GHOSTED (APPLE TV+) (2023)

SYNOPSIS: Salt-of-the-earth Cole (Evans) falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie (de Armas)—but then makes the shocking discovery that she’s a secret agent. Before they can decide on a second date, Cole and Sadie are swept away on an international adventure to save the world.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Before the world gets to see Ana de Armas in the John Wick spin-off, Ballerina, she is warming up as a sassy CIA agent in the meantime.

Armas is Sandie, a powerful spy who is also known as “The Taxman”. After getting a bit burnt-out from her last assignment, Sandie has a meet-cute moment at a marketplace where she met a wholesome farmer, Cole (Chris Evans). They had coffee, visit the art museum, talks about their passion and work and had a one-night stand. Then Sandie just disappears without replying to Cole’s texts and emojis.

With some encouragement and pushing from his parents, Cole decides to track down Sandie who happens to be in London. Cole finally arrives in Central London only to find himself kidnapped by some bad guys out looking for a passcode to a secret weapon dubbed Aztec. For some reason, they think Cole is “The Taxman” and predictably, it’s time for Sandie to save Cole and the world.

Ghosted works in the same vein as other romantic spy comedies such as Knight and Day, This Means War and Mr and Mrs Smith, the story is predictable, the action ridiculous and for some reasons, star-studded. The only biggest exception is having Evans, People’s magazine Sexist Man Alive taking a back seat in the action department. He does gets to wrestle a few bad guys but it’s mostly Armas who needs to execute all the tough stuntwork.

Armas and Evans certainly has the looks and chemistry to convince the audiences they are indeed a bickering couple through and through. However, we prefer to blame it on the frustratingly generic script which fails to bring out the laughs and charm beyond the good looking leads and some forced sexual tension.

Serving as mere distractions are the numerous forgettable action sequences which are either shot against greenscreens or in Georgia standing in for Pakistan and London. Director Dexter Fletcher (Rocketman, Eddie the Eagle) absolutely knows how to tell a zippy story and keeping things busy to the extent of bringing in Academy Award Best actor, Adrien Brody as a cheesy French arms dealer, Leveque. To be fair, the flick has a rather rib-tickling sequence involving high-profile cameos from Evans’ Marvel days. How we wish there were more of such scene.

This Apple+ original title follows Netflix’s pattern of churning out expensive lazily written and produced, star-studded action comedies. There’s so much familiarity here that it’s yet another popcorn entertainment for the masses. Definitely, you won’t press the replay button.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee