SAS: Red Notice (2021) Review

Directed By: Magnus Martens

Starring: Sam Heughan, Ruby Rose, Andy Serkis & Tom Wilkinson

Synopsis: Tom Buckingham (SAM HEUGHAN), a special forces operator, is taking Dr. Sophie Hart from London to Paris to propose. When their train is deep inside the Channel Tunnel, Grace Lewis (RUBY ROSE) and her team of heavily armed war criminals seize the train and hold hundreds of passengers hostage. Grace threatens to expose the British governments darkest secrets and blow up the Channel Tunnel if her ransom demands are not met. Unarmed and cut off from his counter terror team, Tom is the only hope that Sophie and the other passengers have to make it out alive.

Based on the best-selling novel by former SAS operator Andy McNab, SAS: RED NOTICE is a provocative and authentic portrayal of an emergency response operation and the singular mindset Tom needs to survive.

Review:

SAS: Red Notice is a fun thrilling adrenaline fueled action thriller that has you hooked from the start.

Tom Buckingham — our lead hero — is an SAS Soldier who inadvertently gets caught up in a hostage situation while on a train to Paris with his (hopefully) to be fiancée! The train is overrun by Grace Lewis — a leader of a highly skilled private army who is every bit as deadly as Tom and more ruthless — along with her deadly army.

There are moments of action beforehand, but it’s once the train is hijacked Tom goes more Steven Seagal — Under Siege rather than Bruce Willis — Die Hard. Tom uses his deadly set of skills to eliminate each member of the rogue mercenary group down swiftly and efficiently.

The action set pieces are choreographed very well, and you can see Andy McNab’s involvement from the hand to hand and the gun fights. Having this much involvement from Andy makes the action scenes more realistic and also brings these characters to life more, as I am sure Andy shared stories from his experience when he served with the British special forces, also how he visualized these characters being portrayed out on screen from the book he has written.

While Sam Heughen and Ruby Rose deliver great performances, Andy Serkis steals every scene he is in, and I wish he had more screen time, which also goes for saying with Noel Clarke. I have been a fan of Noel’s since Auf Wiederschien Pet and seeing Noel’s career progress from AWP to his own ‘Hood’ trilogy to then creating the groundbreaking British police action/comedy/drama series with Ashley Walters titled Bulletproof. It was a highlight to see him in such a big movie and also for his name to make the official poster.

Overall Red Notice is a fun action thriller and the character of Tom Buckingham is more than welcome back to our screens in any future installments.