seen since Ashwin Saravanan’s fantastic debut, the horror film Maya .

That said, Lift comes undone in the last 20 minutes, when the director decides to use the flashback to shoehorn in an explanation for the supernatural presence. But, even in this massive misstep, the way he narrates the flashback, using a certain character at death’s door, is impressive.

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Lift is one of those rare films that respects the boundaries of its genre. It uses more psychological means to induce horror than your regular jump scares. And it uses the motif of the lift inside a corporate building to signify the trappings of everyday human life – one of the existential themes that the film boldly tackles. That it does all this while providing ample acting opportunities to Kavin and Amritha , reminds me of a certain other young debutant in 2012 – Karthik Subbaraj with Pizza . It is not a direct comparison, but if history is anything to show, Vineeth Varaprasad and Kavin should be able to lift themselves up with subsequent films.

The Lift review is a  Silverscreen  original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.

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Lift Movie Review: This Kavin-Amritha Starrer Is An Unusual Horror Thriller That Shines At Parts

Lift , the horror-thriller that features Kavin and Amritha Aiyer in the lead roles has been released on Disney Plus Hotstar. The movie, which marks the comeback of Kavin to Tamil cinema after a short gap, focuses on the lives of IT professionals. Lift , which is helmed by newcomer Vineeth Varaprasad, is bankrolled by Ekaa Entertainment.

Did the Kavin-Amritha Aiyer starrer live up to expectations? Read Lift movie review here to know...

What's Yay:

Kavin and Amritha's performances

Excellent technical Aspects

What's Nay:

The slow pace in the first half

Inconsistent writing

Guru (Kavin) is an IT professional who is well-known for his dedication to his profession. He gets transferred to the Chennai branch as a Team Lead, where he meets Harini (Amritha Iyer), who is an HR professional. The duo has a past connection, that ended on an unhappy note.

One day, Guru stays overtime at the office in order to complete a project summary. However, he is shocked by the paranormal activities that happen in the office, especially in the lift, that prevent him from leaving the building. Later he finds Harini, who is also stuck on the same floor due to the paranormal activities. How the duo solves the mystery forms the crux of the story.

Script & Direction

Director Vineeth Varaprasad makes a decent debut with Lift , which is definitely a refreshing attempt in the horror genre. The film discusses a subject that is relatively new to the Tamil film industry. The director and his team deserve applause for pulling off a film that majorly revolves around a lift and just two characters, successfully. The horror element has indeed worked out well at most of the parts of Lift , which makes it a decent movie experience.

However, the biggest issue with the movie is that it takes its own sweet time to enter the main plot. Also, the inconsistency in the writing is quite evident all along, as some of the scenes turned out very well while the others just didn't work. Lift solely focuses on the occasional jump scares and thrilling moments right from the moment it enters the main plot and doesn't grow beyond that.

The backstory, that was introduced towards the end of the second half is deeply moving. But it would have kept the audience more invested in the film if it was placed a bit earlier in the narrative. In short, Lift definitely had the potential to be much more.

Performances

Kavin, the actor who made a comeback to films with Lift after a short gap, has delivered an excellent performance. His balanced performance that conveys even the slightest emotions without being overboard, makes his character Guru relatable. Amritha Aiyer has also delivered a mature performance, thus making an instant connection with the audience from the minute she appears on the screen. The rest of the star cast, including Kiran and Gayathri Reddy, are good in their respective roles.

Technical Aspects

S Yuva, the director of photography has created the perfect backdrop for this unusual horror thriller with his stunning visuals. Britto Michael's background score has created the perfect mood for the film. Tapas Nayak, on the other hand, has done a brilliant job with the sound design of the project. Lift definitely deserves to be watched on big screens, especially for its amazing technical aspects.

Lift is an unusual horror-thriller that shines at parts, thanks to great performances by the leads and excellent technical aspects. But the movie definitely had the potential to be much more.

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Home » Review » Lift movie review: Technical aspects and sincere performances elevate this partly engaging horror movie »

Lift movie review: Technical aspects and sincere performances elevate this partly engaging horror movie

The manner in which confined spaces have been utilized to the fullest is laudable, but excessive twists and turns hinder the required tension

A poster of the film

• Thinkal Menon

Last Updated: 11.39 PM, Oct 01, 2021

Story: Two IT employees get trapped in their office lift which is haunted by two unknown spirits. Though they crack the pattern behind the dysfunctional lift after several struggles, things go haywire when the spirits unleash their power in full form. Why are the spirits after them? Will they be able to escape?  

Review: Horror thrillers made in different backdrops are nothing new to Kollywood. Vineeth Varaprasad's Lift is the latest to join the bandwagon. First things first - the movie, unlike other horror films in Tamil, is set against an unexplored backdrop - an IT company is where the story's premise revolves around. After a bevy of horror movies, which the industry churned out in the recent times, with with clichés galore - dilapidated buildings, haunted bungalow, revenge-seeking spirit, predictable climax and regular actors like Yogi Babu - Lift , for a change, is refreshing to some extent. 

The film begins with Guru Prasad (Kavin), an IT employee joining a company in Chennai as a team leader after he is transferred from Bengaluru. He meets HR Harini (Amritha) there - it is the duo's second encounter - they have had a displeasing confrontation in the past. In a long scene in the beginning of the movie which features a partly funny conversation between a newly joined employee and an experienced guy, we get to know how strict the company is with regard to its policies and the cutthroat corporate environment there.  

As the employees there leave for home in the evening, Guru is asked by his senior if he could stay for a while to finish a few assignments, to which the former obliges. All alone in the huge office room, and time passing by so quickly, we know where the plot is heading. But the filmmaker takes a little time to build on the horror element. He leaves the room - takes the lift - though he finds its functioning to be weird, he reaches the ground floor, starts his car and moves forward. We wonder if the director has planned to bring in the horror element later.

But Guru realizes he has missed his phone at the office room. He takes the lift again and goes up to his office to pick the phone. He enters the lift for the third time only to realize that the lift has become completely dysfunctional. The presence of spirit there and being witness to two suicides makes things worse for him. Though he heaves a sigh of relief when he finds Harini in another room, they find the presence of one more spirit there. After a few struggles, they come up with an idea to escape from the building, but in vain.

The major positive aspect of the film is its staging and the manner in which confined spaces have been utilized to engaging the audiences with jump scares. Britto Michael's background score and Yuva's cinematography elevate the film's mood and enhances the horror element to a good extent. Despite just two characters, played by Kavin and Amritha, featuring in the lion's share of the film, the proceedings keep us hooked to a certain point. While Kavin aces the role of a happy-go-lucky guy whose life changes topsy-turvy, Amritha impresses in a few scenes with her scary expressions. 

On the downside, some of the sequences become repetitive and the excessive twists and turns hinder the required tension. The flashback sequence which appear towards the end should have been more effective. The lack of reason for the spirits going after Guru and Harini weakens the whole plot. A message which the director tries to bring in the third act appears forced and doesn't serve any purpose. 

Verdict: The technical aspects and performances of the actors help the film entertain the viewers, while the screenplay and character designing could have been much better.  

Lift is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. 

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