Hello and welcome to the year of the Rock. Each and every week without a major wrestling event, the hosts of the At Odds with Wrestling podcast assign each other something wrestling related to watch. I decided I’m going to tag along for this journey, and so far they tolerate me. On weeks that Adam assigns homework, he spent most of 2023 assigning movies featuring wrestlers. In 2024 that continues, but with a focus on movies starring the Rock. Between WWE and AEW PPVs, then weeks when it’s Joe’s turn, I figure Adam only needs to come up with 10-12 movies and I’m pretty sure Dwayne has at least that many.

The year of the Rock starts off with Red Notice. This movie was a huge acquisition for Netflix and it was the most watched Netflix movie in 2021 and 5th biggest streaming movie for the year. Which is good, because I think this would have bombed at the box office. I mean what the studios and press call a bomb. The budget was $200 million and then there would be all sorts of commercials and marketing and the like so we’re really talking 300 million at least and there’s no way this movie would have made that and more in theaters. Maybe 100 million. 

The Rock is an FBI agent who investigates art theft and is a very good profiler. He’s brought in because one of Cleopatra’s eggs has been stolen. Now, this is a pretty cool McGuffin to create. These eggs are made up for the movie but damn if I wouldn’t have believed they actually existed at some point. Two have been found, but the third has been missing for 2000 years. The Rock and Interpol agent Urvashi Des (Ritu Arya) show up in Rome where Ryan Reynolds is stealing one of the eggs from a museum. The Rock is the coolest guy in the room. Ryan is shockingly good at parkour and runs his mouth like he’s running through obstacles. Yes, Rock and Ryan have character names but at no point do they “act”. Ritu acts. Gal Gadot acts. Rock and Ryan are there to be themselves but with character names thrown on. Rock and Ryan have a fun chase and I lost it when what is expected to be a long car chase with a soundtrack gets cut short. 

Later, Ryan is at his beach sanctum with his ill gotten gains when, surprise, the Rock is already there waiting for him. Des’s crew busts in and arrests Ryan. Ryan and the Rock have some banter, but now here comes Gal Gadot as the Bishop. Gal has been hacking into bank accounts and databases and has set up the Rock. Now Des thinks Ryan and Rock are working together. The egg goes missing and Des sends who she thinks are co-conspirators to a Siberian prison. 

Rock and Ryan are now stuck together as enemies who are now bonded together with a common mission. Escape and get back at Bishop. Now we go full Odd Couple, and screwing each other over, and I hate you but I’m stuck with you. We’ve seen it but it’s entertaining. Bishop shows up to needle them some more. Ryan knows where the third egg is and she wants it. All three eggs will command a huge price for some wealthy middle eastern prince to give his daughter on his wedding or something. It doesn’t really matter. 

Rock and Ryan escape and you have to just enjoy this movie and not think. The more you think, the more things make no sense. Ryan wasn’t hurting the Rock, he was five steps ahead planning their escape all along. Ryan and Rock are walking along a ledge hundreds if not thousands of feet up that is so thin they almost fall but is then large enough for them to turn a corner and somehow not be spotted until they sneak up behind the guards. There’s a lot of cartoon physics involved but it’s an over the top action movie. 

Out of prison and there’s now an elaborate plan to steal the second egg from an arms dealer. He’s having an elaborate masquerade ball with an even more elaborate security system. There’s a thumbprint, and random generated passcode, and voice access, and facial recognition, and it’s all just ridiculous so they can run their cat and mouse game. Bishop has arrived and there’s some sexual tension between Rock and Bishop. Des is always one step behind them but relentless. I like her character more as the movie goes on. She reminds me of the military chasing the A-Team. Always one step behind and wait, aren’t you supposed to be the good guy? 

Ryan and Rock break into the safe but damn Bishop is already there. So there’s a second heavily guarded entrance to the safe? All three have a pretty good fight but what the hell Bishop. You’re supposed to be helping this arms dealer and destroy millions of dollars worth of his artifacts? Bishop out works Ryan and Rock and they’re down for the count. 

Later the two men are woken up in the bowels of a bullfight arena. Bishop tortures the Rock so Ryan breaks and reveals the location of the third egg. Much like Tarantino always shows feet, I feel like the writer/director is showing his own kink of a beautiful woman torturing a captive man. Rock and Ryan escape and it turns out Ryan lied to Bishop so now the two of them can go to where the third egg actually is located. 

Which is in Argentina. Because in the last act we reveal that the Nazis found the third egg and then it was shipped to South America. Rock and Ryan wander through the jungle – hey, Rock in jungle fatigues, we haven’t seen that in any movie before. Rock and Ryan are digging through this giant underground complex (oh it used to be a mine. I guess that’s as good an excuse as any for why there’s a city under the jungle.) but oh look Bishop and Des have shown up! Rock, Ryan, and Bishop are shooting at Des and her Interpol agents and hey – isn’t Rock supposed to be a good guy. Oh, they’re shooting at him first. Um, okay, sure. Our unlikely group of “heroes” has to escape and luckily the Nazis kept some rare vintage automobiles down there. A car chase takes place through miles of well paved abandoned mine tunnels. Rock, Ryan, and Bishop take the car through a hidden hole behind a waterfall and crash to the water below. Des sees the car in the water but she’s no fool and she’s not jumping down there. Ryan gets out first, with the egg. But where is the Rock? Oh no his friend is drowning! Ryan puts the egg down to find the Rock. Turns out the Rock was already beach side and now he mocks Ryan. You love me more than the egg. Something like that. Oh they’re friends now! Bishop finally comes out of the water and she’s defeated. They got the egg, they got Bishop, maybe Ryan turns good? 

No! Swerve! Prince Nana dance! Rock and Bishop have been working together all along. Ryan is impressed but dumbfounded and betrayed. Alright, this now explains Rock shooting at Des and the agents. But, going back, was he ever an FBI agent? Or did he show up with false credentials and we as the audience are supposed to be fooled as well? Rock and Gal handcuff Ryan to a tree and take off. 

At the rich oil baron daughter wedding thing, all three eggs are presented to her while Rock and Gal watch as honored guests. The bride ignores the eggs because Ed Sherhan is there to perform! Her new husband must feel honored. Des and agents show up to arrest everyone for having stolen artifacts. Turns out Rock and Gal tipped them off. They got paid, and now they don’t care. 

Rock and Gal are celebrating on their private boat but oh hey, Ryan snuck aboard. How? He drove a boat there. Ok, Gal and Rock were swimming. Close to the boat. There’s no scuba gear or anything. They didn’t hear a boat? Anyways, Ryan has now screwed them over and frozen their accounts. But if they help him with a score, they’ll get even more money. Three con artists working together for the next score but screwing each other over along the way. They need to team up quick because Des is on her way in “very fast boats”. 

Word is there will be two sequels to this movie, filmed back to back sometime in the near future. 

Honestly. Honestly, is Ryan’s character meant to be gay. Because if we get two sequels that could be interesting to use in the confidence games. Why not have him flirt with some billionaire the way Gal Gadot did throughout the movie? 

Overall, it’s a good bubblegum movie. Enjoy it while it lasts but ultimately disposable. I had fun watching it for two hours. Good action, fun chases, pretty people, beautiful locations, and turn off the brain for the length of the movie. It’s a great movie to find while flipping through cable on a weekend and leaving on. If there are sequels, I’ll watch them. We’ve watched far worse for homework and, looking over the Rock’s IMDB, we might watch far worse in the future.