6 Underground Movie Review: Michael Bay’s Honey I Shrunk The Kid

6  Underground(Netflix)

Starring  Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Adria Arjona, Corey Hawkins, Ben Hardy, and Dave Franco

Directed  by Michael Bay

Rating: **(2 stars)

Why would  Netflix  do this to Michael Bay? Why would Michael Bay do this to us? Why would we do this  to ourselves? 

Watch a  typical Michael  Bay film—this means, high-end cars speeding and crashing in touristic cities  where  one night’s stay would cost you your entire lifetime’s saving—on  your phone screen.I spared myself and  Mr Bay that ultimate affront(the phone crawl). I watched  6 Underground on  a  a much larger screen, but still not large enough.  

So the  question again, why  release a film meant to be enjoyed on the  70mm screen, on a kerchief-sized medium where Mr Bay and  the very charismatic Ryan Reynolds vie for attention with various viral videos, not to mention porn sights.

6 Underground  is  porn for  the action  genre.No shame attached.  Bay takes unabashed  pleasure  in playing  footsie with our  adrenaline.  He  kicks in  the  action early  in  6 Underground.The opening chase sequence with  sleek cars  skidding in the interiors  of posh  high-domed churches of Florence is something I haven’t experienced before.

Henceforth Florence will never be associated with nightingale.

What  would it look like on the  big screen!  This is  a  question that  came to me over and over and over again as   the film’s six protagonists   rush  from one  scenic city to another in pursuit of adventures that  are  not only a feast to the eyes  but  a hammer-knock to  the solar  plexus.

 The  kinetic plot  about displacing a despot, has no names for its six agile characters, only numbers. The   actors are  not supposed  to be  polishing their  performing skills  here. It’s all about  how fast each player can run, in a  manner of speaking. Number  Four, played  by Ben Hardy , who is a  parkour  aficionado has some of the most heart stopping stunts   in the film.

 Ryan Reynolds, as   the team leader is  One. He seems  to be  having fun. If only the screen  was large.

Size does  matter. 6 Underground  proves  it  .Watching it  on the shrunken screen is  like  admiring a miniature  souvenir  version   of the Taj Mahal on your desktop pretending you are visiting the real monument.