Thriller Netflix will surprise everyone with movie no. 1 in the world

According to Jonathan Klotz
| Published 30 seconds ago

This Christmas season, streamers have topped the charts of the most unlikely movies, with Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans Red onefreshly beaten at the box office, holding the number on Amazon since its release and Jack Black’s Satanic Christmas, Dear Jesusis on track to become one of Paramount+’s biggest hits of all time. Corresponding to them is manual, which debuted on Netflix on December 13, and since then the airport thriller has been the most popular movie every day on the world’s most popular streaming service.

Simple and predictable, but a lot of fun

Handy it has a simplistic plot, but that’s part of the charm. Taron Egerton was Robin Hood and Elton John, but here he’s Ethan, the TSA officer at LAX targeted by Traveler, delightfully evil. Jason Bateman. Traveler uses blackmail and threats of violence against Ethan’s girlfriend to force the officer to release one particular bag. It’s not a spoiler to reveal that the sack comes through and yes, it’s a lethal weapon, but there’s still half a movie left.

Ethan is forced to make a series of moral decisions as he learns how far he will go to protect his friends and family. Complicating the situation is Traveler’s network of agents, which includes the equally cocky Ranger he plays Sons of Anarchy’s Theo Rossi, who, like Uatu z Miracle comic, you can’t help but intervene. Dean Norris, who plays a TSA agent, also shows up, and then the bodies start to fall Handy he ends up racking up a surprisingly impressive kill count before all is said and done.

The type of movie you won’t find in theaters

While watching the film, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a similarly themed aviation thriller, Red eyeswhich also took a wild turn at one point. Handy is cut from the same cloth but stands out today as a film that would have been buried in theaters but thrives streaming. For decades, theaters have been full of thrillers like this one, mid-budget films with a fun premise and a few established stars that are more focused on having a good time than being Oscar bait or establishing a shared universe.

That’s what it does Handy so refreshing and why it resonated so strongly with viewers over the past two weeks. You can fire it up, have fun for 2 hours and then it’s the end of the story. Aside from a few B-movies that still make it to theaters each year, this type of moviegoing experience has mostly been priced out of theaters, but they thrive on streaming and in the comfort of your own home.

With a budget of 47 million dollars, i.e. a fifth Red one, Handy defied even the most optimistic pre-release expectations. Critics love it, with a fresh rating of 87 percent Rotten tomatoesand while the public rating is a middling 53 percent, that may just be because a lot of the public these days expects a big, big-budget spectacle from every movie and has forgotten that this is exactly the type of thriller that filled theaters every week. in the 90s. It’s predictable and all the performances are perfectly adequate, but it’s also the most popular movie in the world right now.

Handy streams exclusively on Netflix.