6 Underground (2019)
December 16, 2019 3:23 PM - Subscribe

6 Underground was released on December 13, 2019, by Netflix. It cost a reported $150 million Dollars to make. Featuring an ensemble cast - including one man snark machine Ryan Reynolds - Reynolds himself proclaimed on Twitter: "Welcome to the most Michael Bay movie in the history of Michael Bay. #6Underground @netflix #Bayhem"

After faking his death, a Tech billionaire recruits a team of international operatives for a bold and bloody mission to take down a brutal dictator.

[As of writing] "The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 35% based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 4.82/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "6 Underground is loud, frenetic, and finally preposterous -- which is either bad news or a hearty recommendation, depending how one feels about the movies of Michael Bay." - Wikipeida

If you like Michael Bay films, then this is probably the most Michael Bayest of all of his films evah.

If you don't' like Michael Bay films, or have never even seen one, then this is probably not the film to convert you to the directors particular brand of Explodey American Patriotism, nor the best one to start with. Try the first Transformers 'live action' film, or the first Bad Boys movie as Action Movie litmus tests.
posted by Faintdreams (18 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Ever since I saw the ridiculously overblown trailer I was waiting for this movie, and expected it to be gleefully loud, full of explosions, ridonkulous stunts, and Ryan Reynolds snark turned up to 12.

I was not disappointed.

I was a little shocked at how much blood, and gore there was at times, I'm used to Bay movies having an [original TV version] A Team cartoonish quality to the violence. In one shot of the movie you saw the teeth fly right outta someones head after an explosion, and that was a tad too much.

Lots of crunchy foley too.

But overall it was stupid, knew it was stupid, and to me was overall entertaining.

Plus, I was prepared to go to the cinema to see this expensive nonsense but, I already had Netflix, so I could watch it on my own couch *essentially for free* from the comfort of my living room. Which was a joy.
posted by Faintdreams at 3:31 PM on December 16, 2019


I attempted to watch this one while I was putting away laundry.One of my main uses of Netflix is background viewing during chores. I figured it would be good for that, but even as background viewing it failed for me. I stopped maybe 30 minutes in.
posted by miss-lapin at 3:58 AM on December 17, 2019


To quote my review I gave to some friends on our group chat:

"It's terrible in the way Bay movies are. It's almost impressive how he is incapable of improving as a film maker even though he's made a lot of them. Most people get better at anything just by virtue of practise.

The first action scene is worth a watch, the rest of it never gets back there. All the comedy and "drama" falls flat but that's to be expected. The action is expensive but lazy and incoherent. He should watch The Raid or John Wick and try to learn something.

And the thesis of the film is basically "life is better when you're free and freedom is ditching your wife and kids to go murder bad guys and make who you do murder with your new family.""

To expand on one other point: I like Ryan Reynolds a lot and he basically plays his quippy, sarcastic self in this but it's presented without being rooted in or having any semblance to a logical, consistent or tonally appropriate character.
posted by slimepuppy at 4:36 AM on December 17, 2019


I've managed to avoid pretty much all Michael Bay films up to this point, but feel oddly drawn to this one - am I right in thinking it's the movie equivalent of a dumbass bar band - AC/DC without the sophistication or Ted Nugent with less of the misogyny and racism?
posted by Grangousier at 5:43 AM on December 17, 2019


Lexi Alexander once blew up the parkour guys in her movie Punisher: War Zone with a rocket because it was such a stupid trend and it needed to be literally obliterated from not only her own movie but the entire cinematic landscape. I guess Michael Bay didn't get the memo.
posted by cazoo at 9:49 AM on December 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


And the thesis of the film is basically "life is better when you're free and freedom is ditching your wife and kids to go murder bad guys and make who you do murder with your new family.""

If a life time of media consumption has taught me anything it is that the foundation of any good adventure is a dead family.
posted by fshgrl at 5:40 PM on December 17, 2019 [6 favorites]


Ted Nugent with less of the misogyny and racism?

I mean, it still has a lot of misogyny and racism.

