The Stream: Nothing new in this spy organization movie

The Big Screen: Good action sequences

The Final Bill: Typical spy organization movie with technology that doesn’t need to be in anyone’s hands

– S2S: Movie Review
Director: Tom Harper
Writers: Greg Rucka, Allison Schroeder
Stars: Jing Lusi, Jamie Dornan, Paul Ready, Gal Gadot
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour 54 minutes
Production Companies: Dune Films, Mockingbird Pictures, Netflix
Platform: Netflix released August 11, 2023
Coming soon to Netflix: A Day and a Half, Friday Night Plan, Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction, Love at First Sight, Spy Kids: Armageddon, NOWHERE, Reptile, Pain Hustlers,

Welcome back, Streamers! This weekend Netflix does what it does and gave us another “blockbuster”, Heart of Stone. Heart of Stone is a spy flick that has Gal Gadot as an intelligence agent for a behind-the-scenes global peacekeeping agency. She has to race to stop a hacker from stealing the agency’s most-prized possession and weapon. Let’s see if this movie has any heart and what ensues.

I’ll be honest about this movie – its originality is lacking. Netflix literally just stole pieces of Mission Impossible, The Old Guard, James Bond and many other spy movies to cobble this thing together. Seriously, I understand that other movies give you inspiration, but there has to be some type of infringement on the filmmaker’s part. Regardless, the movie is grossly unoriginal and unimaginative. With that said, it’s still a watchable movie with action sequences, chase scenes, fights, and solid technical aspects. You get to see Gal Gadot kick some butt and who doesn’t like that, minus anyone who watched Wonder Woman 2. Jamie Dornan sheds his Mr. Grey baggage successfully in this flick. This probably won’t be the last of his action flicks. Otherwise, the cast are familiar and inviting on the screen but at times slightly unbelievable. That also might just be that the directors put cast members in typical tropes that are going on in these movies and it wasn’t that awe-inspiring. And that’s a shame to say for something that looks quite expensive to make.

Needless to say, if you’ve seen any recent spy movie, you’ve already seen Heart of Stone. It’s a solid movie if it were the first of it’s kind but it so clearly not. The movie itself is entertaining but the storyline is so predictable, unoriginal, and simple. Grab a bowl of popcorn for this Netflix movie of the week but don’t expect it to take on a life of its own.