With Scorsese’s “The Irishman” having been knocked out of the Netflix all-time top 10 by a lo-grade Jennifer Lopez action thriller, titled “The Mother,” I’m again struck by Quentin Tarantino’s fairly prescient comments from around a month ago.
Tarantino’s words might also apply to “Extraction 2,” a sequel to the original “Extraction,” starring Chris Hemsworth. I watched it last night and it aligns well with many other popular Netflix titles, preferably the kind of big, dumb action extravaganza that, as if powered by an algorithm, recycles story ideas from previous big, dumb action movies.
If you remember, Tarantino offered an opinion on the streaming phenomenon, calling out Netflix for making expensive blockbusters starring Ryan Reynolds that made no real cultural impact after being unceremoniously released:
“I mean, and I’m not picking on anybody, but apparently for Netflix, Ryan Reynolds has made $50 million on this movie and $50 million on that movie and $50 million on the next movie for them […] I don’t know what any of those movies are. I’ve never seen them. Have you? I haven’t ever talked to Ryan Reynolds’ agent, but his agent is like, ‘Well, it cost $50 million.’ Well, good for him that he’s making so much money. But those movies don’t exist in the zeitgeist. It’s almost like they don’t even exist.”
What he seems to be referring to are Reynolds’ two hotshot Netflix “blockbusters” “Red Notice,” “6 Underground,” and “The Adam Project,” which broke streaming records, but barely made a dent culturally.
You can also throw non-Reynolds streaming blockbusters “The Gray Man” and “Extraction” into the mix as well. These are, basically, made-for-TV movies with abnormally high budgets.
Yes, all of these big films might have been watched by millions of people, but their cultural impact has been fairly stagnant. Barely anybody talks about them.
Just look at the 10 biggest Netflix films of all-time:
How many of these have you actually seen?
As readers of this site, I gather that “The Adam Project,” “Purple Hearts” and company were never really on your must-see radar. Only Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion” Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” seemed to have made a dent in my world.
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.