There should be a term for the genre of film where there is a level of self-awareness that recognizes that what you are watching isn’t high-quality or award-worthy but is a fun, no-consequences outing. If there were, Ghosted would fit that description perfectly.
In their third film together in three years, Ana de Armas and Chris Evans have finally made themselves the most attractive/cutest couple in film history which was evident from their time sharing the screen in Knives Out and their work in The Gray Man. Evans plays Cole, a guy that falls pretty hard after one date with de Armas’ Sadie, only to find out that she is a secret agent and they get entangled in her latest mission across the globe. While being able to show her talent and abilities as the more physical of the two, she still seems slightly awkward at times trying to portray a super-spy. This is actually easy enough to forgive and overlook next to Evans being his goofiest self since The Losers with a performance that can be slightly inconsistent at times, but this could be because the script feels like it was written and re-written on the fly. It is seriously unfair for someone to be that attractive, talented, and lovable, but it is also impossible to hate him.
A stellar cast alongside them seem to go through the motions of an action/rom-com to tell the story of a likeable farm boy who falls hard for someone who he thinks is an art curator but finds out she is so much more. However, there is a standout here in Mustafa Shakir, whom I have been waiting to get his due since I first saw him as Bushmaster in Luke Cage. He is simply put a breakout star waiting to happen and commands each of his few scenes with a seriousness so convincing that I momentarily forgot that this is a dumb, ridiculous comedy.
If you can avoid it, DO NOT LOOK AT THE CAST before watching Ghosted. The cameos in this film are prevalent and hit many notes that caused some hearty laughter for me. It isn’t in every scene, but there were multiple times that the appearance was so ridiculous that I had to wonder if the scene was one scrapped by Saturday Night Live (which Armas hosted the week before release). Instead, some of them felt shoehorned into this movie because someone in the writing room liked the concept and they just went with it.
From a visual standpoint, I am not sure if I have ever watched a film that has a wider range of set quality. The location quality varied from amazing to looking like they rented a parking lot to make it look a Middle Eastern bazaar with all the quality of a high school play. It felt like so much of the budget was used for the real estate itself that everything else had to be thrown together on the cheap. I almost expected to see framed pictures of spoons within a couple of set decorations.
Altogether, this film is still very fun and worth a watch, especially on one of the days where you may be indecisive and only want to half pay attention. Ghosted fits that low-stakes need of enjoyable enough and requires enough brain power to say “Wait…what?” a few times as you shake your head and smile.
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