Over the years, Kevin Hart has played to his strengths by taking on a number of sidekick comedic roles, such as 2013’s Ride Along opposite Ice Cube, 2015’s Get Hard opposite Will Ferrell, and 2016’s Central Intelligence opposite Dwayne Johnson, as well as the more recent 2022 film Me Time opposite Mark Wahlberg.

For his latest role, Hart ditches being the sidekick, for not only being a part of a team, but its leader in this frothy crime caper.

After pulling off an impressive theft in Venice, Cyrus (Hart) and his crew are feeling pretty pleased with themselves. They’re celebrations are premature however, when they’re approached by Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) from Interpol, who informs them that she knows what they just did.

Using this as leverage, she gets Cyrus and his team to agree to an outrageous job, stealing a large amount of gold from Jorgensen (Jean Reno), who happens to be a very bad individual.

The situation is made a little more awkward by the fact that Cyrus and Abby had a thing for five whole days, not knowing who the other was. Now they find themselves forced to work together on what appears to be a totally impossible heist.

So what we have here are a team of criminals who are forced to steal from other criminals. And apparently they only steal from others who deserve it anyway, which makes then the good guys in a Robin Hood kind of way.

American director F. Gary Gray clearly had a vision for this film seeing it as The Fast and Furious meets Ocean’s 11; and as he’s directed an entry of the former franchise - Fast and Furious 8, that’s not a surprise. The problem is it’s a little too F&F top heavy, lacking the savvy and the sophistication you get with an Ocean’s film.

And then you have Hart, in what is essentially the Danny Ocean role; to be fair, Hart doesn’t do a lot wrong, playing it cool and in total control. However, considering his comedic prowess, it’s just a waste of his talents. It would be like putting Jason Statham in a period drama, and why would you do so a thing? OK, come to think of it, the idea of Statham in a period drama is strangely compelling, so perhaps that wasn’t a great example, but you get the idea.

If Hart wants to test his acting chops, he would be better off going more of the way of what he brought to 2017’s The Upside for instance, than this, which is just a different role, and not a challenge by any means.

The star of the film ends up being David Proud, a British actor in a minor role as Harry, who is the only real thief in the film by stealing the show with his witty performance.

There’s a part for Sam Worthington, which it has to be said, is totally pointless, as well as forgettable, but you can appreciate him taking it if only to get away from all that James Cameron blue malarkey that is sadly demanding so much of his time.

The direction is slick enough, as you would expect from someone with Gray’s experience, but the script is on the clunky side and feels cobbled together just to support the set pieces, which are fairly entertaining, but the story overall is disappointing to say the least.

It’s clear that Netflix might be expecting a hit franchise of their own, which is something their service is sorely lacking, but Lift isn’t it.

It may well make a pleasant change for Hart, but you can’t help but feel that we’ll see him on more familiar ground as a comedic sidekick sooner rather than later, especially off of the back of this.