MILE HIGH CLUB

Kevin Hart attempts a pie-in-the-sky heist…

Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Úrsula Corberó and Kevin Hart star in Lift

My aim from the start is to make sure the audience fall in love with the characters, so when I put them in jeopardy, the audience care.’ So said director F. Gary Gray when he remade The Italian Job. That time it didn’t work out, but Gray – who’s had much better luck with films like Set It Off, The Negotiator and Straight Outta Compton, and who handled action on a grand scale with Fast & Furious 8 – is back trying to crack another audacious heist movie.

Netflix thriller Lift sees Cyrus Whitaker (Kevin Hart) and his international heist crew caught by Interpol agent Abby Gladwell (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Only she doesn’t want them in prison; she wants them to lift $500m in gold from a passenger plane at 40,000 feet. ‘We gotta steal it mid-flight, 40,000 feet in the air,’ says Cyrus in the trailer, and the team go about planning an elaborate scheme involving high-tech equipment. ‘True artistry’ is the only way to pull it off.

With an ensemble that includes Sam Worthington, Úrsula Corberó, Jean Reno, Vincent D’Onofrio, Billy Magnussen and Jacob Batalon, could the sky be the limit? The trailer was watched more than 4.1m times within two days of dropping.

SPY ANOTHER DAY

Wahlberg and Berry ex-rated mission.

The Union is a Netflix movie for anyone who prefers their spies a little rough around the edges. In this tale of action and espionage, construction worker Mike (Mark Wahlberg) makes an unlikely career switch after bumping into high-school sweetheart-turned-secret agent Roxanne (Halle Berry).

‘The Union is kind of competitive with the CIA, but – to quote J.K. Simmons in the film – it’s “blue-collar, not blue-blood,”’ director Julian Farino tells Total Film. ‘It’s championing the ordinary person who brings skills that can be relevant in the spy world. At the start of the story Mark’s never moved out of [New] Jersey, and Halle then plucks him out of his blue-collar world.’

Berry is, of course, no stranger to globetrotting spy adventures, and Roxanne will be the senior partner in this professional relationship. ‘One of the things I like about the film is that it’s kind of led by the woman,’ says Farino. ‘Halle’s in the field and Mark comes in like a fish out of water.’

Meanwhile, the couple will be dealing with a few decades of emotional baggage as they find out whether working with your ex can ever be a good idea. ‘This is charting the evolution of a couple coming back together, and the clash of values between them is very important,’ Farino explains. ‘I wanted to champion the small-town, blue-collar kind of life.’