I'm so torn on how to talk about this movie. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it, but it is a guilty pleasure with a capital GUILTY. The nihilistic violence against bystanders, the faceless masses of brown people to be saved, the gratuitous sex scene, the exploding prayer candles, the gross oversimplification of regime change, the mythology of violence as a solution to world problems, the ... Michael Bayness of it all, is hard to rationalize in retrospect.

Hell of a ride, though. And that Ryan Reynolds is funny.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 6:38 PM on December 17, 2019


To think we could be on Bad Boys 6 by now but instead Bay turns out junk like this*.

This was a horrible mess of timelines, half arsed and lazy characterisation and scenes which made no sense and suggested no one had ever made any kind of storyboard.

I saw this and Hobbs and Shaw in the same week and I have to say I am definitely beyond peak Ryan Reynolds. Do directors and producers just think they can sprinkle his brand of quippery over a turd and it will turn into yummy cake?

(*Yes, I have low standards. This makes it nowhere near getting over the low bar.)
posted by biffa at 5:41 AM on December 18, 2019


Is there music by Sneaker Pimps ?
posted by rfs at 5:53 AM on December 19, 2019


I don't think so - there was a waste of Muse and Portishead, though.
posted by Selena777 at 7:47 AM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]


Watched the first 45 minutes on the elliptical this morning and I'm pretty sure this movie was edited by just scripting Adobe Premiere to randomly stick shots together until they hit the 2:10 mark and called it a movie.
posted by octothorpe at 10:23 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


Bay movies are good for a modicum of fun but what really struck about this one is the absolute load of money they dropped on it. Netflix is not playing around.

Hobbes and Shaw 200mil
Rise of Skywalker 175mil
6 Underground 150mil
Jumanji: Next Level 125mil
John Wick 3 75mil
posted by M Edward at 7:00 PM on December 24, 2019 [1 favorite]


I'm not going to apologize - I liked it and on several levels it's good. If not good, well done or done well.

The violence was super over the top and the characters' responses to it are absolutely psychopathic. But. It was ultraviolence done convincingly.

The writing is fun; the plotting isn't bad, and the lines are amusing. Not sure anyone other than Reynolds could have sold the irreverence. But yeah, that character is psychopathic and deeply deeply damaged. The audience does get the sense that the character realizes that, though.

But yeah, the fantasy of being a self-made billionaire engineer who got involved in special forces operations goes rogue is a little ... but it's an American tradition.

Through half the film my palms were sweating like crazy. Well done.

I'll watch the sequel that was promised in the "I'm one, but not done" line.
posted by porpoise at 6:25 PM on December 25, 2019 [1 favorite]


haha didn't realize this was Bay when I watched in last night. this movie was so dumb.

I watched about 3/4 and then just...lost any interest. I just didn't care.

the violence was waaay over the top and the level of ongoing 'innocent bystander' carnage was pretty shocking. I felt like this movie wanted to be so many different things and failed at all of them. the tone changes were whiplash inducing and the sound track just added a layer of processed cheese food the movie did not need...
posted by supermedusa at 9:51 AM on January 2, 2020


I thought of this as Michael Bay produces a parody of a Michael Bay movie. I truly enjoyed it—whenever something over-the-top ridiculous happened I just thought of it as intentional comedy and laughed. I don't really care whether it was intentional.

I hope there is a sequel. Take that, haters.
posted by grouse at 11:21 AM on February 15, 2020 [2 favorites]


Oh my lord.

I also did not know this was Michael Bay when I began it. I gave up after the opening sequence, maybe 20 minutes in. The chase sequence was so absurdly overlong, with such an upsetting disregard for human life outside of the ostensible "heroes" (even for a Bay movie), that I could not continue. I was legitimately dismayed by the apparent civilian toll compared to the film's apparent regard for the main characters as being the good guys.

I love action movies, I love violent movies, this shit was too much for me.
posted by tocts at 10:01 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]


My god this was bad. The moral seems to be that regime-change is great and billionaires are secretly heroic good guys. Whoever did the soundtrack had a weird predilection for Muse, I counted three of their songs.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:38 PM on May 14, 2020


I approached it as "Mirror Universe Leverage" and it sort of worked if I didn't think about it too hard.
posted by Mogur at 4:56 PM on July 29, 2021


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